'Spectacle' (second of a five part series called Better Shinigami) Death Note Rem/Misa
Title: Spectacle
Fandom: Death Note
Pairing: Rem/Misa
Prompt: Table One/Time Passes (Prompt 2) for 5_Prompts
Words: 3232
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Some language, mentions of sex and vague depictions of death.
Summary: Time passes in the shinigami realm. A little shinigami falls in love with a human girl.
Shinigami were not, by nature, a particularly adventurous species, nor a particularly empathic one. Those who were at least somewhat social sat and gambled and had muttered, meandering conversations. Gossip was hard to come by, since not many of them ever did anything interesting enough to provoke it, but it was handed around when it came up, cackled over and then discarded.
Rem sometimes hovered around their little circles, and had taken part on occasion. She’d found it needlessly complicated and pointless in the long run, particularly for a shinigami. The only thing they really needed to do was look down on the human world, every so often, and find a lifespan to add to theirs. Some shinigami would toe the line, waiting until within hours of their deaths to pick out a human name to write in their note-books. Some never made it, and would crumble even if they lifted their chalk to write. Others wouldn’t even realise, and would fall in a heap of dust, cards and their neglected notebook.
That was really the only way that signified time passing in the shinigami realm; the only other way to acknowledge time was to watch the human world. They lived, aged and died, and more were born to take their places. To pay that much attention to the human world was considered pointless by most shinigami. Humans were only good for their lifespans, and not much else, although some shinigami had penchant for things from the human realm. A couple of shinigami observed out of interest. Kinddara Guivelostain watched war and violence be carried out with relish. She wasn’t a big gambler, and Rem had sat with her a number of times, although watching soft human flesh break and splatter like that hadn’t been as interesting to Rem.
There was also Nu, who was the oldest shinigami other than the king. Nu found it difficult to even move, and spent her time besides the portals to the human world. On occasion, Rem had sat with her. The elderly shinigami had told her that she liked the regret of humans. The emotions that humans had even in their short lives were beautiful, she had said. Nu killed those who were recovering from the deepest regret, because the story was finished.
Then there was Gelus, a little patchwork shinigami who was the source of much derision over with the gamblers, because he liked the humans. Nobody actually liked the little flesh-bags, not usually. Rem had sat with him once or twice every so often, initially. Unlike Kinddara or Nu, he preferred the happier side of human life. His fascination with humans in turn became interesting to Rem. What was the use in watching something that you needed to kill and could do so easily? And he watched them, wanted them to succeed, and on occasion forced himself to kill one of them. Rem began sitting with him more often to watch with him.
She viewed the humans as they viewed the smaller animals. There for the taking and the eating. Except humans had no idea that they were in that position. They seemed to think that there was nothing above them, that they were the top of the food-chain. Everything else they’d beaten into submission. And yet they sustained a higher race, still, unknown to them.
And then he began watching one human in particular. A young girl who was as small and soft as the others. Then it became all about her. Before, at least it could be said that Gelus’ obsession with the human race was one that was of somewhat detached interest. But he started singling one out among them, and differentiating her among the others and making her more than just a life-span. To a shinigami, that was dangerous.
“This is…,” started Rem, standing. “No wonder the others call you names.”
He barely noticed as he watched the girl, his head tilted. Rem caught a glimpse of her through the gap. She was sitting on a bench, legs crossed, flipping through a magazine, her dark hair pulled back off of her cherubic face. Rem wasn’t sure if she’d ever see the appeal in human beings.
The others were chatting about him as they threw down cards and piled up chips.
“I dunno what he sees in those things,” smirked Calikarcha, his six eyes blinking in sequence.
“You know he’s got a thing for just one of them, now,” cackled Daril Ghiroza, her gold chains jingling. “Some little female.”
“Eurgh, I hope it’s not gonna get weird,” said Deridovely, his chitinous maw clicking against his mask. “I couldn’t imagine.”
There was a collective shudder.
“Just thinking about their skin and wet insides makes me want to be sick,” muttered Calikarcha, before adding “if I could, that is.”
Rem left them laughing to themselves and went to find Kinddara, who was in her usual place, watching a fire consuming a block of flats.
“It was a couple that started it,” said Kinddara, watching the scene. “They left a pan boiling and went to bed, and it spread through the kitchen and everywhere. They died fucking! Hah!”
The shinigami chortled and clicked her boney fingers together.
“So there’s going to be a lot of death?” asked Rem, shooting a casual glance at the scene.
“Yeah,” Kinddara sounded despondent all of a sudden. “…That’s almost a century lost, right there.”
Down in the human world, a man ran out of the building to embrace a woman. Kinddara withdrew her death note from beside her left leg. “May as well recoup my losses.” She murmered, before scribbling in her book. The man in the world below took a gun from his pocket and shot the woman before shooting himself. More mayhem broke out. Kinddara laughed once again.
“I love messing around with the rules,” she said. “I bet you hadn’t worked out how to kill two people at once, had you, Rem? They’ve no idea. So many deaths and they’ve no idea that it was me.”
Like Gelus, Kinddara was certainly unique as a shinigami. Unlike the way Gelus was mocked, however, the other shinigami just kept away from her, mostly, and did not speak of her. Kinddara had obviously written down two names in her book, and had instructed one to kill the other. Shinigami were safe from each other, but imagination tended to frighten them. Irrationally, because very little could harm a shinigami.
This time, Rem found herself staring down at the world a little longer than she would, usually. Other humans had congregated around the man and the woman and they were being taken away in little white vans. It was a strange scene to watch, even with detachment.
Gelus continued to sit at his vantage point. Rem avoided him for a while. She spent more time with Nu, who disliked loud noises. Nu had somehow kept herself alive despite verging dangerously on loving those humans. It wasn’t the humans that she loved, the old shinigami had said, but the emotions, and the way those emotions would stir and change in the volatile little creatures.
Eventually, curiosity got the better of her and she visited Gelus once again. Over his head, she could see the girl with her arm linked with that of a young man. Rem knew little of human romance and even less of sexual relations. Jokes were made of it among the shinigami, although it was considered disgusting.
“She has a friend?” she said, cautiously. Gelus had proved himself different in his fondness for a human, perhaps he was different in other ways, too. Sexual intercourse was not only against the rules for shinigami, but near impossible. That did not mean that Gelus did not wish to try, though.
“Yes,” he said, pensively. “He is with her a lot. She has seen other boys but none like him.”
Rem found herself both tempted to ask about the intimacy of the girl’s relationship and an unwillingness to hear the answer. She decided not to respond.
“They haven’t become intimate,” he said, anyway. “It’s strange, what she does, instead. She didn’t do it, before, but she does it, now.”
Rem couldn’t imagine what he meant by that, and her mind refused to supply any suggestions. She sat and watched the girl and the boy walk alongside each other. The sun was out in their world, shining on her smooth skin and glossy hair. The girl was so alien to a shinigami that it almost made sense that Gelus was so obsessed with her.
Rem left his company soon after that, and crossed the gambling circle in their little enclave. One or two of the others looked up as they saw her pass.
“Rem,” said Daril Ghiroza. “Anything interesting happen to Gelus’ little human?”
Calikarcha cackled as he tossed a couple of pilfered beads into the centre. “Ghiroza, don’t tell me you’re becoming like that?”
“What?! No!” snapped Daril. “It’s just that it’s so freaky.”
“She has a boyfriend.” Said Rem, off-handedly, only to be met by a raucous laugh from Deridovely.
“He wants to be that boyfriend, I bet,” he said.
“How would he do it, though?” said Calikarcha. “His fingers?”
Deridovely growled in disgust. “Bet they’re all squishy inside,” he said. “Why would you want anything to do with that?”
The little group had been joined by another shinigami, Sidoh, an insect like individual with mandibles and a white carapace. He was a low-ranking shinigami, although not as low ranking as Gelus.
“Don’t they die if you do that?” he said.
Deridovely rattled as he shook his head. “Naw,” he said. “They like it, mostly. Humans have holes other places than the head.”
Sidoh’s little yellow eyes blinked twice. “But...” he stuttered, waving his arms.
Daril sighed. “Don’t think about it, Sidoh.” She said.
Calikarcha’s bird-like mouth clicked. “It’s horrible,” he replied. “I dunno why we’re even talking about it.”
“If Gelus wants to get involved with some human female’s…parts, then who are we to stop him?” she said. “His funeral.”
“Really is,” Laughed Deridovely.
Rem said nothing. It was none of her business, really, but she did slightly regret having told them what the girl was doing. It was so easy to pick on Gelus, after all, although he wasn’t doing himself any favours by behaving that way. It was against the rules for shinigami to copulate with humans, even if they could, so he’d certainly be commiting suicide if he did decide to go down and try anything with the girl. Rem didn’t know if she’d try to stop him if he did.
Rem hadn’t ever asked about the girl’s name. Rem obviously routinely found out human names when she cut off their lifespans. For some reason, it hadn’t occurred to her to take the girl’s life. She wondered if any of the shinigami would do so, just as a joke. Gelus would probably find a new girl to watch, but it seemed oddly cruel, all the same. Rem wasn’t sure why that was; the girl was no different from any other human being.
There came a time, however, when she found herself forced to notice it. Human death, of course, was part of shinigami life. It was unusual for a shinigami to mourn a human, dangerous even, even though it would not break any rules. Gelus seemed more despondent than usual.
“Her parents died,” he said.
Rem was quiet for a moment, watching the girl. She was crying, screaming next to a puddle of that red human blood. Two corpses lay next to each other, one with a wound in its chest, the other with a wound in its head. Rem pondered briefly that Kinddara would love the scene. Rem was inclined to let her stay ignorant of the scenario, however. Beyond the fascination of watching the girl in her deep grief, Rem didn’t really feel like making the issue any worse for Gelus.
“I didn’t do it,” he added.
“I didn’t think you did,” Rem actually did wonder if any of the other shinigami were responsible. “But what happened?”
“It was a burglar,” he said. “And they just happened to wake up and catch him. And she was awake, too, and saw it happen. But he didn’t see her.”
Rem watched the girl, now frozen. She was tiny and pale, her white face and large eyes almost doll like. Any rough treatment and she would snap, and break into clean pieces, and Rem couldn’t imagine her bleeding like her parents had done, even though she knew that she must. It was then that she caught the girl’s name, written in shaky letters above her head. Amane Misa. She also saw the lifespan, and decided not to point out to Gelus that this Misa did not have long to live.
Rem kept Misa’s image in her mind for quite a while after that. The girl with her large glassy eyes and angular limbs seemed to embody the ready breakability that humans seemed to have. In all honesty, it made Rem feel uncomfortable; being aware of that began to break the barrier between the shinigami realm and the human world. She couldn’t remember the last time that she’d seen Gelus actually write a name down in his book. Perhaps he’d already as good as committed suicide.
Gossip had moved away from the little patchwork shinigami to a new subject. Ryuk, a shinigami who she’d seen around had apparently dropped a death note into the human world. This had been done before, although it took so much effort following the human around that nobody really felt like doing it. Also, there were only so many death notes and it wasn’t like humans were known for their stability. But he’d somehow got a second death note and kept his safe. Some said he’d stolen it, others said he’d somehow tricked the shinigami king into getting a second one.
“He’s got a human, now,” Ghiroza had said.
“Boy or girl?” asked Calikarcha.
“Dunno. Boy, I think,” replied Daril.
Deridovely cackled. “Hope he doesn’t get like Gelus.”
Daril shook her head. “Nah, that’s pretty unlikely. Ryuk’s pretty weird, but he’s not that weird.”
Rem couldn’t deny that she felt a strange sort of curiosity in what Ryuk was doing; she’d never thought about actually being down there among them. She tried to imagine how it would be in comparison to the deadness of the shinigami realm. Louder, brighter, more open, the sounds of humans sweeping all around, and the plants and animals. She wondered if Gelus would ever go down to see his Misa.
He was in his usual place, his one eye concentrated on the world below. Shinigami did not have much in the way of complex facial expressions (or even faces at all in some cases), but it was easy to learn how to read subtle nuances in a particular shinigami if you knew them well. Rem had learnt to notice certain things in Gelus’ face, and his chin jutted out, slightly. He was concerned, to say the least.
“Her lifespan runs out, today…” he stammered. “But she looks so healthy…”
Rem looked down at the girl and, sure enough, glowing and animated as she usually was, the numbers over Misa’s head were dangerously low. She was closer to death than she realised. Rem watched those red figures diminish, wondering how her heart would eventually stop. Gelus watched, pensively, as Misa left her friend’s company and home and wandered out onto the street. Misa seemed a tiny shadow, now, passing every so often under a street lamp. There was a taller, larger shadow behind her.
Gelus picked up his notebook. Misa seemed to walk without worry, until the man caught up and was suddenly in front of her, wielding a knife and proclaiming how much he loved her, even as he waved that knife in her face. There was a gasp from Gelus’ throat.
“Who would have thought that she would be stabbed,” mused Rem. “What a way to go.”
Gelus picked up his notebook, and his chalk, holding it in his short, stubby fingers. Rem reached out one of her own long, thin hands to stop him.
“Hey…” she protested, but the patchwork shinigami was already scribbling. His hands were clumsy and he wrote slowly, so there was time for hope until he’d finished writing.
“She’s not worth the life of a shinigami, Gelus,” said Rem, rapidly.
But Gelus was already crumbling, his fingers were disappearing even as he still wrote and his eye liquefying in its socket. Rem wanted to and felt like she should look away, but something prevented her. Shinigami deaths were not that often seen. Rem picked up his abandoned notebook and flipped it open. It didn’t have many recent names. Gelus had written fewer and fewer names as he’d become more invested in the human world and Misa, it seemed.
Afterwards, Ryuk was momentarily usurped in gossip by Gelus, again.
“He died, you know?” said Calikarcha.
“Died of what?” demanded Deridovely.
“If a shinigami falls in love, and they extend the lifespan of their loved one, they die,” explained Daril. “It’s the only way a shinigami can die other than forgetting to write any names down.”
“Well that’s pretty stupid,” retorted Deridovely. “Only two ways to die and he manages to do one of them.”
Daril laughed. “Well, there’s a reason he was the lowest ranking of all of us,” she said.
Laugh they all did, but no-one went near Gelus’ old vantage point for a while. The corpse of a human was one thing, but not one of the shinigami really wanted to see the remains of one of their own.
Rem returned to watch Misa once again, alone. This time, she was in her bathroom, washing her hair. After she dried it, it became apparent that it was no longer dark brown but vibrant and blonde. It made her seem brighter and a yet a little more innocent. Her movements were quick and hurried, and Rem could see that same blankness in her eyes even as she smiled and sang along with her songs. She was very much of the human world, bright, yet fragile. Rem was of the shinigami realm, old and resilient. Misa’s lifespan was full again, with the earlier lifespan culls that Gelus had made during in his existence. She probably wouldn’t last long.
Rem still had Gelus’ old notebook and it wasn’t really something that she herself wanted. Misa had Gelus’ years, she was living the unlived time of a shinigami. Perhaps, like Ryuk had done, Rem should take that notebook down to Misa. If she had the life of a shinigami, she might as well have the tools of one. Rem had to admit that Ryuk’s exploits were making her curious. His human was totalling up a huge amount of deaths in the name of stopping all evil. It was one of those weird ideas that only humans really had. But Rem was curious, both of the world and how Gelus’ human would use the notebook of her saviour.
Rem only spoke to Nu before she left. The elderly shinigami had blinked at her with her many eyes and told her she may one day be as beautiful as a human being. Puzzled, Rem thought this over as she prepared to cross into the human world.
A/N: This fic is pretty much my take on how the Rem/Misa pairing actually works. How did Rem develop such strong feelings for Misa? In the flashback scene in the manga where Gelus dies, we see her being more curious over how Misa will die than worried for her, and when she’s on Earth with Misa, she tells her there’s no chance of her doing that. And then a week later, she’s prepared to die for her.
Shinigami have all been taken from the How-To-Read guide.
Fandom: Death Note
Pairing: Rem/Misa
Prompt: Table One/Time Passes (Prompt 2) for 5_Prompts
Words: 3232
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Some language, mentions of sex and vague depictions of death.
Summary: Time passes in the shinigami realm. A little shinigami falls in love with a human girl.
Shinigami were not, by nature, a particularly adventurous species, nor a particularly empathic one. Those who were at least somewhat social sat and gambled and had muttered, meandering conversations. Gossip was hard to come by, since not many of them ever did anything interesting enough to provoke it, but it was handed around when it came up, cackled over and then discarded.
Rem sometimes hovered around their little circles, and had taken part on occasion. She’d found it needlessly complicated and pointless in the long run, particularly for a shinigami. The only thing they really needed to do was look down on the human world, every so often, and find a lifespan to add to theirs. Some shinigami would toe the line, waiting until within hours of their deaths to pick out a human name to write in their note-books. Some never made it, and would crumble even if they lifted their chalk to write. Others wouldn’t even realise, and would fall in a heap of dust, cards and their neglected notebook.
That was really the only way that signified time passing in the shinigami realm; the only other way to acknowledge time was to watch the human world. They lived, aged and died, and more were born to take their places. To pay that much attention to the human world was considered pointless by most shinigami. Humans were only good for their lifespans, and not much else, although some shinigami had penchant for things from the human realm. A couple of shinigami observed out of interest. Kinddara Guivelostain watched war and violence be carried out with relish. She wasn’t a big gambler, and Rem had sat with her a number of times, although watching soft human flesh break and splatter like that hadn’t been as interesting to Rem.
There was also Nu, who was the oldest shinigami other than the king. Nu found it difficult to even move, and spent her time besides the portals to the human world. On occasion, Rem had sat with her. The elderly shinigami had told her that she liked the regret of humans. The emotions that humans had even in their short lives were beautiful, she had said. Nu killed those who were recovering from the deepest regret, because the story was finished.
Then there was Gelus, a little patchwork shinigami who was the source of much derision over with the gamblers, because he liked the humans. Nobody actually liked the little flesh-bags, not usually. Rem had sat with him once or twice every so often, initially. Unlike Kinddara or Nu, he preferred the happier side of human life. His fascination with humans in turn became interesting to Rem. What was the use in watching something that you needed to kill and could do so easily? And he watched them, wanted them to succeed, and on occasion forced himself to kill one of them. Rem began sitting with him more often to watch with him.
She viewed the humans as they viewed the smaller animals. There for the taking and the eating. Except humans had no idea that they were in that position. They seemed to think that there was nothing above them, that they were the top of the food-chain. Everything else they’d beaten into submission. And yet they sustained a higher race, still, unknown to them.
And then he began watching one human in particular. A young girl who was as small and soft as the others. Then it became all about her. Before, at least it could be said that Gelus’ obsession with the human race was one that was of somewhat detached interest. But he started singling one out among them, and differentiating her among the others and making her more than just a life-span. To a shinigami, that was dangerous.
“This is…,” started Rem, standing. “No wonder the others call you names.”
He barely noticed as he watched the girl, his head tilted. Rem caught a glimpse of her through the gap. She was sitting on a bench, legs crossed, flipping through a magazine, her dark hair pulled back off of her cherubic face. Rem wasn’t sure if she’d ever see the appeal in human beings.
The others were chatting about him as they threw down cards and piled up chips.
“I dunno what he sees in those things,” smirked Calikarcha, his six eyes blinking in sequence.
“You know he’s got a thing for just one of them, now,” cackled Daril Ghiroza, her gold chains jingling. “Some little female.”
“Eurgh, I hope it’s not gonna get weird,” said Deridovely, his chitinous maw clicking against his mask. “I couldn’t imagine.”
There was a collective shudder.
“Just thinking about their skin and wet insides makes me want to be sick,” muttered Calikarcha, before adding “if I could, that is.”
Rem left them laughing to themselves and went to find Kinddara, who was in her usual place, watching a fire consuming a block of flats.
“It was a couple that started it,” said Kinddara, watching the scene. “They left a pan boiling and went to bed, and it spread through the kitchen and everywhere. They died fucking! Hah!”
The shinigami chortled and clicked her boney fingers together.
“So there’s going to be a lot of death?” asked Rem, shooting a casual glance at the scene.
“Yeah,” Kinddara sounded despondent all of a sudden. “…That’s almost a century lost, right there.”
Down in the human world, a man ran out of the building to embrace a woman. Kinddara withdrew her death note from beside her left leg. “May as well recoup my losses.” She murmered, before scribbling in her book. The man in the world below took a gun from his pocket and shot the woman before shooting himself. More mayhem broke out. Kinddara laughed once again.
“I love messing around with the rules,” she said. “I bet you hadn’t worked out how to kill two people at once, had you, Rem? They’ve no idea. So many deaths and they’ve no idea that it was me.”
Like Gelus, Kinddara was certainly unique as a shinigami. Unlike the way Gelus was mocked, however, the other shinigami just kept away from her, mostly, and did not speak of her. Kinddara had obviously written down two names in her book, and had instructed one to kill the other. Shinigami were safe from each other, but imagination tended to frighten them. Irrationally, because very little could harm a shinigami.
This time, Rem found herself staring down at the world a little longer than she would, usually. Other humans had congregated around the man and the woman and they were being taken away in little white vans. It was a strange scene to watch, even with detachment.
Gelus continued to sit at his vantage point. Rem avoided him for a while. She spent more time with Nu, who disliked loud noises. Nu had somehow kept herself alive despite verging dangerously on loving those humans. It wasn’t the humans that she loved, the old shinigami had said, but the emotions, and the way those emotions would stir and change in the volatile little creatures.
Eventually, curiosity got the better of her and she visited Gelus once again. Over his head, she could see the girl with her arm linked with that of a young man. Rem knew little of human romance and even less of sexual relations. Jokes were made of it among the shinigami, although it was considered disgusting.
“She has a friend?” she said, cautiously. Gelus had proved himself different in his fondness for a human, perhaps he was different in other ways, too. Sexual intercourse was not only against the rules for shinigami, but near impossible. That did not mean that Gelus did not wish to try, though.
“Yes,” he said, pensively. “He is with her a lot. She has seen other boys but none like him.”
Rem found herself both tempted to ask about the intimacy of the girl’s relationship and an unwillingness to hear the answer. She decided not to respond.
“They haven’t become intimate,” he said, anyway. “It’s strange, what she does, instead. She didn’t do it, before, but she does it, now.”
Rem couldn’t imagine what he meant by that, and her mind refused to supply any suggestions. She sat and watched the girl and the boy walk alongside each other. The sun was out in their world, shining on her smooth skin and glossy hair. The girl was so alien to a shinigami that it almost made sense that Gelus was so obsessed with her.
Rem left his company soon after that, and crossed the gambling circle in their little enclave. One or two of the others looked up as they saw her pass.
“Rem,” said Daril Ghiroza. “Anything interesting happen to Gelus’ little human?”
Calikarcha cackled as he tossed a couple of pilfered beads into the centre. “Ghiroza, don’t tell me you’re becoming like that?”
“What?! No!” snapped Daril. “It’s just that it’s so freaky.”
“She has a boyfriend.” Said Rem, off-handedly, only to be met by a raucous laugh from Deridovely.
“He wants to be that boyfriend, I bet,” he said.
“How would he do it, though?” said Calikarcha. “His fingers?”
Deridovely growled in disgust. “Bet they’re all squishy inside,” he said. “Why would you want anything to do with that?”
The little group had been joined by another shinigami, Sidoh, an insect like individual with mandibles and a white carapace. He was a low-ranking shinigami, although not as low ranking as Gelus.
“Don’t they die if you do that?” he said.
Deridovely rattled as he shook his head. “Naw,” he said. “They like it, mostly. Humans have holes other places than the head.”
Sidoh’s little yellow eyes blinked twice. “But...” he stuttered, waving his arms.
Daril sighed. “Don’t think about it, Sidoh.” She said.
Calikarcha’s bird-like mouth clicked. “It’s horrible,” he replied. “I dunno why we’re even talking about it.”
“If Gelus wants to get involved with some human female’s…parts, then who are we to stop him?” she said. “His funeral.”
“Really is,” Laughed Deridovely.
Rem said nothing. It was none of her business, really, but she did slightly regret having told them what the girl was doing. It was so easy to pick on Gelus, after all, although he wasn’t doing himself any favours by behaving that way. It was against the rules for shinigami to copulate with humans, even if they could, so he’d certainly be commiting suicide if he did decide to go down and try anything with the girl. Rem didn’t know if she’d try to stop him if he did.
Rem hadn’t ever asked about the girl’s name. Rem obviously routinely found out human names when she cut off their lifespans. For some reason, it hadn’t occurred to her to take the girl’s life. She wondered if any of the shinigami would do so, just as a joke. Gelus would probably find a new girl to watch, but it seemed oddly cruel, all the same. Rem wasn’t sure why that was; the girl was no different from any other human being.
There came a time, however, when she found herself forced to notice it. Human death, of course, was part of shinigami life. It was unusual for a shinigami to mourn a human, dangerous even, even though it would not break any rules. Gelus seemed more despondent than usual.
“Her parents died,” he said.
Rem was quiet for a moment, watching the girl. She was crying, screaming next to a puddle of that red human blood. Two corpses lay next to each other, one with a wound in its chest, the other with a wound in its head. Rem pondered briefly that Kinddara would love the scene. Rem was inclined to let her stay ignorant of the scenario, however. Beyond the fascination of watching the girl in her deep grief, Rem didn’t really feel like making the issue any worse for Gelus.
“I didn’t do it,” he added.
“I didn’t think you did,” Rem actually did wonder if any of the other shinigami were responsible. “But what happened?”
“It was a burglar,” he said. “And they just happened to wake up and catch him. And she was awake, too, and saw it happen. But he didn’t see her.”
Rem watched the girl, now frozen. She was tiny and pale, her white face and large eyes almost doll like. Any rough treatment and she would snap, and break into clean pieces, and Rem couldn’t imagine her bleeding like her parents had done, even though she knew that she must. It was then that she caught the girl’s name, written in shaky letters above her head. Amane Misa. She also saw the lifespan, and decided not to point out to Gelus that this Misa did not have long to live.
Rem kept Misa’s image in her mind for quite a while after that. The girl with her large glassy eyes and angular limbs seemed to embody the ready breakability that humans seemed to have. In all honesty, it made Rem feel uncomfortable; being aware of that began to break the barrier between the shinigami realm and the human world. She couldn’t remember the last time that she’d seen Gelus actually write a name down in his book. Perhaps he’d already as good as committed suicide.
Gossip had moved away from the little patchwork shinigami to a new subject. Ryuk, a shinigami who she’d seen around had apparently dropped a death note into the human world. This had been done before, although it took so much effort following the human around that nobody really felt like doing it. Also, there were only so many death notes and it wasn’t like humans were known for their stability. But he’d somehow got a second death note and kept his safe. Some said he’d stolen it, others said he’d somehow tricked the shinigami king into getting a second one.
“He’s got a human, now,” Ghiroza had said.
“Boy or girl?” asked Calikarcha.
“Dunno. Boy, I think,” replied Daril.
Deridovely cackled. “Hope he doesn’t get like Gelus.”
Daril shook her head. “Nah, that’s pretty unlikely. Ryuk’s pretty weird, but he’s not that weird.”
Rem couldn’t deny that she felt a strange sort of curiosity in what Ryuk was doing; she’d never thought about actually being down there among them. She tried to imagine how it would be in comparison to the deadness of the shinigami realm. Louder, brighter, more open, the sounds of humans sweeping all around, and the plants and animals. She wondered if Gelus would ever go down to see his Misa.
He was in his usual place, his one eye concentrated on the world below. Shinigami did not have much in the way of complex facial expressions (or even faces at all in some cases), but it was easy to learn how to read subtle nuances in a particular shinigami if you knew them well. Rem had learnt to notice certain things in Gelus’ face, and his chin jutted out, slightly. He was concerned, to say the least.
“Her lifespan runs out, today…” he stammered. “But she looks so healthy…”
Rem looked down at the girl and, sure enough, glowing and animated as she usually was, the numbers over Misa’s head were dangerously low. She was closer to death than she realised. Rem watched those red figures diminish, wondering how her heart would eventually stop. Gelus watched, pensively, as Misa left her friend’s company and home and wandered out onto the street. Misa seemed a tiny shadow, now, passing every so often under a street lamp. There was a taller, larger shadow behind her.
Gelus picked up his notebook. Misa seemed to walk without worry, until the man caught up and was suddenly in front of her, wielding a knife and proclaiming how much he loved her, even as he waved that knife in her face. There was a gasp from Gelus’ throat.
“Who would have thought that she would be stabbed,” mused Rem. “What a way to go.”
Gelus picked up his notebook, and his chalk, holding it in his short, stubby fingers. Rem reached out one of her own long, thin hands to stop him.
“Hey…” she protested, but the patchwork shinigami was already scribbling. His hands were clumsy and he wrote slowly, so there was time for hope until he’d finished writing.
“She’s not worth the life of a shinigami, Gelus,” said Rem, rapidly.
But Gelus was already crumbling, his fingers were disappearing even as he still wrote and his eye liquefying in its socket. Rem wanted to and felt like she should look away, but something prevented her. Shinigami deaths were not that often seen. Rem picked up his abandoned notebook and flipped it open. It didn’t have many recent names. Gelus had written fewer and fewer names as he’d become more invested in the human world and Misa, it seemed.
Afterwards, Ryuk was momentarily usurped in gossip by Gelus, again.
“He died, you know?” said Calikarcha.
“Died of what?” demanded Deridovely.
“If a shinigami falls in love, and they extend the lifespan of their loved one, they die,” explained Daril. “It’s the only way a shinigami can die other than forgetting to write any names down.”
“Well that’s pretty stupid,” retorted Deridovely. “Only two ways to die and he manages to do one of them.”
Daril laughed. “Well, there’s a reason he was the lowest ranking of all of us,” she said.
Laugh they all did, but no-one went near Gelus’ old vantage point for a while. The corpse of a human was one thing, but not one of the shinigami really wanted to see the remains of one of their own.
Rem returned to watch Misa once again, alone. This time, she was in her bathroom, washing her hair. After she dried it, it became apparent that it was no longer dark brown but vibrant and blonde. It made her seem brighter and a yet a little more innocent. Her movements were quick and hurried, and Rem could see that same blankness in her eyes even as she smiled and sang along with her songs. She was very much of the human world, bright, yet fragile. Rem was of the shinigami realm, old and resilient. Misa’s lifespan was full again, with the earlier lifespan culls that Gelus had made during in his existence. She probably wouldn’t last long.
Rem still had Gelus’ old notebook and it wasn’t really something that she herself wanted. Misa had Gelus’ years, she was living the unlived time of a shinigami. Perhaps, like Ryuk had done, Rem should take that notebook down to Misa. If she had the life of a shinigami, she might as well have the tools of one. Rem had to admit that Ryuk’s exploits were making her curious. His human was totalling up a huge amount of deaths in the name of stopping all evil. It was one of those weird ideas that only humans really had. But Rem was curious, both of the world and how Gelus’ human would use the notebook of her saviour.
Rem only spoke to Nu before she left. The elderly shinigami had blinked at her with her many eyes and told her she may one day be as beautiful as a human being. Puzzled, Rem thought this over as she prepared to cross into the human world.
A/N: This fic is pretty much my take on how the Rem/Misa pairing actually works. How did Rem develop such strong feelings for Misa? In the flashback scene in the manga where Gelus dies, we see her being more curious over how Misa will die than worried for her, and when she’s on Earth with Misa, she tells her there’s no chance of her doing that. And then a week later, she’s prepared to die for her.
Shinigami have all been taken from the How-To-Read guide.