Ryuk

Upon seeing the massive demon in front of me, I can't say that I wasn't shook. In fact, I'm glad I didn't drink that much water that day because he really did scare the shit out of me for a few seconds. However, I calmed myself down and spoke to the demon.

"Are you… the owner of this book?" I already knew the answer, it was obvious that this book was his. Immediately, I knew this was going to lead to consequences, similar to how Ghost Rider made a deal with the devil, and now he's his pawn. Unlike him, there's no way I'll ever be the slave to some deity. I'd rather kill myself.

Before he could give his response I continued to speak in a nonchalant tone. "Listen, if you're here to make me sign some sort of contract with my life, I'm not interested. Go ahead and send me to hell or wherever because I'm not letting someone else boss me around. Eternal torture in hell is less of a punishment than that." As I said this, the demon began to chuckle. His chuckle then turned into an aggressive cackle, causing him to hold his stomach due to its intensity. Once he let it all out, he stood back up straight and spoke to me with his gravelly voice.

"You already signed the contract. And to answer your question, yes that was my notebook. However, it is yours now." The monster continued to smile as he spoke to me, giving off the impression that this is all a game. His voice also gave off that impression as he spoke with a strikingly similar voice to Norman Osborn.

"So, what? What's your goal?" I studied him closely. His mannerisms, or lack thereof I should say, bothered me. Besides that time when he lost control of his laughter earlier, he was completely static as if he were a tree or something. The only part of him that moved was his jaw as he snickered and spoke to me. Even his eyes didn't move, they remained locked on mine.

"I have no goal. This is just a little game I like to play where I drop my notebook in a world and see what happens. I've been watching you for quite some time, Apollo. I'm glad we're finally able to speak to each other." The monster chuckled once again, still not moving a single bit of his animated corpse.

"You know my name? How long have you been watching me?" I squinted at the monster as I spoke. I'm the type of person that likes privacy, so to know that some freak has been observing me made me uncomfortable. A shiver went down my spine as I thought about how HE was probably watching me earlier when I had my little bit of fun with Sue Richards.

"Since the Speedball incident. When I saw you there, clenching your fist next to your sister's corpse. You said to yourself 'I'll kill them all.', which piqued my interest. So I watched and waited until the perfect time to give you my book." His smile was sinister as he explained this to me. I stared back at him with wide eyes upon hearing this explanation. I put my hand on my forehead in disbelief before speaking calmly to him.

"Okay, so then who are you?"

"My name's Ryuk. I'm a shinigami, a god of death. I'm not sure if shinigami are known to the people of this universe, but I come from another." The shinigami then floated over to my bed and began laying on it with his dirty clothes, without my permission I might add.

"Another universe? So why are you here?" I knew other universes existed, but I never thought I'd meet someone from a different universe in my life, I didn't even know it was possible.

"I was bored of my universe. We don't have any superheroes and whatnot where I'm from. In my universe, we have what's called the Shinigami Realm. It's nothing but dull and grey with dirt everywhere and it's filled with nothing but bored and miserable shinigami such as myself. All we'd do is gamble and sit around all day." Ryuk placed his hand on his chin as he reminisced about his past boring life.

"As I grew bored, I visited the human realm of my universe. Unlike your universe, it's just filled with regular old people. I gave my notebook to a bunch of kids there, but none of them could live up to the fun I had with my first human, Light Yagami. He was this Japanese kid obsessed with justice. Once I discovered that we shinigami can travel through universes, I stumbled upon two interesting ones." Ryuk held up two fingers and began kicking his feet as he spoke, I did nothing more but glare at him in confusion.

"Some dark and boring universe with heroes like yours, except they had a guy with a bat costume and some boy scout in a red cape. Better, but still too boring for me. Then I stumbled upon your universe. I got here just in time to witness the Speedball incident and I knew someone like you would have arisen from the ashes."

"Interesting… So what you're saying is you drop this notebook in front of humans and just watch to see what they do with it? And you got so bored that you came to my universe looking for someone who you think could pull a high body count?" I held up the Death Note as I spoke to Ryuk, he continued lying on the bed nonchalantly.

"Yup. I have no interest in helping or hindering you. I just enjoy the show. Say, do you have any apples?" His feet stopped kicking once he asked for the fruit as he looked at me as if he were a lost puppy. This made me smile slightly, not because I thought it was cute or something, but because he immediately gave me some leverage to make a deal with him.

"I do. However, let's make a deal. Tell me everything I need to know about this book and I'll give you all the apples we have." Ryuk's eyes immediately lit up, triggering him to begin explaining to me the ins and outs of the notebook. I had no clue there were so many rules, but a few of them stuck out to me.

(Author's Note: There are so many rules it would take too long to explain them all, so check the 'Death Note Rulebook' chapter for the finer details.)

_______________

As I sat in the chair at my desk, Ryuk was sitting on the side of the desk itself. We both ate apples as we discussed the rules of the notebook.

"Okay, I have a few questions. How come I can make women have sex with me, but not kill people? And also, how come Iron Man's death didn't default to a heart attack?" I chewed on my apple as I spoke, looking up at Ryuk with a skeptical glare.

"I'm not sure, there's so many rules and I wasn't the one who wrote them. I was surprised myself when I saw the Metal Man miss the crowd, but the Clear Woman had sex with you. As for why he didn't have a heart attack, maybe Death Note itself acts slightly differently in your universe." Pieces of apple spewed from his mouth with every word he spoke. It was disgusting. I only felt more disgusted knowing he watched me fuck Sue.

"Well, I wouldn't use it to make others kill for me anyway. It's boring." I leaned back in my chair, placing my hands comfortably behind my head as I said this. I had no interest in conducting my purge in such an easy manner.

"I'm glad you agree. By the way, once this is all over, I'll have to write your name in my book." He glared at me with a serious gaze for the first time as he placed his hand on his notebook which rested on his belt.

"Speaking of which, now that you've used the Death Note, you've forfeited the ability to go to heaven or hell. You will go somewhere in between for all eternity. When the time comes for you to die, it will be up to me to write your name." Ryuk began to laugh after telling me this. Of course, I figured after using the Death Note, there's no way I'd go to heaven so it didn't really bother me that I wasn't going to hell either.

"I figured I was going someplace bad after I died, so that's not really a problem, to be honest, but thank you for the information. I guess." It did sort of hit me that because of my delusions, I won't ever see my family again, however, this sacrifice was worth it. "Could you explain the eyes again?"

"Of course. I can give you shinigami eyes, which will automatically give you the name of any person that you look at, as long as you can see their face. You can also see how long they have left to live. However, once I give them to you, your life will be halved." After he said this to me, I rubbed my chin, pondering the different ways that this ability could be useful to me in the future.

"Could I see my own timer if I look in the mirror?"

"Nope." Ryuk answers plainly, taking another bite from his fifteenth apple.

"Hmm. Doesn't seem worth it. We can make that trade if my back is to the wall." Of course, the eye stuff sounds OP, but it's of no use if heroes are walking around with their masks on, right? I need to see their faces in order for it to work. Plus, I don't really want to halve my life unless it's completely necessary. The deal wasn't completely off the table for me. I just didn't want to make such a big decision so soon.

"For now, let's lay low and observe the public's reactions to what I've done so far. I'm curious what kind of narratives they'll form and perhaps I'll play along if they're interesting.

_________

Over the last week, Ryuk and I watched from the sidelines as the world attempted to unravel what had happened. There were a few theories that were popular during this point in time.

Number one: People thought that someone was targeting everyone who had sided with Iron Man during their little Civil War amongst each other. (Close, but not quite.)

Number two: People thought that someone was targeting people whose identities were known by the public already and not just the people who sided with Iron Man, that's why Scarlet Witch and Dr. Strange were also murdered. (Scarily close, but they still have no clue how it was done.)

Number three: Someone out there is simply targeting heroes and they simply only started with the names of those who were known. (Close as well, however, they're missing the essential aspects.)

Number four: Anyone who was not explicitly against the hero registration, including the neutral parties, was targeted. It explains why the Fantastic Four, who kept switching sides during the war, Dr. Strange, and Scarlet Witch were all murdered. This led to people believing that the Secret Avengers, the heroes who were against the hero registration, were involved in the deaths. (Way too complicated, I wasn't thinking that hard during my foolish murder spree. But I liked it.)

The fourth theory was the most popular amongst the public. That's the funny thing about humans, they love drama so much that they'll ignore logic for a good story. All they would've had to do was combine some of their old theories and they'd be right on the money, not that it'd matter.

Regardless of whatever theory was out there, they didn't matter to me at this point. The only thing that mattered to me was to add to the list of heroes to kill. Sure, the heroes figured out that they were being targeted, but after five or so deaths, they'd see the pattern regardless. Since they're "heroes", they won't hide for long. They can't help but continue to do their work because "Great power means great responsibility." or whatever Spider-Man's uncle told him.

I needed a real plan now. 'How will I kill the heroes whose identities are hidden.' I often thought to myself. For a whole week, I pondered the options but it was harder than it sounds. However, I finally landed on one foolproof plan. One so simple, so easy, that a five-year-old could execute it with enough practice.

I will kill all heroes, just watch me.