Auzar smiled thinly as he looked down on the human world. The fingers of his left hand brushed gently across his Death Note, as they always did when he was contemplating his next move. In his right, he held a second Note. Only he knew how he had got it, and he intended it to remain that way.

Of all the Shinigami, Auzar held the closest resemblance to a human. But for a few details, he looked like an average young man. One of those details was his height - eight feet, even when standing in his customary slouch. The second was his skin, a dead, pallid white. Third, his eyes, which were completely solid black, a darkness that was almost hypnotic. Fourth, his great leathery wings folded on his back. Fifth and finally, his canines, long and pointed.

Considered strange by the rest of the Shinigami for both his manner and dress, Auzar often watched the humans. Indeed, the sleek suit he customarily wore was based on a human design, although altered to fit his tall, thin frame and to accommodate his wings. His Death Note hung in a specially made holster of wrought silver, sitting next to his left thigh, and his hand would find it without fail whenever he was deep in thought. Contrary to the general personality of the death gods, he was reserved and quiet, never taking part in their gambling or frivolity, preferring to remain apart and write names in his Note, building up his lifespan. For this, he was an outcast, but he was happy with that. He preferred the humans to his fellow Shinigami anyway.

He had been to the human world a few times before, though never with more than one Death Note. On one memorable trip, he'd been discovered, and the humans had actually written a book about him. Dracula, it was called. It still made him laugh, the powers they attributed to him. Of course, it wasn't without justification. As a Shinigami, he could certainly drain the life of a human, and he was immune to any mortal weapon. To be fair, the discovery was due to his own carelessness, allowing a human to walk through him right into the Death Note, but it had been dealt with.

Suddenly, a thought struck, and he froze. Glacially slow, a grin spread across his face. Holding his right hand out, he gently opened his fingers and watched as the Note fell.

This was going to be fun.

A mundane and boring life can always be changed by one pivotal moment. It usually arrives with flashing lights and a warning sign, however there are times that it appears without warning; sometimes those warnings are ignored. It was the same when Shae picked up a book that rested on the edge of the bench by the bus stop. Gentle figures flipped open the pages, expecting a name or address to return the notepad too. Nothing. Instead, rules. She read them over and laughed. Clearly a book from either a joke store or a gothic occult shop. She placed it back down and returned her attention to the rainy world around her.

One hand held up her umbrella, the other held together a coat that would sheild her from wind and rain. It was a quiet ten minutes before her bus arrived. A normal person would have simply climbed aboard, yet curiosity forced her to scoop up the book again and shove it into her bag. Maybe it was theft. No one was coming back to collect it. Besides, they could get another. Shae climbed aboard the bus and held onto a hanging support until it arrived at her stop. Her mind stayed on the book for some time before the trivialities of the final months at school pushed into her head.

Shae dropped down into her desk chair after having escaped the petty hate and gossip of the girls she are lunch with. Her fingers drove into her bag for her phone yet instead, they found the same notepad that she'd found earlier that morning. Pulling the book from inside her bag, she laid it down on the desk. Her eyes danced over its cover and soon she opened the first page.

The Human whose name is written in this note shall die.

She raised and eyebrow and read on, a little amused and slightly curious. This thing was a load of crap, she knew but there was a strong sense of curiosity about it. As the rest of her class returned and their teacher arrived. Shae covered the book with her own notepads, silently making notes. The lesson drew further and further on, until her curiosity peeked.

Matso Takahashi

She looked back up to her teacher and watched.

Nothing.

She waited a little longer.

Again. Nothing.

Shae closed the book and carefully slipped it back into her bag, concluding it to be fake and merely a unque notebook. Then, a bang! She looked up as the figure of her teacher slumped over the desk clutching his heart. Then, someone screamed. So did a few others. A grand total of 120 seconds after she'd written the name down, the same man laid dead on their home room floor, and the whole group was panicking. Shae pushed all her belongings into her bag and made a break for the door. Immediately everyone else had the same idea.

Students pushed and shoved and forced their way into the corridor. Shae ran down the hall, pushed open the bathroom door and locked herself in a stall. That was a conincidence! It had to be! She dropped down onto the toilet lid and held her bag close to her chest.

Click.

Click.

Click.

Footsteps approach slowly. A shadow falls under the stall door. No breathing can be heard, though all is silent. The door rattles as it is pushed from the other side.

Silence again.

A hand comes through the door as if it wasn't there. Long, slender fingers grip the lock and draw it back. The hand retreats, and the door opens.

Click.

Click.

A monster steps in. Almost human, but not quite. Inhumanly tall and thin. It bends down, puts its face right up into Shae's and stares at her with its solid black eyes, no hint of pupil or iris or white, almost hypnotic in their darkness. Against the black suit it wears, a wrought silver holster stands out on the left thigh. It contains a notebook that looks similar to the one held by the human girl, though its title is in some strange characters never seen on Earth. Black, batlike wings scrape the sides of the stall.

"Well, well, well. Looks like you found my Death Note. My name is Auzar. Nice to meet you."

He grins, revealing pointed canines. Despite his closeness, no breath nor warmth can be felt.

"I'm going to be with you for the rest of your life. That is the contract you have accepted by writing in the Death Note. In exchange for the power to end life, you will go to neither Heaven nor Hell. You will be possessed by a Shinigami. And the humans who use a Death Note... or so it is said... never find happiness. These are the terms you have accepted, and there is no revocation."

Pulling back, Auzar stands up as much as he is able, though he remains slouched deeply to avoid hitting the roof.

"So... why the teacher?"

Shae sat quietly, pulling her legs close and trying to comfort herself. It was a coincidence! It had to be. Books like that didn't exist. That sort of thing existed only in books and movies! Pulling down on the sleeves of her coat, eyes looked up as footsteps echoed. Probably another student. If that book was real, then- was she a murderer? No. It wasn't real. Plus there was no way she could have caused a heart attack. It wasn't possible. She'd ask her mum later.

Two brown eyes looked up as the door unlocked. First of all, it was a shock to find someone trying to contact her, never mind the fact the door had unlocked itself from the inside. She watched and rose her feet as if running were the only option. However, what stood there in the doorway, was not a police officer, a student, or even the teacher she'd murdered for no real reason. Shae stammered a little and backed up to the wall.

She swallowed the large lump in her throat, and stared back. She was crazy. That was it. Everything that had happened today was a dream and she'd fallen asleep in lesson. Yet, the more whatever it was stared, the more she realised this was really happening. She didn't really understand, who- whatever they were, it wasn't human.
"I-I.." She croaked, holding her bag close. One foot edged forwards, having slipped on the tiled floor. Shae glanced down as her shoe passed through the foot of Auzar. That meant one of two things, she was crazy, or Auzar was a ghost.

Out of complete panic, Shae darted out, through the body of Auzar and clutched onto the sink. She was crazy. Definitely crazy. Looking back up into the mirror, Shae couldn't help but realise the thing was still there.
"What are you?" She stammered, dealing with shock. Words finally sank in slowly and his words rang in her mind. She placed a hand into her bag and pulled the notebook from inside. "This is yours?" Her voice again was croaky and shaken.

"I am a Shinigami. The most human-looking among them, which isn't saying much, I'll admit. This - "

His left hand taps the one in the silver holster on his left thigh.

"- is my original and personal Death Note. It is what I will use to write your name when you die. That is also part of the terms. I managed to obtain a second Note through certain means. That is the one you are holding. It now belongs to you, and you may use it as you wish until you die. I dropped it into the human world deliberately, so that someone would find it."

He shrugs.

"I was bored. Humans are so much more interesting. The Shinigami Realm is a dead world. Of course, there are upsides to being a Shinigami. We don't die, for one. Well, as long as we keep writing human names into our notebooks. We have the power to see a human's remaining lifespan, but if we write their names and make them die before that time, their remaining life is added to ours. The only way for us to die is to neglect writing names. At least, the only commonly known way. There are others, but none of them include mortal methods. Guns, knives, explosions... all harmless to us. We're invisible too, unless someone touches the Note. Be careful of that - if someone else gets their hands on it, they'll be able to see me."

He stretches out his wings idly. They reach almost the entire width of the bathroom, black and leathery and batlike. They extend in eerie silence, a complete absence of the rustling and creaking you might expect. After a couple of seconds, he folds them up again onto his back.

"And then there's no telling what will happen."

Shinigami?! Well that explained a lot. The more he spoke of the book, the more Shae read over the rules mentioned in the front page. This whole thing was real? She rested her bag on the sink behind her and held the book close.
"This book.. It takes lives? Just like that." She clicked the fingers on her free hand and waited. Morbid curiosity made the whole thing a little more interesting. If she really did have the power of life and death at the end of a biro, she could rule the planet. "You can see how long I have left to live?" A free hand moved to the top of her head, as if she imagined her remaining days shining vividly above her head.

"A whole world? How many of you is there?" Despite the strange appearance, Shae was slowly overcoming the terrifying experience she'd had earlier that afternoon. "What happens if I don't want this anymore?" She asked, tucking the book back into her bag. She pulled her bag strap over her shoulder and looked towards the door. No doubt the police would be here by now. There was no way to trace the death to her, as far as she knew. Regardless, she didn't need the authorities on her back. Not if she was carrying the weapon in her hand.

She moved over towards the bathroom door and peered a head outside. The hallways were quiet now, but downstairs she could hear the sound of sirens and commotion coming from hundreds of students outside.
"Is there anything else I need to know?" She asked, lowering her voice. After all, if the Shinigami really was invisible, she would appear to be talking to herself. Shae walked along the hallway, peering out the windows are she walked. They'd already barricaded off the school entrance, and by the looks of things, the body was already in the ambulance.

"How many of us? Who knows? Certainly I don't. I suspect that the Shinigami King might, but there's no easy way to find out."

He follows her. His footsteps are no longer making the click sound they did before. As they enter the corridors, his wings half-unfold, and he floats up off the ground to hover over her head, avoiding all the other students.

"Need to know... well, that's all a matter of judgement, isn't it? A page, or even a fragment of a page, torn from the Death Note will have the full effect. Useful if you don't want to carry the whole thing around. You don't have to use a pen or pencil, anything that's legible will do, from blood to lipstick. I suppose an important one is that I'm not supposed to do anything to help or hinder the deaths you write in the book or otherwise interfere, so there's a limited amount I can do. I'm mostly here as an observer."

He glances out of the window. His left hand rests on the silver holster, fingers stroking the Note absently.

"I'll give you some advice, though. If you're going to keep using it, try and be discreet. Even if they can't tell who, it might be possible to work out that someone's causing deaths if too many occur in the same manner."

Shae stayed quiet until she was safely moving down the stairwell. The last thing she needed was saying anything incriminating. She could deal with the reality later. After all, she'd murdered her teacher, a man who'd done very little aside from ruining her elder sister's chances at the college she'd wanted to go to.
"You think I planned that?" She asked, one hand casually holding onto the bannister to support. "If I had known that book was real, I wouldn't have wrote in it-" She let two students pass her. "-I wouldn't have done it so obviously." No more than a whisper until they were both outside.

Her rather urgent pace disappeared completely as the door swung shut behind her. The ambulance and flashing lights were the only thing on her mind. It took her a second before her feet were unglued from the floor. Heavy, lead shoes were no help. She held onto her bag, kept her head down and tried to move towards the barricade and get out before anything happened. The closer she got to the authorities, the worse she felt. She looked up for a moment, spotting a police officer looking her way. Was it that obvious?! It wasn't plastered on her head and no one else knew about the book, right?

"Excuse me!" Shae stumbled forwards a little and tried to get away. "Miss?" There wasn't much she could do. Turning, she looked towards the officer. "Were you in the class when this happened?" The officer pulled out a notebook, ready to write down Shae's confession. She only nodded. "Can you tell me what happened?" Her throat closed momentarily, two brown eyes glancing up towards the demon she'd so recently met.

"He- I- He just fell over, clutching his chest."

"No attack?"

Shae shook her head once more.

"Alright. Thank you."

With a sigh of relief, she turned and made her way towards the safety of the street. Walking in silence until they turned a street corner, Shae let out an audible sigh of relief and fear.
"Is- Is there any other human's with one?"

"So, you're planning on keeping it then? Good. I was so bored back home. This should be fun. Oh look, a policeman."

He grins at Shae's panic as the man approaches at watches her struggle to answer. He looks over the man's shoulder as he writes, then nods to himself.

"Other humans with Death Notes? If there were, I couldn't tell you. I'm not allowed. One of the rules. But you won't be able to see their Shinigami just because you've touched my Note. You'll have to touch theirs, so you can't find out that way. Since I know you're keeping the note... there is a way you'd be able to know."

He leans down into her face again and grins. When he next speaks, his voice is little more than a hissing whisper.

"There is a deal. Should you choose to accept it, you will gain the Shinigami power to see the name and lifespan of anyone you look upon. The owners of a Death Note will not have a visible lifespan, so you will know if you ever see them. And you will be able to kill someone even just from seeing a photo of them. The price for the Eyes of the Shinigami... is half your lifespan. Are you willing to make the trade?"

His right hand moves up and hovers near her eyes, fingers bent slightly into claws. He remains silently in the same position, staring at her with his solid black eyes.

"So each Shinigami has their own book? Or two in your case." There was already far too much to get her head round. She'd murdered, met a god, found a supernatural book and dealt her soul to the devil. Her brain was already fried. If there were others, what wasn't sure what they'd do having her around. Besides, there weren't many famous heart attack deaths in the news, so it was unlikely. Besides, if there were others around, leaders and reigiems would have fallen.

Shae turned her head to listen and to question, yet Auzar was already in her face, for the second time that day.
"How do I know I don't have minutes to live?" She asked. Of course the idea of having the eyes of a god was appealing. She'd have everything she had ever wanted. She'd have anything she could ask for. Yet, there was always the possibility of others, like herself, or who shared the same mind frame. "So I could look at anyone, and immediately know their name?" Tempted, Shae bit onto her lip, meeting the black eyes of what may be her death.

It was too tempting. Far too tempting. She'd be unstoppable. Practically invincible.
"Everything has a price, right?" She smiled a little, turning to walk again. "Maybe later, demon." Maybe the streets weren't a good place to trade eyes with a creature from fiction. Plus, she had a bus ride to kill things over, decide what she wanted and what she would do with the book.

"All Shinigami have a Death Note. Those in the human world must have two. And you will never know how long you have left to live, though you would see the lives of others. I do, but it is forbidden to tell a human of their remaining lifespan, so even if I wanted to, I couldn't. "

At her last pair of comments, Auzar straightens up and lets out a genuine laugh, loud and booming, at odds with his hissing voice. His wings shake with the heaving of his chest and he rotates slowly in midair as he loses his concentration. Once he's regained control and righted himself, he replies:

"Wise words from one so young, though I must point out that I am not a demon. But the deal is always there, should you change your mind."

As she boards the bus, he stretches his wings to their full expansion and flaps, taking off and soaring into the sky, circling so far above that he's little more than a black speck. But he's always there, following her at a distance.

"Life for an eye. Never the sort of thing you expect to hear." She glanced up upon boarding, keeping a brief eye on him before flashing her pass and moving her way towards the nearest seat. Usually, her bus rides involved standing, however, at half past one, they were quieter. She dropped into a seat and exhaled slowly. Now wasn the time to let grief, remorse, guilt and fear set in. Her bedroom would suit those emotions fine. Instead, she pulled up her socks and turned her eyes towards the window.

Checking around herself, Shae found herself to be a few too many seats away for someone to read the book she had chosen to pull from her bag. She seriously doubted anyone knew what the book was, after all, no else on the bus looked like they'd confronted death so recently. She flipped through the empty pages and returned to the rules section and read over again. They were comprehensive, as if every last fraction of detail had been purposely written out for humans.

She shut the book away quickly as other students climbed aboard. The last thing she needed was the attention; even if they simply just chose to tease. Sitting back, Shae sat silently until they reached her stop. A quick hop off and few steps down the road, she was home. However, as she unlocked the door and stepped inside, her eyes drew to the black car just outside the driveway. Her dad was home. Early?
"Dad?" She called, sliding her shoes off and swapping them quietly.

Auzar drifted for a while above the bus, but returned to sit in midair next to Shae after a few minutes, watching as she read the rules. He grinned as she hurriedly concealed the Death Note at the arrival of other students, but said nothing, remaining silent for the entire journey. He drew his Death Note and a pen from the silver holster and began to write the occasional name, glancing out of the window just before each.

When they arrived at her house, he opened his wings again and soared up into the sky, circling the house once to get a look before coming back to float behind the girl as she entered the house.

"You look confused. Not expecting anyone to be here?"

"No ones ever in before four." She murmured. The last thing Shae needed was her family catching her talking to herself. "Dad?" Her voice rang out again, calling through the house. "Dad, you home?" Of course he was home, his car was there. She dropped her bag onto the table and moved through to the living room. Empty. She tried the study. Empty. The only other option was her parents' bedroom, which may explain a fair amount. Chances were, after four years without a day off or holiday, her male parent had become exhausted. "Dad?" She shouted again. One hand knocked on the door quietly, afraid her dad was going to be asleep.

She waited for a moment, and pushed the door open gently.
"Dad?" Judging by the light of the room, her dad wasnt asleep, nor were the curtains closed. She poked her head round the door and instantly frowned. "Dad? Dad, what's wrong?" On the edge of the bed, the man sat drooped and slouched. "What's wrong?" Stepping closer, Shae came to a stop by the edge of the bed and waited. "Dad?" He gave a short laugh and sighed.

"They gave the job away."
"What do you mean?"
"I didn't get the job."
"But you're chosen specifically."
"He gave it to his own son."
"He's only just finished med school."
"I can't go back in now."
"That's not fair!" Shae shouted a little and took an extended exhale just to calm herself down. "Dad, you have to say something. You're the most qualified. You're the best cardiologist in the whole city." She hadn't even thought of that. If they asked her dad to look over the teacher she'd murdered that afternoon, they'd certainly notice there wasn't any real cause for his death, aside from sudden onset of a heart attack.

"Your father is a cardiologist and you're killing people with heart attacks? Rather ironic, isn't it?"

The Shinigami grins, and then turns away and starts to amble around the house, looking into each room in turn. When he reaches the kitchen, he starts going through the fridge and cupboards, the various containers rattling and clanking. Then the noise stops.

"Oh... my... goodness. This is the best thing I have ever eaten."

He comes bounding back up the stairs with an apple in hand.

"Please tell me there are more of these."

Shae waved a hand towards him, quickly shifting it to appear as if she was brushing her own hair. It was ironic, yes. Incredibly. She remained in the room for a moment longer then left, angry and frustrated. Her dad had more experience than most people for the job. She headed downstairs and picked up her bag, passing a glance towards the Shinigami who'd pretty much just made himself at home. Rolling an eye, she headed back upstairs, pushing open the door to her room.

"I can buy more." She commented, quietly. The last thing she needed was anyone catching her talking to thin air. She shut the door and dropped her bag onto the bed. It wasn't a comfortable feeling. The guilt had managed to stay away but yet the feeling of pure hate and annoyance towards the man who'd chosen his. Twenty-seven year old son with no real experience over a man who had more than thirty years of experience and a high patient survival rate, third highest in the country. She slumped down into her chair and stared at the wall for a moment.

The temptation was there. She stood slowly and moved over to the tv, switching it on and choosing to seat herself on her bed instead. A hand drove into her bag, pulling out the books she needed for homework. She didn't need to think about it anymore. Yet there it was, wedged in the middle of her maths book. She shouldn't. She had no reason to. None at all. He was the second wealthiest man in the city and the hospital's largest donor and sponsor. Yes, it would reach the news and hell, it would be revenge, but what for? Her dad was still a doctor, still one of the best. She stared at the cover for a moment. A long minute passed before she slipped across the room for her laptop.

She searched quietly before finding his name plastered at the top of the hospital home page. She'd not noticed the pen still in her hand until she subconsciously clicked on the lid. A few moments passed. Then a few more. Perhaps even ten minutes of simply staring at a name. She wouldn't get caught. The man was nearly sixth years old.

Akane Kurogane

The name stayed in her head for some time. Turning backwards and forth. Eventually, after a some of ten minutes, she'd scrawled his name into the pages of her new book. Upon realisation, she tossed the book across the bed and slumped down once more.

Auzar grinned at Shae's eye-roll, floating after her up the stairs.

"You'd better buy more! These things are so much better than Shinigami apples..."

He trailed off into silence as he watched her struggle over the Death Note, a sinister grin suffusing his face as he hovered in the corner of the room. For the whole ten minutes he just watched, smiling silently. The smile widened as she wrote his name in the Note, and he dropped to the ground, walking over and staring down at her.

"Risky. Two people connected to you in the same day, dying of the same cause. You need to be careful..."

The sinister grin hasn't left his face for the whole time. He bites into an apple slowly, ripping out a crisp chunk.

"Or they'll snap you up."

Crunch.

Shae sat quietly for a moment, twisting the pen in etaeen her fingers.
"He's already made four thousand people rudundant in the last month. It could have been anyone." Her voice struggled to sound certain, desperate to believe something so trivial. "There would no way to prove I did it. I wasn't near them, there's no way for them to determined a heart attack was caused by any other means than simply just that, right?" She pulled both her legs up onto the bed and let her eyes move to the tv. She flicked through the channels, expecting MURDER in huge red letters.

Nothing. Not yet anyway. Maybe she'd be okay. She just needed to be calm and leave the book alone for a couple of weeks. Or she could just not use it, ever again. There was always that.

OC: it's cool, don't worry