I Have the Right to Destroy

Chapter 14: New World

"Ku ku ku… ah, my human died, and now I have nowhere else to go."

Near was on a hospital bed, and in front of him was a death god, carrying a basket of apples with a Gundam standing among them. He wondered about the effects of the sedatives they injected into him, and whether this beast dressed like a glam rock star was real or not.

Ignoring the possibility of illusions, he answered, "You could go back to your world, right, Mr. Ryuk? That's your name, isn't it? That's what Halle told me…"

"Eh? Back to the shinigami realm? Ku ku. You have no idea how boring it is down there. All we do there is gamble and eat rotten apples."

"Don't tell me you want another human to use your notebook… that isn't going to happen. I made sure that the SPK burned all the true notebooks and the stray pieces of it. No-one should use the Death Notes again."

"Hey, I'm not saying anything like that… I only have my own notebook now. I guess Shidoh will just have to ask the King for a new one. Ku ku ku… oh, by the way, I'll hand you this Gundam if you give me all the apples."

Near tilted his head in curiosity. "Go ahead then, Mr. Ryuk."

The shinigami handed the Gundam to Near and proceeded throwing in the apples in his mouth.

"Say… how come you fainted back there, kid? I was a bit surprised by that. I thought you were a lot more steady than your friend Matt," he said.

Near looked out the window rather dully. It was obvious to Ryuk though, who was way older than this boy, that he was just feigning neutrality. "… just an anxiety attack. It will never happen again," he muttered.

"Well, if you say so."

Near watched him finish all the apples. With that rare hesitation in his voice, he told Ryuk, "Listen… if you're bored, I can ask Lester to buy you some videogames that you can take to your world…"

"Really?" Ryuk laughed at him again. His mouth hung open with a vague sort of expression.

Near blinked. This was a rare moment in time, indeed: he felt awkward and clueless about what he should say next. Needless to say, nobody warned him in any of his fifteen years of life that he would be talking to a god of death about videogames for no other reason than gratitude.

Wait, is gratitude the right word for this?

When he noticed that the human wasn't going to say anything, Ryuk moved his wings in a weird way—maybe he shrugged. "Yeah, kid, I'd like that. Matt wasn't able to play as much as he wanted to when I appeared in his life, you know. Maybe now I can play all those games he missed for him."

Honour, I guess. Maybe that's the right word.

"So it's all right for death gods to play videogames?"

"I suppose so. There are a lot of things that death gods can do that they don't know for themselves," said Ryuk. He popped another apple in his mouth. "Hey… I just thought of this, but you wouldn't mind if I went to the human world every now and then to recharge the batteries, eh? There's no electricity in the death gods' realm, you know."

"Of course not, Mr. Ryuk. I'd say it would be pretty cool if you came every now and then."

"Then I'll count on you, Near. Ku ku ku." Ryuk ate the last apple, and suddenly, he disappeared from plain sight.

Strangely enough, Near found this disappearance completely… natural. Well, maybe. Yeah. It had to be natural, because the next moment, he was wondering about the crude nature of videogames and the chocolate that Giovanni and Ridner promised to bring him during visiting hours.

Five days later, Near was out of the hospital. He convinced Lester to let him go to Ryuzaki's tower all by himself. It was officially Near's first time to take a cab on his own, as well as to use an elevator all by himself.

It excited him to some extent. He felt a bit ashamed of such a childish tendency. But come to think of it, he shouldn't be embarrassed by such a trivial excitement. He was, after all, a fifteen-year-old boy who plays with plastic robots and battery operated ducks, wasn't he? He should forgive himself for being excited about riding an elevator all by himself, but somehow, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

He got off the twenty-third floor. It was a lobby-like place, air conditioned with sofas and lounge chairs and decorative plants and huge LCD screens playing music videos on mute. No lights were on; only the sharp orange bars of light from the afternoon sun lit the room. It was deserted, save for a blonde woman in a Chanel suit, stretched out barefoot on one of the big red couches.

"Hi there, sugar," she said, barely turning her head to acknowledge Near. It seemed that she was enjoying the Tokyo sunset from inside the building, where she had the luxury of eating small pink candies, smoking cigarettes, and drinking expensive red wine.

"Good afternoon," he replied. He'd never seen her before, but the blonde hair and sunglasses probably gave her identity away immediately. "You're Wedy, aren't you?"

She smiled at him in response. "Near, it's a pleasure to meet you. I heard about your hospitalization from L. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, thank you… where is L?"

She gestured outside the room. "He wants to enjoy the sunset outside. Don't worry, there's plenty of room. We didn't have the chance to use helicopters, you know."

Near nodded and padded his way outside.

When he opened the door, a strong breeze threatened to close the door again. He realized how high up he was from the ground.

It was pretty easy to find L. The older man was standing up a bit straighter than usual and was staring up at the sky, which was orange by now and was littered with low, feathery white clouds.

He looked briefly at Near, returned to his usual slouch, and stared up at the sky again.

After a long silence between them, L asked, "Do you hear them?"

"What?"

"The bells."

Near closed his eyes and focused on the sounds. All he heard were the gusts of wind, but apart from that, nothing else.

"I suppose you can't hear them… you were so young."

I have no clue on what you're talking about, thought Near. He knew that this was no time to be annoyed with L, but all the same, some irritation welled up in him.

L saw his facial expression and smiled. "It's not natural of you to come visit, Near. But thank you very much for doing so."

Near only looked back in response.

Again, L smiled. There was something different about it, Near mused. It wasn't the face that he had on when he got the better of you, or when he's finally got all the evidence to solve a particularly difficult case. It was a smile that didn't say anything important, or reasonable. It was just…

L. Smiling.

"So, what are you going to do now, Near?"

"The SPK has disbanded, and Yagami Light has decided to finish his college education first before applying for a position with the Japanese Police. I do not plan on any collaboration with them unless the situation calls for it. I'll probably start working on criminal cases on my own now."

"I see." L nodded. It was strange for Near to see him nodding so intently, as if he were truly interested in what he had to say. "What are you going to call yourself?"

Near shrugged. "Near is fine. Unless you think that there's something wrong with it."

"There's nothing wrong with it."

Silence. The shadows of a few diligent birds who found their way at the highest point of the building passed by vacantly.

"L… if I said that I was sorry that you're going to die…"

Still with that questionable smile on his face, L simply answered, "I won't believe you, Near."

Near didn't flinch. But… "Do you think I'm that heartless?"

"Of course not. But you enjoyed your victory, didn't you, Near?"

I learned that you were going to die for me and everybody else that day. Those two died in front of me. I had an anxiety attack afterwards. I had to stay in the hospital overnight. You think I enjoyed it?

"I guess you didn't. In any case, don't be sorry for me, Near. It was necessary. And I did it on my own. Kira wasn't the only one with the right to destroy, you know."

Near nodded curtly. "If you say so, L. I won't say anything."

17:56. The minutes passed by slowly.

"Near, a favour, please. Take Wedy's box of candies and bring them here."

Near did as he was told. It took precisely a minute for him to go back inside, take the box of candies, and walk with a rather bored Wedy back outside, where L sat on the ground, staring again at the sunset.

"L, last two minutes at life. What do you want to do?" asked Wedy.

He shrugged and held out his hand for the box of candies.

Near watched them quietly for these last few moments. Only the sugary, slurping noises from L and the sound of the wind filled the strangely calm air among them.

At exactly 17:59, both L Lawliet and Merrie Kenwood dropped dead on the ground. They died so calmly that Near wondered whether they really died from heart attacks or not.

Goodbye, L. Sleep tight.

Despite the warmth and moisture that he felt on his cheeks, Near's wide black eyes felt terribly dry, like his throat. They stung as the chilly wind blew past him.

Meanwhile, the world below sank further into the darkness.

Welcome to the new world.

- Story end -

Notes: Thank you, thank you, thank you very much for reading this until the end! I hope you enjoyed the ending, abrupt as it is... I gotta put this story to sleep! Haha.

If you're interested, I'm writing a short how-to-read in my blog at brain-eater-jr. tabulas. com/content/pages/poser-htr/ Just get rid of the spaces. Again, thank you, and good night!