A Death Note/Mononoke crossover, and for anyone confused, I do not mean Princess Mononoke here. This Mononoke is the spin-off of an anime series called Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, and there's no connection to Princess Mononoke whatsoever.

Sorry for the unimaginative title. I'm not good with titles.

Disclaimer: this is just a silly little thing I wrote to amuse myself, and I'm most definitely not making any money with something like this, so… there. Me not own anything.

MonoNote

All in all, it seemed to be quite an ordinary notebook. Not a strange thing to find on the yard of a high school, but Raito could have sworn he'd seen it drop from the sky and that was quite extra-ordinary, to say the least. He looked up at the sky, wondering. Could some big bird have dropped it? Or maybe it had… had... dropped from an airplane? Hah, was that even possible… Quite curious, he bent down to pick it up.

"Do not…" a voice said behind him, and he straightened his back and turned around, the notebook in his hand, "…touch it," the voice finished with a sigh.

For a moment the mystery of the notebook vanished from Raito's mind as he took in the rather colorful apparition in front of him. Was there some carnival he didn't know of? A costume party? Well, of course, some cosplayers didn't need any specific occasion to dress up quite wildly. Though he had to admit that this was quite an impressive costume: skillfully made kimono, very realistic silvery-grey hair, and those elf ears, although a bit cliché, didn't look plastic at all.

"Oh… is this yours?" He remembered the notebook again and raised it up questioningly. Only now he noticed the text on its cover: Death Note. He flipped it open and looked at the inner cover. The human whose name is written in this note shall die. He snorted quietly; yes, someone wearing such strange attire might very well carry around silly things like this, too.

"No… now that you picked it up, it is yours." The guy might look strange, but his voice was soft and low, the kind that almost inconspicuously demanded and also got the attention of a listener, and Raito looked up at him eyes narrowing a little. "I would… appreciate it… if you gave it to me, though."

Raito glanced at the notebook and snorted again, this time louder. "Fine enough." He gave it to the stranger and shrugged away the thanks. "It's not like I needed it."

As he walked away, a strange thought sneaked into his mind, I wonder if it could have worked… but as he looked behind, the strange man had already disappeared and taken the notebook with him.

...

Five days later a lone man was sitting by a table in a three-stars hotel, reading through the rules written on the inner covers of a black notebook, apparently deep in thought. It was pouring outside, and every now and then lightning flashed over the dark sky, creating an atmosphere fit for horror stories. During one such flash, a dark figure appeared suddenly in the room, a wide grin painted on its face.

"You find it interesting, don't you?"

The reader's back straightened. Slowly he closed the notebook and turned to look at the intruder.

"No… in fact I do not."

The shinigami opened his mouth to reply, but at that instant his already wide eyes widened even more and his jaw dropped farther down than any human's possibly could.

"You… how…"

"What is it, shinigami?" A pale eyebrow rose slightly. "Oh… let me guess… could it possibly be that you cannot see either my name or my lifespan?"

The jaw dropped even more, if possible, and then shut with an audible snap. "What are you?" the shinigami asked, head tilted, genuinely curious.

"Just… a simple medicine seller," the medicine seller muttered in reply and stood up. "What is of more importance, though… is this." He picked up the notebook with two fingers and raised it up. "Things like this should not exist in this world."

"Oh, c'mon, don't be so fussy." The shinigami, having gotten over his initial shock, flapped into the air and landed right behind the medicine seller, placing a long-fingered hand on his shoulder and bending down to whisper into his ear, "Just think how useful something like this could be. Are you sure you would not want to try it?"

"Quite." The medicine seller shook off the hand and turned to face the shinigami. "I will destroy this notebook – would have already done that, but I wanted to have a word with you first. I do not usually deal with your kind of spirits, but I could hardly just ignore this. I do not know what your plans are, but…"

"Plans?" The shinigami threw his head back as if in frustration. "Sheesh, I just want to have some fun! You can't imagine what a rotten place the shinigami realm is."

"It is, nevertheless, the place where the likes of you should stay."

"Oh?" The shinigami rose into the air again, floating close to the ceiling, and a reddish glow appeared in his eyes. "Are you forgetting who you're talking with? I am a god of death, and if you don't play my game, I will get rid off you and find someone else who will."

"You do need… a name to kill me," the medicine seller pointed out quietly, and the shinigami's evil look changed into that of confusion.

"Umm…"

Before the shinigami could muster up a reply, the medicine seller stretched out a hand and the lid of a box lying on the table snapped open. "I, on the other hand, do posses the means to kill you…" A short katana floated out of the box and flew to the outstretched hand. Bells attached to it jingled quietly as the medicine seller grasped a hold of it and fixed his eyes into those of the shinigami, who was by now breaking a cold sweat.

"Leave from this world and do not come back, for if I ever again smell your presence here, I shall kill you."

The softly spoken, matter-of-factly threat had its effect on the shinigami who, after a long moment of staring at the still-sheathed sword and the demonic face carved on its hilt, suddenly took wing and flew out right through the ceiling.

The medicine seller released the breath he'd been holding. This… could have turned ugly. He had never had to use the exorcism sword on creatures like this shinigami, and there was no way of knowing if it actually would have worked. No way except trying, and he was not too eager to do that.

He placed the sword on the table and took a tin box out of his baggage. He threw the Death Note into it, lit it, and watched quietly as it burned to ash with a blue flame.

(Six years later)

"Good morning, Raito-kun!" Matsuda's greeting was even more cheerful than usual. "Have you heard?"

Raito placed his coat in the rack in the Intelligence and Information Bureau of the NPA which he had joined half a year earlier and headed toward his room, shaking his head at Matsuda's overeagerness. "Have I heard what, Matsuda-san?"

"The case's been solved! No need to rack your brain over it anymore."

Raito stopped dead in his tracks. "What?"

"Yeah, I just heard about it, apparently it was some…"

Raito turned on his heels and marched into the room of the Detective Superintendent Yagami without listening to the end of the sentence.

"Father, what's this Matsuda's blabbing about the case being solved?"

"Raito…" Soichiro Yagami raised his gaze from the computer screen, "Even though I am your father, I am also your superior. You could at least knock before entering."

"I… I'm sorry." Raito came to a stop by the table and bowed. "But… is the case really solved?"

"Yes. It turned out to be even bigger than we imagined, with connections to international drug dealers." Yagami fell silent for a moment, then went on, "L solved it."

"Huh?" Raito blinked. "Who?"

"L. Ah, yes… you wouldn't know about him… but I guess that now that you've joined the police it's about time to tell you. L… Nobody knows his real name or even what he looks like, but he's the best detective in the world. They say he can solve any case – the only problem is that we have no way to contact him, and he'll just take those cases that interest him. But all in all, I guess you could say he's our trump card…

"Nevertheless." Yagami straightened his back and looked gravely at his son. "There will be other cases for you to solve, it is not like crime were to disappear from this world anytime soon. Don't dwell too much on not getting to solve the first big case you've worked on – the important thing is that criminals are caught; exactly who does it does not matter. You've been assigned to a new case. Time to get to work, son."

"Yes." Raito gave another bow and left the room, but before he followed his father's order and set to work he dug out everything he could find out about this L – which admittedly wasn't much. Once he'd read through all the information he could gather he leaned back in his chair and spent a long while staring at the computer screen.

Best detective in the world, huh? That… would remain to be seen.

And so everyone lived happily ever after, except Ruyk, who, I'm afraid, was bored ever after, and never got to find out how delicious and juicy the apples of Earth are. This is Justice.

THE END

…seriously, Death Note probably has the highest death toll in any manga, but if there was anyone in it who'd actually deserve to be killed (apart from some of the criminals, I guess), it'd be that damn shinigami. Don't get me wrong, I really do like him and I think he's a great character, but just think what a mess he caused just cause he was bored. Pff.

Anyways, thanks for reading!