Categories > Anime/Manga > Death Note > Shinigami: Death of the Old World
Nearly eight years after her first day of confinement, the King came down to administer her weekly punishment, but instead of chuckling gleefully, he sighed with frustration.
“What’s the matter?” asked Rem. “Is this starting to lose its novelty?”
“No, no, it’s as fun as ever,” said the King. “The thing is, when I caught you, I thought I had accomplished my final goal in life; that is, finding Shoboro’s daughter and disposing of her; and I expected to finally be content…but I wasn’t. I couldn’t think of what I could possibly be missing, what I still didn’t have that made my life feel incomplete…and I just realized it today. I had another purpose before; but my desire to see you dead shone so brightly that I could no longer see my other goal-one that will take much time and effort to realize. You see, when I first became King, I wanted two things. The first thing was the elimination of Shoboro and everything he cared about. The second was to have a realm full of magnificence, artistry, and ingenuity…but look at all the pathetic shinigami that inhabit the realm now. They’re lazy, they’re stupid…they’re an embarrassment. They’re not motivated, and quite a few of them are the spawn of those who supported Shoboro right to the end. I’ll definitely have to cull three-quarters of the realm, starting with the lowest-ranked shinigami, and moving up from there; and it will continue until it is noticed that the worthless ones are being killed off, and shinigami will start striving to create the most wondrous monuments to my greatness, the most astounding things…”
Rem scoffed. “Like what? Building you another tower?”
“That’s a start. I would like to get out of this old hand-me-down of Shoboro’s. A few symphonies will also be in order, as well as some more paintings like the ones you see in this room.”
When Rem realized that the King was being serious, she was appalled. “What?! You can’t just scare someone into knowing how to build towers! It doesn’t work that way!”
“They’ll learn. Every race, every culture starts off with nothing, and throughout generations, they develop skills that they didn’t have before, and the most exemplary specimens- the ones deserving of life- develop them the fastest.”
“And what if developing these skills takes thousands of years, like it does with your example of “throughout generations”?”
“Then that would be quite a shame. There’d be no shinigami left, other than me. But that’s all right. My realm must only be populated by the best of shinigami, and if I’m the only one good enough to live in it, then so be it. If it comes down to it, I’ll even cull my own son.”
“Your son? But I thought you said…”
“He hatched after Shoboro was already dead…after I’d already eliminated everyone who was old enough to make sense of or retain memories of what had happened. But that begs the question-is simply culling by rank fair? No. That would mean that my son will die before some who are higher ranked than him, and far less worthy of life…the children of the slime who supported Shoboro right to their pathetic ends.”
“Oh? Such as?”
“Among the first to be culled will be Armonia Justin.”
Rem raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“Oh, yes. He may be the only shinigami with a rank of two, and he’s been very useful this past half-millennium, but his foolish father thought I was a danger to the rest of the shinigami as King. He was right, of course…Xithl Beyondormason was always very perceptive…and he actually tried to kill me, for the good of the rest of his fellow shinigami! Me, the King! Ha! It was uncharacteristically foolish of him. Anyhow, you’ll see….or rather, you won’t see since you’ll be dead…this realm will undergo great change. Fear is an excellent motivator. ”
“That’s not a plan!” said Rem. “The shinigami in this realm just plain don’t know how to do things like carve towers, and that won’t change no matter how scared they are! You’re just looking for an excuse to kill everyone! You’re insane!”
“Insane, am I?” said the King. “I’m the King of this realm, and I decide who’s sane or not, thank you very much. This is my kingdom, and I decide who gets to live in it.”
“But you’re not even giving anyone a fair chance! At least teach them how to do what you want, before you kill them!”
“If you’re going to blame anyone for their lack of knowledge, blame yourself. If you’d shown up for individual advice while I was teaching everyone how to use death notes, I could have killed you right then and there, and I would’ve had time to teach them more, instead of spending time searching the crowds for you. Don’t complain to me, because if they die, it’s your fault. Here, eat this. This is the last shenzu nut you get before you die,” said the King, tossing her a blackened pod before he left.
Rem shook with fury…she didn’t believe for a second that the king really wanted a miraculous transformation of the realm’s shinigami; although whether or not he was aware of that and making excuses, or was simply deluding himself into thinking that was what he wanted, she wasn’t sure. She’d seen it before, in so many sadistic and tyrannical humans with too much power…there were many more similarities between humans and shinigami than most shinigami realized; so many that they sometimes overwhelmed her. He just wanted an excuse to kill more shinigami…she wondered briefly how many he’d killed before her, when exactly he’d lost his mind during his isolated self-imprisonment and become addicted to dealing death…confining her was one thing, but the injustice of killing every single shinigami in the entire realm for such a weak reason gave Rem the raging desire to rip her chains right out of the wall and tear the king to pieces with her bare teeth. She strained futilely at her chains for a long while, as her rage slowly ebbed into despair… if only she could warn the other shinigami somehow, if only she could escape...how many times had she wished to escape, before now? She’d wanted to get away so long, but only so she herself wouldn’t have to die…that reasoning seemed silly to her, now. Dying wasn’t so bad, if she could only escape for the mere sake of warning everyone…it was true that many shinigami were lazy and rude, but that wasn’t a crime, and certainly not one punishable by death…but escape wasn’t any more likely now than it had been eight years ago. Rem sank to her knees as the fury ebbed and a quieter, more futile sense of frustration enveloped her. The worst thing about being chained down here wasn’t the pain-that was more of a grave annoyance, in comparison to the helplessness.
Months later, the King came down yet again, right on schedule. Rem had been thinking long and hard about a method of getting out, any method, no matter how unlikely…and the only option seemed to be convincing the king to let her go. It was such a long shot that it was almost ridiculous, but she had nothing to lose …
“Time’s almost up, isn’t it? You’re probably satisfied by now, right? Why not let me go? I’d make a great example to the others of what you’ll do to them if they don’t shape up…”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Do you think I’d deprive myself of the pleasure of killing you…of settling the score between Shoboro and myself?”
“I think you’re already even, actually. You have one child left, he has one child left…don’t you think that’s fair?”
“Well, now that you point that out…killing you will be even more fun. Your death won’t simply make this a tie…it’ll be a victory, for me!”
“…so it will. But before you kill me, how about letting everyone else see me, and telling them about your plan? They might be so scared, they’ll start making tributes to you right away, and I’ll be the only one you have to kill.”
“Nice try. Do you really think I’d let them think that their king-their wonderful, benevolent king- would do such a thing to a shinigami?”
It was as Rem had thought…he was only interested in killing more shinigami, while letting himself think he was merely being rightfully pragmatic.
“Please…it doesn’t make a difference to Shoboro, what you do to me…he’s dead. He won’t know what you do. You’re alive, he’s dead…you won. Just let me go already. Killing me won’t accomplish anything.”
The King smiled at her. “It will accomplish one very important thing. It will make me very happy.”
Rem sighed resignedly. “Please…I’ve suffered enough, don’t you think? Just let me go…let me go, or kill me already….”
“…All right. One or the other-you choose.”
The words sounded too wonderful to believe, but the king’s fiendish chuckling gave Rem a sinking certainty that his twisted mind had come up with something horrible.
“I’m going to kill you today, Rem, and that makes me so pleased I’m feeling almost foolishly generous. How about a little game? I’m going to simply drop the key to your chains on the floor, and if you can reach it, you’re free to try and escape. You’re already handicapped by your injuries and your wing plate, but that’s not enough…to make this fair, I’ll place your last injury very strategically.” There was another slash with the scythe, right at her face, so painful that Rem almost cried out…almost. She clutched at her oozing eye socket, blinded, and hissed painfully.
“There,” said the King, “much better.” She heard the metallic jangling of keys as the King detached one from his belt, and a small “clink” as he dropped it.
“It’s all up to you now, Rem. I’ll be back in one hour, and if you’re still here, I’ll do as you ask and kill you. Good luck finding the key…if I dropped in within your reach, that is. You’re quite lucky; you know…you’re the only shinigami in this entire realm who I’ve told the truth to. You were such good company, and it was nice, having someone to talk to for the first time in centuries. I’m almost sorry I have to kill you…almost.” There was cackle of laughter and a “swoosh” of wings, and then the room fell silent.
Rem was numb. She didn’t bother grovelling around for the key, in case the King was still around, watching her…even if she could reach the key and unchain herself, which she doubted, she wouldn’t get anywhere with no wings, no eye and several injuries slowing her down. There was simply nothing to do, other than to accept her fate and die with dignity. Rem sat calmly, preparing to die silently and unemotionally, in a way that would give the King as little satisfaction as possible. But then she heard flapping, and voices at the other end of the room…voices that didn’t belong to the king…
Finally, Rem fell silent, her tale finished. The other five shinigami looked at each other fearfully as they digested all the information they’d heard.
“No…no way,” said Deridovely. “That whole story is ridiculous. Why should we believe it?”
“I believe it,” said Ryuk. “Why the hell would someone like Rem make something like that up?”
“WE’RE GONNA DIE!” Sidoh wailed hysterically. “THE KING’S GONNA KILL US ALL! WE’RE ALL GONNA…”
“Shut up, Sidoh!” Ryuk said. “He’s probably looking for her right now, before she can tell anyone this stuff, and if he hears you…”
“BUT WHAT DO WE DO!?”
“For one thing, don’t act so scared, or you’ll get us all killed!” Deridovely snarled. Sidoh shivered, even more frightened than before.
“Seriously, guys, we’ve gotta think of something fast. You got us into this, Ryuk, so you get us out!” snapped Zellogi.
“What!? When did it become my fault that the King wants to kill everyone?” Ryuk said.
“It’s your fault that he’s going to kill us sooner instead of later, because it was your stupid idea to take off with Rem! Do you have any idea how to save us, or do you only come up with plans to get us killed?”
Everyone sat and stared as Ryuk thought. “Geez, guys…I dunno. Ordinarily, you’d ask the old man for help with stuff, but that’s not exactly an option, is it? Hyuk…” Ryuk laughed half-heartedly. For a few moments, everyone sat in anxious, brooding silence. Suddenly, Gukku’s head shot up, and he cried “Justin!”
“What?” asked Deridovely.
“Ask someone for help…we can ask Armonia Justin! He’ll know what to do!”
“Hey, yeah…” said Sidoh, brightening considerably.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” said Zellogi. With that, everyone scrambled to their feet. Ryuk paused to push the boulder over Rem’s hiding place.
“Stay there, and make sure no one finds you, got it?” he said. The five shinigami took off toward Justin’s usual haunt. Rem sat silently in her hole, wishing that she hadn’t caused them so much trouble…but at the same time, glad that she’d been able to escape and warn somebody. She hoped with all her heart that Armonia Justin would be able to come up with a plan…before the King killed him, and everyone else.
“What’s the matter?” asked Rem. “Is this starting to lose its novelty?”
“No, no, it’s as fun as ever,” said the King. “The thing is, when I caught you, I thought I had accomplished my final goal in life; that is, finding Shoboro’s daughter and disposing of her; and I expected to finally be content…but I wasn’t. I couldn’t think of what I could possibly be missing, what I still didn’t have that made my life feel incomplete…and I just realized it today. I had another purpose before; but my desire to see you dead shone so brightly that I could no longer see my other goal-one that will take much time and effort to realize. You see, when I first became King, I wanted two things. The first thing was the elimination of Shoboro and everything he cared about. The second was to have a realm full of magnificence, artistry, and ingenuity…but look at all the pathetic shinigami that inhabit the realm now. They’re lazy, they’re stupid…they’re an embarrassment. They’re not motivated, and quite a few of them are the spawn of those who supported Shoboro right to the end. I’ll definitely have to cull three-quarters of the realm, starting with the lowest-ranked shinigami, and moving up from there; and it will continue until it is noticed that the worthless ones are being killed off, and shinigami will start striving to create the most wondrous monuments to my greatness, the most astounding things…”
Rem scoffed. “Like what? Building you another tower?”
“That’s a start. I would like to get out of this old hand-me-down of Shoboro’s. A few symphonies will also be in order, as well as some more paintings like the ones you see in this room.”
When Rem realized that the King was being serious, she was appalled. “What?! You can’t just scare someone into knowing how to build towers! It doesn’t work that way!”
“They’ll learn. Every race, every culture starts off with nothing, and throughout generations, they develop skills that they didn’t have before, and the most exemplary specimens- the ones deserving of life- develop them the fastest.”
“And what if developing these skills takes thousands of years, like it does with your example of “throughout generations”?”
“Then that would be quite a shame. There’d be no shinigami left, other than me. But that’s all right. My realm must only be populated by the best of shinigami, and if I’m the only one good enough to live in it, then so be it. If it comes down to it, I’ll even cull my own son.”
“Your son? But I thought you said…”
“He hatched after Shoboro was already dead…after I’d already eliminated everyone who was old enough to make sense of or retain memories of what had happened. But that begs the question-is simply culling by rank fair? No. That would mean that my son will die before some who are higher ranked than him, and far less worthy of life…the children of the slime who supported Shoboro right to their pathetic ends.”
“Oh? Such as?”
“Among the first to be culled will be Armonia Justin.”
Rem raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“Oh, yes. He may be the only shinigami with a rank of two, and he’s been very useful this past half-millennium, but his foolish father thought I was a danger to the rest of the shinigami as King. He was right, of course…Xithl Beyondormason was always very perceptive…and he actually tried to kill me, for the good of the rest of his fellow shinigami! Me, the King! Ha! It was uncharacteristically foolish of him. Anyhow, you’ll see….or rather, you won’t see since you’ll be dead…this realm will undergo great change. Fear is an excellent motivator. ”
“That’s not a plan!” said Rem. “The shinigami in this realm just plain don’t know how to do things like carve towers, and that won’t change no matter how scared they are! You’re just looking for an excuse to kill everyone! You’re insane!”
“Insane, am I?” said the King. “I’m the King of this realm, and I decide who’s sane or not, thank you very much. This is my kingdom, and I decide who gets to live in it.”
“But you’re not even giving anyone a fair chance! At least teach them how to do what you want, before you kill them!”
“If you’re going to blame anyone for their lack of knowledge, blame yourself. If you’d shown up for individual advice while I was teaching everyone how to use death notes, I could have killed you right then and there, and I would’ve had time to teach them more, instead of spending time searching the crowds for you. Don’t complain to me, because if they die, it’s your fault. Here, eat this. This is the last shenzu nut you get before you die,” said the King, tossing her a blackened pod before he left.
Rem shook with fury…she didn’t believe for a second that the king really wanted a miraculous transformation of the realm’s shinigami; although whether or not he was aware of that and making excuses, or was simply deluding himself into thinking that was what he wanted, she wasn’t sure. She’d seen it before, in so many sadistic and tyrannical humans with too much power…there were many more similarities between humans and shinigami than most shinigami realized; so many that they sometimes overwhelmed her. He just wanted an excuse to kill more shinigami…she wondered briefly how many he’d killed before her, when exactly he’d lost his mind during his isolated self-imprisonment and become addicted to dealing death…confining her was one thing, but the injustice of killing every single shinigami in the entire realm for such a weak reason gave Rem the raging desire to rip her chains right out of the wall and tear the king to pieces with her bare teeth. She strained futilely at her chains for a long while, as her rage slowly ebbed into despair… if only she could warn the other shinigami somehow, if only she could escape...how many times had she wished to escape, before now? She’d wanted to get away so long, but only so she herself wouldn’t have to die…that reasoning seemed silly to her, now. Dying wasn’t so bad, if she could only escape for the mere sake of warning everyone…it was true that many shinigami were lazy and rude, but that wasn’t a crime, and certainly not one punishable by death…but escape wasn’t any more likely now than it had been eight years ago. Rem sank to her knees as the fury ebbed and a quieter, more futile sense of frustration enveloped her. The worst thing about being chained down here wasn’t the pain-that was more of a grave annoyance, in comparison to the helplessness.
Months later, the King came down yet again, right on schedule. Rem had been thinking long and hard about a method of getting out, any method, no matter how unlikely…and the only option seemed to be convincing the king to let her go. It was such a long shot that it was almost ridiculous, but she had nothing to lose …
“Time’s almost up, isn’t it? You’re probably satisfied by now, right? Why not let me go? I’d make a great example to the others of what you’ll do to them if they don’t shape up…”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Do you think I’d deprive myself of the pleasure of killing you…of settling the score between Shoboro and myself?”
“I think you’re already even, actually. You have one child left, he has one child left…don’t you think that’s fair?”
“Well, now that you point that out…killing you will be even more fun. Your death won’t simply make this a tie…it’ll be a victory, for me!”
“…so it will. But before you kill me, how about letting everyone else see me, and telling them about your plan? They might be so scared, they’ll start making tributes to you right away, and I’ll be the only one you have to kill.”
“Nice try. Do you really think I’d let them think that their king-their wonderful, benevolent king- would do such a thing to a shinigami?”
It was as Rem had thought…he was only interested in killing more shinigami, while letting himself think he was merely being rightfully pragmatic.
“Please…it doesn’t make a difference to Shoboro, what you do to me…he’s dead. He won’t know what you do. You’re alive, he’s dead…you won. Just let me go already. Killing me won’t accomplish anything.”
The King smiled at her. “It will accomplish one very important thing. It will make me very happy.”
Rem sighed resignedly. “Please…I’ve suffered enough, don’t you think? Just let me go…let me go, or kill me already….”
“…All right. One or the other-you choose.”
The words sounded too wonderful to believe, but the king’s fiendish chuckling gave Rem a sinking certainty that his twisted mind had come up with something horrible.
“I’m going to kill you today, Rem, and that makes me so pleased I’m feeling almost foolishly generous. How about a little game? I’m going to simply drop the key to your chains on the floor, and if you can reach it, you’re free to try and escape. You’re already handicapped by your injuries and your wing plate, but that’s not enough…to make this fair, I’ll place your last injury very strategically.” There was another slash with the scythe, right at her face, so painful that Rem almost cried out…almost. She clutched at her oozing eye socket, blinded, and hissed painfully.
“There,” said the King, “much better.” She heard the metallic jangling of keys as the King detached one from his belt, and a small “clink” as he dropped it.
“It’s all up to you now, Rem. I’ll be back in one hour, and if you’re still here, I’ll do as you ask and kill you. Good luck finding the key…if I dropped in within your reach, that is. You’re quite lucky; you know…you’re the only shinigami in this entire realm who I’ve told the truth to. You were such good company, and it was nice, having someone to talk to for the first time in centuries. I’m almost sorry I have to kill you…almost.” There was cackle of laughter and a “swoosh” of wings, and then the room fell silent.
Rem was numb. She didn’t bother grovelling around for the key, in case the King was still around, watching her…even if she could reach the key and unchain herself, which she doubted, she wouldn’t get anywhere with no wings, no eye and several injuries slowing her down. There was simply nothing to do, other than to accept her fate and die with dignity. Rem sat calmly, preparing to die silently and unemotionally, in a way that would give the King as little satisfaction as possible. But then she heard flapping, and voices at the other end of the room…voices that didn’t belong to the king…
Finally, Rem fell silent, her tale finished. The other five shinigami looked at each other fearfully as they digested all the information they’d heard.
“No…no way,” said Deridovely. “That whole story is ridiculous. Why should we believe it?”
“I believe it,” said Ryuk. “Why the hell would someone like Rem make something like that up?”
“WE’RE GONNA DIE!” Sidoh wailed hysterically. “THE KING’S GONNA KILL US ALL! WE’RE ALL GONNA…”
“Shut up, Sidoh!” Ryuk said. “He’s probably looking for her right now, before she can tell anyone this stuff, and if he hears you…”
“BUT WHAT DO WE DO!?”
“For one thing, don’t act so scared, or you’ll get us all killed!” Deridovely snarled. Sidoh shivered, even more frightened than before.
“Seriously, guys, we’ve gotta think of something fast. You got us into this, Ryuk, so you get us out!” snapped Zellogi.
“What!? When did it become my fault that the King wants to kill everyone?” Ryuk said.
“It’s your fault that he’s going to kill us sooner instead of later, because it was your stupid idea to take off with Rem! Do you have any idea how to save us, or do you only come up with plans to get us killed?”
Everyone sat and stared as Ryuk thought. “Geez, guys…I dunno. Ordinarily, you’d ask the old man for help with stuff, but that’s not exactly an option, is it? Hyuk…” Ryuk laughed half-heartedly. For a few moments, everyone sat in anxious, brooding silence. Suddenly, Gukku’s head shot up, and he cried “Justin!”
“What?” asked Deridovely.
“Ask someone for help…we can ask Armonia Justin! He’ll know what to do!”
“Hey, yeah…” said Sidoh, brightening considerably.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” said Zellogi. With that, everyone scrambled to their feet. Ryuk paused to push the boulder over Rem’s hiding place.
“Stay there, and make sure no one finds you, got it?” he said. The five shinigami took off toward Justin’s usual haunt. Rem sat silently in her hole, wishing that she hadn’t caused them so much trouble…but at the same time, glad that she’d been able to escape and warn somebody. She hoped with all her heart that Armonia Justin would be able to come up with a plan…before the King killed him, and everyone else.
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