Journey below [L x reader] • Death Note

Chapter 2 | afterlife

L took a moment to let all that had been explained to him sink in.

He'd died to Kira, and due to his work in the mortal world and title in life he was given access to Elysium. The circle of the underworld where all the best mortals go when they die. The warriors, the inventors, the detectives, the heroes. It was very much the nicest circle there was. Asphodel wasn't awful, it was where all the regular people go. Not fancy as where L was allowed to be though. Tartarus was the worst, that's where all the criminals and eternally punished went. The worst people of the worst.

Murders, assaulters, predators. They all suffered eternal punishment in the depths of Tartarus. That's where hades assured Kira would end up.

He was also given a lengthy explanation on how death notes worked, the shinigami, and the fact 'MU' was a fake out that tricked humans into thinking there was no afterlife. That way they'd be less inclined to use a death note. Light didn't seem to follow that though...

He learnt that many gods existed. Each ruling over something that made up the world, and that many creatures humans would consider supernatural were real, they just dwelled in their own realms.

And the thing that he was most interested in, that Kira wasn't only hurting the mortals. But the underworld too. Tartarus was overflowing with new shades, many of them complaining to the workers of hades about Kira. Thanatos and Charon were overworked, hades and Persephone as well as their son Zagreus were up to their necks in shades ransacking the underworld as it got more and more crowed. The high number of deaths in a short period of time meant delays in shade requests, no housing for the innocent shades, late punishment for the not so innocent ones.

And other gods that had parts in humans lives up in other realms were suffering too.

Light Yagami was even causing a mess in other realms he was so bad.

"So... you were all hoping I'd catch him so the other realms could go back to normal?" L said.

"Basically, yes. After a few messes caused by gods long ago we all swore not to intervene with humans again unless the circumstances were catastrophic. But... now you're here, dead. And he's still alive with no one to stop him. So it seems we might have to intervene" Hades explained.

He felt almost... honoured. That even all these gods were watching him and knew his name. But overwhelmed as the same time, he was dead now. He'd let them down...

"Your successors you mentioned, they're still children so even if they take over for you and are as smart as you say they're just... so young. It'd take them years to solve it. I think we have no choice BUT to intervene" you added.

"Exactly. Not that I doubt they're as smart as you are, but they're children. Even though my Zagreus is a god I couldn't imagine him running the underworld when he was only a godling. We can't have morals know we're watching them, let alone have them find out we're intervening. We stopped messing with them for a reason, it caused many messes. We do our duties to help them on their life journey and that's it" Hades explained.

L thought for a moment, unsure what to even do in this situation. Hades himself was suffering the consequences of Kira's actions and L was just a recently killed shade who had no power over anything anymore.

"Tell you what, I'll discuss this with the other gods and we can try and find a way to have you pull some strings in this case from behind the scenes. That way we can stay hidden, the case will be solved, your successors can have a childhood and Kira can be punished. For now I'll have (y/n) take you to elesiyum and you can rest a moment in your new chambers. Dying in your manner is rather traumatic" Hades said.