Journey below [L x reader] • Death Note

Chapter 3 | my good shade

He wasn't sure how long it had been, the lack of visible day and night made it hard to tell. But he was slowly discovering more about the underworld.

He went on a walk around Elysium to see what it was like, and he found that he could hear the barks of hellhound Cerberus in the distance every so often, and that fallen warriors were very into the whole area sports thing as he walked past the arena twice and all the same people were there.

Shades came in all shapes and sizes, some from ancient times and some from more modern ones, some tall and some short. Just like the humans they once were they were all different.

He figured if he was going to be spending eternity down here he may as well get comfortable so he also spent time pushing around furniture into places he liked in his chambers.

He moved the lounge against the wall he he could put the table in front of it. He moved the hammock to right by the window so he could watch the rivers flow. The bed? That was in a good spot already and looked like it had been enchanted by the god of sleep himself it was so cosy looking.

Every time he went out into what was now his front yard to think about how to decorate it for his eternal stay here, he looked up to the void of the roof of the underworld and couldn't help but wonder what the gods up in the higher lands were like, what they were doing, what their realm looked like.

So much had been revealed to him he never even thought about before that he couldn't help but wonder.

The river Lethe was near his chambers, just across the field and under the bridge. That fated river that made you forget your life as a human. He'd admit that when he crossed the bridge on his walk he looked down at it, and upon remembering that it had the power to forget...

He considered it.

His life as a mortal, when he was alive... it was far from happy. Abused and abandoned as a child, stressing over cases as an adult, being stuck in a world that just didn't fit him. And some of he criminals he'd met were the most insufferable people on the planet. There was a lot he wanted to forget.

But there was also a lot he wanted to remember. Watari, his father figure. His successors, who he cared for. All the children in similar positions to him that he saved in his cases. The first time he had a birthday cake, the first case he ever solved, the blissful feeling of hearing the words "I'm proud of you" for the first time.

He wanted to forget the trauma, the loneliness, the stress and the tears. But he wanted to remember all the people he cared for, and that cared for him.

So he didn't give into the temptation to forget the bad, and stick his hands into the river scoop up some water and drink it. Because if he forgot the bad he couldn't remember the good either.

Being dead was very... lonely.

He was a lonely person in life too, but he had Watari and his successors. And even if he didn't like everyone he worked with at least there was someone there to talk to. He was all alone in his chambers so far, he hoped hades could track down Watari and reunite them again so he'd at least have his dad.

He found he couldn't really relate to anyone in Elysium, a lot of them were warriors and heroes. Extroverted, loud, party animals. And he? He was was just a kind of socially awkward detective that got killed on the biggest case of his life.

So he found himself sitting in the glowing grass outside his chambers watching the underworld pass by trying to think of a plan for his eternal future. He knew that Hades would be involving him in stopping Kira once he'd consulted the gods, but after that was over... then what?