Hi everyone. I'm ChrisYagami, and this is the beginning of my first ever FanFic. I first started throwing ideas for this together in February, and due to school, procrastination, communication delays etc. it's taken me this long to finally begin publishing. Not sure how many chapters this will be, but I can already tell it'll probably be a 2-digit number. Please don't forget to review, since it really would help to hear what you have to say about it so far. Currently rated T, although this may change in the near future.

I hope you will all like it. Enjoy!

(Rugo's POV)

Footsteps. I hear footsteps. Shit, another Shinigami must have found out where I am. But how? They couldn't find me by chance, since I'm sure I must be at least a hundred miles from any inhabited area. I made sure I didn't tell anyone where I was going except… no, it can't be her. This isn't the sound of her footsteps. After all these years of being completely alone, I'm a little panicked, to say the least.

I quietly walk out of my makeshift home, which is little more than a cave going deep into the side of the stony mountain. That's one of the good things about these mountain ranges, they are always full of ready-made hide-outs in the form of caves. Really I didn't need to use mine for much, other than hibernating.

I decide to speak up to whoever it was that I heard earlier. 'Hallo? Ist jemand dam?' ('Hello? Is someone there?')

'I apologize for not speaking German.' I hear in English behind me. 'Granted, English isn't my first language either but it's the only one we both know.'

I turn around to see who it was that had come here. This Shinigami has a human-like form, wearing a dark jacket and a strangling red tie as a headband. He walks slower than most, both because of the uneven ground and because he seems to be limping slightly, unusual for a near-immortal being. A strange grin is etched across his face, and spiky brown hair sprouts from his head. He wears an appealing coat and carries a hammer-like scythe, but what strikes me first is the goggles.

'Those goggles, are they yours?' I ask. There are two kinds of shinigami: Those who were "born" as shinigami and have spent their entire existence as one, and humans who had used a Death Note and hence became shinigami when they die, like me. All original shingami were born with the eyes of death, while humans only get the eyes if they had made "the eye deal" during their lifetime. So if this shinigami's goggles were his, that would mean he must have been a human once, who had used a Death Note but never traded half his lifespan for the eyes.

'Yes' He replies in an accent I still cannot identify, his bright red eyes staring into my own. At least I can feel relived knowing that this god of death has at least something in common with me. But still, I must know how and why he found me.

'So what is it you want here? You couldn't have wandered here by chance, so why have you come this far just to see me?'

'Listen, Rugo…' I have never seen or even heard of this Shinigami before, so how did he know my name? I suppose someone else told him about me. I'm not exactly an undiscussed topic among the other gods of death, especially after everything I did all those years ago.

'Yes?'

'When was the last time you looked into the human world?'

'Well, the last time I looked into any of the human worlds was… a bit over ten years ago.'

'When was the last time you talked to another shinigami?'

'That was… also a bit over ten years ago.'

'I see, so you have no way of knowing anything about what's been going on down there since then, am I correct?'

'Yes. Did something happen?'

'Things happen in the human worlds all the time, so of course!'

'Well yeah, I remember back when I…'

'How old were you?' What? How much does this Shinigami know about me? What is he doing here?

'Can we please not talk about it!? I… I'm still trying to forget about all that.'

'Why forget? What you did was honorable, and you shouldn't deny it just because you think you made a few mistakes. I mean, look at you, trapping yourself in the past like a stubborn child.'

He's right. If it weren't for the eyes of death, the wings or the gigantic scythe, one might mistake me for a normal human, dressed in some strange outfit. But I'm not a kid.

'Don't call me a child. I'm older than most humans ever get to be.'

'Yes, but if you take out all the time you've spent in hibernation, how old are you really? How many years of your life have you actually spent in a state of consciousness?'

'Including my time as a human, 18, I think. But why do you care? Why does any of this matter to you?'

'It matters to me because… what you did… you actually remind me so much of myself. Tell me, putting the past behind you, what is it you truly want?'

'I just want to go back, to my world. I mean, it is a lot more fun to be in than this world, where not a single blade of grass grows in the ground, and not a single insect crawls between the rocks. I've never felt at home here, trapped in the Shinigami realm. But to go back I'd need a second Death Note to drop through the portal, and even then there'd be a chance no human ever picks it up, and even then they might burn it… or…'

The other shinigami replies as the overcast sky above begins to clear up.

'You sound awfully pessimistic. Moping around with sadness and sorrow… what will come of it? If we are to die one day, wouldn't it be better to have no regrets?'