https://s1.desu-usergeneratedcontent.xyz/mlp/image/1619/31/1619316099637.png >Wallflower's heart was beating in her throat as her shaking hand erratically approaches the paper. >The pencil never manages to even connect with paper, slipping from her grasp as the resolve from a moment ago crumbles under the full weight of the power and responsibility she held in the palm of her hands. >The memory stone was one thing, but this, this is an entirely different beast. >This outright kills people. >There is no crime of stealing people's memories, but this would make her a murderer. >With her will to use it evaporated, Blush is left to question herself why powerful artifacts she has no business owning always end up right in her lap. >"Hey there Wally." >Wallflower screams in panic at the sudden intrusion of her normally quiet and lonely little grove, chucking the death note as hard as she can right at the intruder's head. "I didn't use it yet I swear! I haven't killed anyone!" >Rather than colliding with its uncanny almost-human face though it simply phases right through to land against the tree behind it with an audible thunk. >This earns a blood curdling scream from the green girl as she realizes that it isn't another human catching her with her hand in the proverbial cookie jar. >It is a grotesque mockery of what she considers human, every single proportion of this monstrosity is completely wrong. >Small beady eyes peer back at her from a head that is far too small for a body as large as it has and its torso is stretched unnaturally to the point that it was actually almost as long as its legs. >Its terrible posture doesn't do much to hide the disgusting torso's full volume. >Even its skin and hair are absolutely revolting. >Totally lacking the vibrant colors she would expect from a normal living thing, they instead are a gradient of sickly dull hues. >"That was rude. You got it right through my head though, nice shot. Name's Anon by the way." >Despite the apparent display of at least some measure of humanity the panicking gardener's amusing screams have not ceased. >With eyes wandering around randomly the monster rocks his head side to side in impatience idly kicking at the dirt around with his feet, waiting for Wallflower to finally calm down. >He had found it a little funny at first but all the charm was gone by now and it was starting to approach annoying territory. >Effectively immortal as he was, patience is something that was in unusually short supply today. >He's been looking forward to this and would rather get to the good parts already. >Grabbing the death note off the ground he sends the dust on it flying off with a swift brush of his hand before casually floating toward the now whimpering and cowering girl. >His massive sickly pale wings not needing to even flap to propel him. >The closer he got the harder she tried to press her hyperventilating body against the tree trunk she had foolishly backed herself into. >Once close enough the demon simply lightly tosses the note book into her lap. >Using the momentary distraction of the book as his chance, the creature lowers himself to be face to face with the oft overlooked girl faster than she can react, leaving half of his body phased through the ground. >Gently moving the knotted strands of hair out of her terrified face he finally speaks again. >"I don't think it's a good idea to just leave that laying around, do you?" >The soft gesture seems to be enough to at least get her to moderately calm down to some measure as it became apparent it wasn't here to hurt her. >However the way this winged monstrosity looked at her left the gardener uneasy. >It was as if the thing was holding a a prize, an object that it had desired finally being in its hands. >She made no attempt move away from its touch though, despite the appearance it felt no different to a human's touch. >This prompted some mental self kicking in the poor girl. >Was she really so starved for attention that some kind of monster giving it to her is enough? >Wanting to distract herself from that depressing line of thought she decides to speak back to this demon and try to figure out exactly what is going on here. "W-what are you?" >Wallflower's voice was still a bit shaky from all the adrenaline still slowly working on its way out. >All the screaming that tore up her throat did not help either. >"I'm nothing more than just the Shinigami that gave you that death note. I possess you as long as you're the owner of it." >He taps the book with a knuckle of his free hand as the other continues to fondle and play with her knotted hair >Confusion paints her face as she steals a glance back down toward the notebook that was haphazardly tossed on her plump thighs "A what? And I don't want it! I've gotten in enough trouble with magic artifacts! Can't you just take it back?" >Blush roughly thrusts the book at Anon partly phasing it through his body >Anon just tilts his head at that >"A Shinigami, death god. And I don't think you want me to do that. If you lose ownership of a death note, you die" >Wally's reaction to that bombshell of information was fairly swift, she goes from offering up the death note to gripping it tight against her ample bosom practically instantly. >Eyes wide she looks fearfully up at the death god with mouth agape in horror. >She almost just killed herself, with an act as simple as passing along a notebook she almost snuffed out her own life. >Thankfully, Anon did not leave her much time to ruminate on that particular existential crisis regarding the tenuous string of life. >"Didn't you read all the rules? I know that one is in there, I wrote them all in english for you. To think, you almost used it without knowing all the rules." >This wipes away her expression of fright to be replaced with one of righteous indignation at this assertion of her supposed incompetence. "Of course I read them all! I think know to read magical artifact instructions by now!" >Pondering this for a moment with a finger to his chapped lips, Anon gives the death note, and her bust, a sideways glance. >"Even the ones in the back?" "The what!?" >Slapping the book back down on her plush thighs she frantically flips to the back. >Sure enough, there, written in pearl white against the ornate dark pages, were various additional rules that the girl had managed to ignore. "Well a rule like that shouldn't be in the back." >Her voice quiet from embarrassment, she quickly reads through them with flushed cheeks. >A couple of them instantly stood out to Wallflower as being worthy of note. >[The human owner of a Death Note is possessed by its original Shinigami owner until he or she dies.] >This rule would have been nice to know earlier, that way she could at least have expected this monster would be coming. >Movement in the corner of her vision prompts her eyes to take a quick glance to the Shinigami in question. >It was only him retracting his wings to take a position of sitting next to her on the ground rather than floating in it. >From this position is almost looks more human, his legs stretched out reach the same grassy patch her's do. >[Should the human who owns this Note lose their ownership, or allow it to be completely destroyed, they shall die.] >Obviously this is the rule that the death god was talking about earlier. >And of course there had to be an additional caveat he didn't mention, if anything even accidentally happens to the death note she'll die too. >[Just as the human who possesses this Note is free to use it to interfere with other human lives as they wish, so too is the Shinigami who possesses the human free to interfere with that human's life as they wish.] >Not only is she stuck with this creature until she dies but he's free to do anything he wants to her life. >Whatever, she doubts that this thing can fuck up her life more than she has already with the memory stone. >So far he seems to be content just playing with her hair and creepily staring at her. >It's not exactly terrible, would expect worse from a 'Death God'. >Though, his laughing is new and entirely unwelcome and distracting. >Sick rasping cackles are forcing their way through Anon's throat and shaking his entire body. >Despite apparently being fully physically capable of laughter, it is as if the Shinigami's lungs and vocal cords are ripping themselves apart trying to enable an unnatural reflex. >Turning her attention toward the monster, Wallflower tries to figure out what he thought was so funny. >Only to find him holding the pencil that she had dropped before. >Taking notice that Blush had stopped reading, he >"So, who were you going to murder?" >The gardener's gaze turns from the would-be murder weapon towards the god's face. >If not for the nature of the question catching her off guard, his mockingly smug expression would have left her annoyed. "I wasn-" >"Wait no, let me guess." >Suddenly he jumps up and flips over so that his lanky body is floating right in front of the stunned girl's face. >"It was that bacon haired girl wasn't it Wallflower? The one that hangs around with Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and that whole group all the time?" >"Well don't let me stop you, send what's-her-name straight to Mu." >A horrible chill creeps its way down her spine as she felt the dry skin of his hand forcing the pencil into her own palm. >Less from the actual sensation of its skin, and more at the idea of this graphite and wood being used to kill . "I wasn't going to kill Sunset Shimmer!" >Sure she and her friends destroyed the memory stone, but they reached out to her and helped her. >She was on her way toward making friends now thanks to her. >Sure, she hasn't actually made any yet but she couldn't just write her name like that. "I don't want her to die, not anymore at least." >She mumbles that last bit as her eyes finding something substantially interesting about her plain boring shoes. >The initial shouting took the Shinigami by surprise, his eyes wide and neck craned back away from the sudden outburst, but his own shock quickly melts away to be replaced by euphoric understanding. >"Oh, so that's her name! I gotta tell you, not knowing it was really annoying me for a while." >The mumbling addition goes completely disregarded. >Not for the first time today the green teenager found herself deeply confused, and looked up at the floating monster with an incredulous expression. "How did you not know her name when you know my name and her friends' names?" >Anon just cocks his head at that with a smile. >"Through my kind's eyes a human's name and remaining life span appear floating above that human's face when we look at them. As like individual jittering letters and numbers. Except, apparently, for Sunset Shimmer's, but I see yours." >Wallflower freezes and gapes at the monster, horror plastered over her face at that concept. >Her remaining life span, he can see exactly how much time she lives for >It isn't random chance that determines how long a person lives, but a finite quantifiable number >Heavy existential dread fills the young woman's gut, weighing it down. >How long does she have? >With eyes full of a burning curiosity Wallflower looks up toward the Shinigami. >The question, though unasked, hangs obvious in the tense air. >An internal war rages within the poor girl, the innate need to know how long she has harshly conflicting with her knowledge that such information would color the rest of her life and leave her unable to enjoy it. >She would be able to feel every wasted second pass by, knowing their exact weight in relation to the remaining measure of her life. >Her utter lack of any accomplishments or even impact on the world would be an albatross slowly wringing her neck the entire time. >Picking up on the query that the gardener is struggling with Anon just chuckles as his hand pats the naïve human's tangled hair. >"Don't bother. I'm not allowed to tell humans how long their lifespans are, so you can put that little mind at ease about that." >Relief and calm embraces the raging storm that was her mind. >She's not even allowed to know, it wasn't even an option that she'd have to worry about. >The temporary peace is interrupted when tingles dance down her spine triggered by his large fingers gently scratching and massaging her scalp. >It was paradoxically deeply unsettling but at the same time somehow pleasant enough to prompt her to close her eyes as she loses herself to her thoughts. >He is a god. >Anon probably views humans as little more than a dogs when compared to Shinigami. >Here he is right now petting her like one even. >It likely only gave her the notebook to entertain himself with the silly little lonely mortal girl who had a magic rock. >How pathetic is she to be getting more and more okay with this arrangement just for all the physical attention he gives her? >Not that she even has a choice. >Wallflower's thoughts are interrupted when the Shinigami's hand caresses her chin and pushes it up to force her gaze to be even with his. >Strangely enough, being up-close to his ghastly visage actually tones down its nightmarish qualities. >Somewhat at least. >It's the green eyes, an angle this near to them lets her see their full detail. >Despite their size and the totally warped proportions they are still ultimately human-like. >"I can say one thing about it though." >The orbs that had taken up all Wallflower's attention flit up from her own to read the series of seemingly random numbers floating just above her face under her name. >It all roughly translates to her having eighty years or so of life to live. >"It'll piss the old geezer off but it's not technically against the rules. He's really bad about leaving loopholes." >Wallflower's body reflexively tenses up, dreading whatever the death god has to say next on the subject of her life span. >"Do you think I'd have gone out of my way to give you the Death Note if you were just going to die next week or something? Who knows?"