Rem is bound to Higuchi, but she is not bound to his side.

She is drifting over Japan in loops and curves, Higuchi's location like a prickle in the back of her mind. An itch she cannot scratch unless she is standing over his hateful shoulder. He is vile and she would take his years for herself if the circumstances permitted it.

Misa, Misa, Misa. A beacon, a soft glow. Theirs is a bond Rem mourns.

Rem is perched upon a telephone pole, observing the ant-like humans below, when Ryuk finds her.

He settles besides her without asking permission, shaking his leathery wings in a bird-like manner. Rem eyes him but waits for him to speak.

"Hey," he starts cheerfully. He is imprisoned by cheer, bound by a blue-lipped grin. "How're things?"

"As Light Yagami wishes, I presume," Rem answers. Her hatred of him is matched only by her respect. In Light Yagami's making, his capacity for compassion must have been replaced by sheer intellect and cunning.

Ryuk chuckles. "Isn't it always."

"I am surprised to see you," Rem admits, awarding Ryuk with a yellow glance. "You are no longer bound to Light Yagami."

"I'm a free man," Ryuk quips. His voice sours, but his frozen smile does not. "But being free is boring . The Shinigami realm is boring . I didn't think it was possible, but it's only gotten worse since I left."

"Perhaps you took all of the interesting with you."

Ryuk hacks out a laugh. "Maybe I did." After a moment, in which Ryuk continues to chuckle to himself, he posits, "Y'know, I'm surprised to see you here, too. I thought for sure you'd be hovering over that girl's shoulder."

"I am not bound to Misa Amane any longer." Rem says this because it is true. She does not say that accompanying Misa as an intangible, unfamiliar ghost is more painful than listening to Higuchi's solipsistic monologues.

"Yeah, but you've totally got the hots for her," Ryuk points out, even punctuating his statement with an accusing jab of his pointer finger. "I thought you'd become some kind of guardian angel." He laughs at the very idea.

Rem waits for his giggles to cease before she replies. "Right now, I am following Light Yagami's will. That is what will ensure Misa's safety."

"If we keep talking like that, he'll become a God for real," Ryuk muses.

Rem is suddenly curious. "What do the others think of all this?"

"I've heard a few suggestions that he might actually have some divine insight or something. But that's stupid," Ryuk dismisses. "Light is an exceptional human, that's all. Shinigami aren't the brightest."

Rem nods her agreement: Light is exceptional, Shinigami are stupid. She looks at Ryuk, who may be the sharpest of their lot. It is not every day a Shinigami coaxes a second book from the Shinigami King.

"That's why I'll be glad when Light gets his memories back," Ryuk sighs. "Home really is dull compared to here."

Because of Light, Rem infers. She poses the question. "Do you have feelings for Light Yagami?"

Ryuk bursts into cackling laughter. When he has calmed himself, he says, "I guess so. He's my human, isn't he? And he's probably the most interesting human of all."

Rem listens and searches Ryuk's confession for her own feelings. He's my human, isn't he? Rem thinks of Misa. My human. My Misa. Yes, that does sound right.

Ryuk continues, but his voice has gained an edge. "So when it's time, I'll be writing his name in my book."

Rem wonders if that is a threat; she has, after all, suggested her own desire to carve Light Yagami's name into the pages of her Death Note. It is a threat born not of her burning desire to see his heart stop; it is of her living and dying wish to see Misa safe and happy.

She supposes this is the difference between herself and Ryuk: Ryuk will kill Light and carry his name and years until the end of time; Rem will kill for Misa and become nothing but silver sand. As much as Misa is Rem's, Rem is Misa's; this is what Rem has known and embraced.

Rem's imagination wanders: Light Yagami, empty of blood and hope, extending a desperate hand to Ryuk. Ryuk, owned by no one but himself, brandishing that fatal pen. Rem's ashes will stick between Light's teeth. He will taste her legacy as he dies.

"That is as it should be," Rem tells Ryuk.