'Where the hell am I?'
Light thought to himself. Then, with a sudden sense of Deja Vu, he woke up. He was sleeping on a cold steel surface, and in front of his eyes, there was nothing but darkness.
'Yeah, right, the new realm… but where am I actually?'
[The idiot has awoken.]
Light flinched in fear. He hurriedly looked around, but there was nothing in the dark. Not only did an unknown voice call him an idiot, but it also didn't sound like it came from another source; rather, it was almost like his own thoughts speaking to him.
He tried to get up, but couldn't. He was too weak, his chest felt wet, and a nauseating stench of blood assaulted his nose.
He breathed in and out with great trouble, then directly asked, "Who… are you?"
[I am a ghost possessing your soul; Boo!]
"..."
He sighed, "Ryuk?"
[Who else but me?]
Light shook his head with annoyance, "Why are you in my head?"
[How stupid are you? Did you not see me putting my death note into your soul?]
Light gritted his teeth, 'This damn emo shinigami, I'm gonna kill you right here and right now… Wait, he can't actually hear my thoughts right?'
He lingered for a bit then asked directly, "How am I supposed to know how you shinigami work?" He lingered for a bit, then asked directly, "Also, can you read my thoughts?"
Ryuk stayed quiet for a bit, then said, [Of course I can. You just thought about killing me, didn't you?]
Light immediately went quiet, and even his breathing seemed to stop.
[Haha! I can't read your mind, but it's quite easy to predict an idiot.]
Light didn't move for a few seconds, then heavily sighed.
'You're ugly, hideous, dirty, creepy, and worst of all... emo.'
Light looked around for a bit, then thought to himself, 'Guess he can't hear my thoughts after all'
"So… Can you tell me where I am?" he asked nonchalantly.
[How am I supposed to know that? I don't even think the old man knows exactly where you are.]
'What?! Even the shinigami king doesn't know? But he is the one who sent me here in the first place…'
Light lingered for a bit, then shrugged, "I guess I'm gonna have to see for myself. But why was I spawned into such a dark place, and why is my body so damn cold and weak?"
There was no reply for a bit, then Ryuk replied in a cold voice, [It's because it's not your body. Your soul was transmigrated into the corpse of someone else who recently died in this new world.]
When he heard those words, the world seemed to grow quieter. Goosebumps spread through Light's skin as he slowly looked down.
'A corpse? God, can the shinigami stop being creepy for one second?... Is my chest pain not just phantom pain from my previous death in the shinigami realm? Instead, did the host of this body die with a heart attack, leaving the chest aching even after his death?
'That's possible, but what then is this wet feeling and the stench of blood?'
Upon contemplating his situation, he finally decided to move. He sat right up with great struggle and felt around the floor of his dark surroundings. Other than the spot he was lying on, nothing else was especially wet, but the air still felt humid and carried the stale smell of salt.
Light frowned and tried to stand up. But even when he tried his best to fight through the pain, he couldn't do it. He was too weak to stand up. But somehow, his weakness was diminishing.
With each passing second, he felt more and more alive, the vitality almost felt alien to his new body.
He had a feeling something was off; his chest pain felt a bit too vivid and real to be phantom pain, but it was unlike the pain of a heart attack he had experienced twice before.
He closed his eyes and brought his hand to his collarbone. Then he traced his wet skin down to the centre of his chest. There, what he found made him flinch, but it did not surprise him.
There was a gaping hole in his body, one the size of a cannonball at the centre of his chest.
'Oh god!'
Light could not keep quiet any longer, "What the hell is this?"
Ryuk answered with a tone of frustration, [It's not that serious, calm down.]
'A third of my chest being missing is not that serious? Has this emo shinigami finally lost it?'
But weirdly, the grave wound was not as painful as it should have been. Somehow, it wasn't bleeding too much either. In fact, it was… Healing.
Muscle fibres, bones, and tissues were weaving themselves back into place. With time, the convulsing insides of his chest were going to be as good as new.
Light calmed down as he slowly accepted the unbelievable fact of being alive in the impaled corpse of a person from another world. 'Nothing seems unbelievable to me anymore.'
He contemplated his words before asking, "So I assume this is not the power of the shinigami king, right? Then who, or what, is healing me?"
[The idiot finally decided to use his head for a change. Yes, it is not the power of the shinigami king. Healing doesn't exactly fall under the domain of death. The old man probably used the residual powers of other domain(s) to send you to this world and also heal you.]
'Power of other domains? Does this mean the shinigami king cooperates with other domains? Or maybe even the kings of other domains? No, the keyword here is residual. For some reason, the shinigami king has leftover power from other domains and can also use it to some extent…'
Light kept thinking for a whole, then asked directly, "What other domains did the king use? Do you have any idea?"
Ryuk shrugged, [My guess isn't much better than yours]
…
After a few minutes of silent thinking, Light finally stood up with great struggle. His gaping chest wound hadn't healed yet, but he had enough might to at least navigate his new environment.
He walked forward with a crooked gait, grimacing with every step. Soon after, he encountered a wooden wall with no gaps or windows.
Yet, he saw some twinkling in the darkness. He leaned closer to the source of the twinkling and realised that it was just the stars in the night sky. The wooden wall had a cannonball-sized hole in it that opened to the outside.
While looking through the hole, Light also heard water crashing against the wooden ball from below.
He sighed and stepped back. 'So I am on a ship in the middle of the ocean, huh? And this ship might have just come out of a dire sea battle against another ship as well. That explains the hole in the wall and the one in my chest…'
He let his thoughts wander, then asked Ryuk,
"Do these people still use cannons to fight ship battles? What era is this world in?"
[Who knows?] Ryuk replied as nonchalantly as ever.
"..."
'This guy isn't helpful at all. Why did he even follow me here?
Light ignored Ryuk and went on blindly navigating around the ship by touch.
As he was slowly walking around, his shoe touched something and he almost tripped over it.
'What the…' before he could even realise what was going on, he felt a disgustingly familiar feeling.
Wetness adorned with the stench of blood. He had stepped onto another corpse.
…