

I've started watching _Death Note_ and I'm a bit confused on an aspect of
Shinigami.

In episode 12:

> Gelus dies because he killed the would-be murderer of Misa Amane. By doing
> this he extended the life of Misa for which he disappeared into glitter as
> they aren't allow to extend lives.

If a Shinigami killed a person at random who was planning to murder a person
the next day, he would be extending the life of the victim the murderer was
planning to kill. Would the Shinigami die in this scenario?


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question
death-note
Does a Shinigami still die if they extend a human life without knowing it?


If the god of death is using the death note was killing at random, it would
not result in the god of death dying. See [rule
XVII](http://deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/Rules_of_the_Death_Note):

> If the god of death decides to use the Death Note to kill the assassin of an
> individual he favors, the individual's life will be extended, but the god of
> death will die.

[![Picture of Death Note Rule:
XVII](https://i.stack.imgur.com/RMvl3.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/RMvl3.jpg)

The killing will only result in the god of death dying if they kill someone
who is going to kill an individual the god of death **favors**.


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Just to be clear, there is another rule which states this even more clearly.
Only if a shinigami **intentionally** extends someone's life they die.

Rule LVIII:

1) By manipulating the death of a human that has influence over another
human's life, that human's original life span can sometimes be lengthened.

2) If a god of death intentionally does the above manipulation to effectively
lengthen a human's life span, the god of death will die, but even if a human
does the same, the human will not die.


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