Volpes opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the white ceiling, then, she looked down and saw a clock on the wall: 3:20 pm. Then, after looking to her right, she saw Mello. She could remember everything: shooting Takada, accidentally injuring herself; but she had no idea how she got here. Although it was obvious that this was a hospital. It must've been him who brought her here, there was no doubt in that. Volpes focused her gaze on Mello. He looked bewildered. She grinned.
"What's with that face?" she asked.
"They told me that you were supposed to wake up tomorrow..." he answered. "I... Are you all right?"
"Takada's dead, right?"
"Well... Yes."
"I didn't soak my clothes in blood, did I?"
"Volpes, get serious!" he said, quietly.
"Awww... I'll take that as a 'yes, you did, your dyaket is ruined'. Bloody hell... I guess I'm just all right, then."
Mello smiled weakly, then he looked away.
"Now, onto business," sinabi Volpes, still grinning. "What happened earlier?"
"Hunh?" muttered Mello.
"I heard some girl shout earlier. I don't know exactly when, but I then remember hearing your voice, so you must've been here. It's January 27th, right?"
"Right."
"So, it couldn't have been too long ago. It's been barely a few hours since midday. You couldn't have possibly been here for very long, and I'm sure you were here earlier, when I heard that girl shout."
Volpes thought for a segundo that Mello blushed, but she denied the probability of that happening.
"Before that, I want to apologize. For everything I've put you through. Not only yesterday, but ever since we left Wammy's House. I would apologize to Matt too, if I could..."
"Oh, right, where's Matt?" asked Volpes, with a happy smile on her face. He must've been somewhere around here. But, instead of an answering, Mello just looked down at the floor. Volpes could not believe this. She thought he was with the police like planned, but now... "Did he die, Mello?"
"Yes," he answered after a shaky breath.
Volpes lunged, trying to grab Mello's hand, but her bunk was too far from his chair.
"Please, Mello, come closer," she said.
He half-expected her to request her mga baril right now and shoot him. That's what he would've done. Still, he did as Volpes asked and got up from his chair, walking towards his friend's bunk. Once he was close enough, she grabbed his left hand, holding on to it as if her life depended on it. She turned her head away, trying hard not to cry, but then looked back at Mello, who watched her carefully.
"Maybe I should go," he said. "You shouldn't be upset right now."
"No! No, stay, please," sinabi Volpes quickly. She couldn't give a dam right now about her injury. "You know, it was my choice to come with you. You surely know that, so stop blaming yourself. I'd do this again if I had to choose. Most of all if it would be for you. And it doesn't matter the slightest bit to me that I hit my head the other night. I'm sure you'd agree that I deserved it all." She smiled saying it, but continued talking as she saw that Mello wanted to object. "I don't want to hear you deny that. Just tell me, did Takada have anything in her hands."
Mello frowned before saying:
"Yes. Some scrap of paper. Although I could see no shinigami after touching it."
"That doesn't mean that it was not a piece of the murder notebook. See? If what I did last night meant saving your life, it was most certainly worth it all."
Mello did not answer.
"I swear to you, Mello, tomorrow I'll get out of this hospital," sinabi Volpes after a minuto of silence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 28th 2013, 8:10 am
Mello came again to visit Volpes the susunod morning. He came quite early. He couldn't help but hope that Volpes was feeling better. He found her fully dressed with some clothes which he brought there before she woke up, looking out the window.
"Good morning," she said, once again grinning to Mello, after hearing him come in.
"Good morning," he replied, giving her a very weak smile.
"You're quite early," sinabi Volpes.
"That's because I have news," he replied, making his friend curious. "Halle Lidner called me last night. She told me Near is meeting the segundo L, Light Yagami, today, at one o' clock. She told me where, too."
"Ahh, it's better to hear things from her than from that Amane being. We should get going soon, though. We have to be early, so..."
"You're not coming," Mello interrupted.
"What?!"
"Exactly. You did recover quickly, but I don't want to risk anything."
"Even the doctors were surprised to see how quickly I recovered! I can go!"
"I don't care what the doctors said," argued Mello, but Volpes did not listen. She just quickly got dressed with her jacket, which was also brought with the other clothes.
"You have my guns, right?" asked Volpes.
Mello looked at her for half a minuto before giving out a sigh and nodding. She smiled upon hearing this and turned to leave, but then she turned back to Mello, smiling cunningly.
"Smart," she told him. "Now, tell me. What happened yesterday?" Mello hesitated, so Volpes continued; "At least tell me what you muttered! It was obvious that the girl had already left the room. At the state of her rage, she would've ibingiay you a shouted answer no matter what you would've said. Honestly, now that I think back of it, I'm quite surprised she did not kill you," she laughed. Mello still sinabi nothing. "Oh, Mello, what could've possibly happened?" she insisted.
But, instead of an answer, Mello just kissed her lightly.
"Do you need madami details?" he asked, giving her another weak smile.
"I will, but I'm sure you'll tell me. At least now I know what it was all about. We should go, now."
They got out of the room, Volpes pulled the hood of her dyaket over her head so the bandage won't be visible and they hurried to the elevators. As they hurried along the quite vacant corridors, Volpes grabbed Mello's hand and said, looking ahead of herself: "Honestly, susunod time tell me upfront, Mello. We've been through a lot, I would never laugh of your feelings."
Once again, Mello did not answer. He just smiled.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 28th 2013, 1:00 pm
Light Yagami and his Kira Task Force arrived at the "Yellow Box" warehouse, as it was nicknamed. Blaire was with them. She hired someone to drive L to this place. He was supposed to be there already, so Yagami and the people under him were the last to arrive. Well, with the exception of one person, they were the last to arrive.
The car stopped and everybody got off. Blaire knew, somehow, that this was the end of it all. She only wished Volpes would see this.
The Task Force entered the warehouse. Inside they found five people: one of them was Mogi. Although nobody sinabi nothing, it was no rocket science to figure out which was Near: one of them, who looked madami like a child, stood crouching barefoot in front of everybody else. Before him were some small figurines... Strangest of all was that this person was wearing a mask, a mask depicting L...
"L, those four are the SPK, and the one wearing the mask is Near, I'm sure of it," sinabi Aizawa.
"Yes. I was with Near even before he put the mask on, so I assure you, it's him," confirmed Mogi.
"Aizawa... Mogi, whether this is the real Near or not is of no interest to me," sinabi Light. Blaire could almost taste this lie.
"Wait a minute," started Matsuda. "I don't care who he accuses of being Kira - but that mask proves that he's trying to protect only himself!"
"Matsuda, Near thinks I'm Kira, so it can't be helped," Light said.
"But he was talking so much about seeing you face to face. It doesn't seem fair!"
"I'm telling you, Near has his own ideas about what's happening here, so it's not going to help if we complain about it. Let's just get on with this."
"This mask is just insurance," replied Near.
"Insurance?" repeated Matsuda, shocked.
"I am confident that both Kira and the person being ordered to do the killings - X-Kira - do not know my face. But it is a possibility that everybody else's face is known to these individuals in question." Near poked one of his figurines, the latter falling to the cold, concrete floor. "Of course, this is all assuming that L is Kira... So, since the place and time for our meeting was decided upon three days ago... There is a chance that everyone else's name, excluding mine, may already be written down in the notebook, to be killed. If that were to happen, only Kira and I would be left, and all Kira would have to do is write my name down in te notebook that Mr. Aizawa has with him right now. Though it is my hypothesis that the Kira here does not have the ability to kill just from looking at our faces. So please, give me an oras - no, 30 minutos - to be sure that no one here is marked to die sa pamamagitan ng the notebook.
"Wh-what?" stammered Matsuda, still shocked.
"That's okay. We'll let Near do as he likes. If not, we won't be able to clear things up," tried Light to calm Matsuda down. "Near, I believe that you are, in fact the real Near, and I care little about the face hidden behind the mask. What I would like to see is what you were going to ipakita me pertaining the Kira case."
"That can only be revealed to you after I take my mask off," sinabi Near.
"You can't ipakita the evidence to us unless you take the mask off, but you're not going to take it off? Aren't you contradicting yourself?" asked Matsuda, now outraged. Blaire barely stopped herself from laughing. Honestly, why did you have to explain everything to this person?
"He means that he's going to take it off once he makes sure that everybody is alive," explained Light.
"Yes," confirmed Near, simply.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tension was almost visible. Both sides stood without saying a word, just gazing at each other for those thirty minutes. Matsuda was the one to break the silence:
"Near, it's been madami than 30 minutos now, and nothing's happened."
"Of course," sinabi Light with a certain amount of arrogance. "That's because Kira isn't here."
"Very well..." sinabi Near, taking off his mask. For some reason, even Blaire, who knew him for quite some time now, felt a certain amount of curiosity. "It seems that you are all safe. I'll go ahead and take the mask off then." the susunod moment, his face was completely revealed. Mello, who was standing on the high platform above the ground with Volpes, frowned, while Near smile childishly.
"Okay, so now that you've taken the mask off, what are you going to ipakita us?" half-shouted Matsuda.
"Matsuda, don't rush him," sinabi Ide from behind Matsuda's back.
"I'm sorry. But you're going to have to wait again," answered Near.
"Wait again?! What are we waiting for?" shouted Matsuda, obviously being either impatient, or angry, or both.
"For the one who'll solve everything to arrive," answered Near.
"Someone else is supposed to clear this up?" asked Ide.
The Kira figurine, which could barely differ from the others at that distance, was now facing the Kira Task Force.
"He'll be here soon," continued Near. "It's only a matter of time. There's only one entrance to this building and the only way to look inside is sa pamamagitan ng opening that door. That means he'll either walk through that door or, the very least, open it and peek through."
"And just who this person is, anyway?" asked Matsuda.
"X-Kira, the one who's currently using the notebook and killing people on Kira's behalf. He's bound to come here and bring the notebook with him. And then, he'll see me and write down my real name. Or rather, he'll write down the names of everyone here who knows about the notebook and kill them."
"What?" exclaimed Matsuda, now obviously distressed. "What are you saying? This doesn't make any sense! What are you trying to tell us, Near? That some other guy's gonna drop sa pamamagitan ng with the notebook, poke his head in and kill us all?"
"And you want us to sit back and let it happen?" asked Ide, also sounding quite bewildered.
"Yes, that's correct," replied Near. "Now listen carefully. If someone comes into the warehouse through that door, just let him in without resisting. If the door opens slightly, simply act as if you don't notice anyone there."
"But..." stammered Matsuda, "but that's just crazy!"
"He's already here!" exclaimed Near.
Blaire sinabi nothing until now because she trusted Near. She was quite sure that he knew what she was doing until now, but... She was just unsure at this moment. The door was slightly open, although you could barely notice it.
At that moment, Matsuda's panic must've defeated any other impulse of reason, for he took out a gun of his dyaket and said:
"I-I can't just watch! If this person is really Pagsulat our names down, then...!"
"Don't move," shouted one of Near's SPK agents, pointing his gun along with his other colleague at Matsuda.
"Are-are you kidding me?" he shouted, panic visible on his face.
"Don't worry, you won't die. Please, just be still," Near assured him. "Don't worry. Even if our names are written down, we won't die. And Kira's identity will finally be revealed."
"H-how can you be so sure that we won't die, Near?" asked Aizawa, who obviously was keeping a hold on himself much better than Matsuda did.
"I've tampered with the notebook," Near said, raising a tiny figurine of a Death Note. "We managed to get it into our possession, and replaced the pages. The person behind the door... The one in charge of the actual killing, has been filling up one page everyday, so I just calculated which page would correspond with today's date, and replaced all the subsequent pages."
"Replaced?!" repeated Matsuda.
"You got hold of it? You actually did that?" asked Aizawa.
"The person Pagsulat the names down outside will eventually look inside to see if we have all died," continued Near. "At which point we'll seize him, and the individual whose name is not written in the notebook will inevitably be Kira."
"Y-you're right," agreed Aizawa. "The person whose name is not written would be Kira!"
"B-but..." tried Ide to object. Yet, there was nothing at all to object.
A bit less than half a minuto passed.
"To he one outside..." started
Light Yagami, "did you write the names down in the notebook?"
"Yes, I did," replied a shaky male voice outside the heavy iron door.
"That's strange," sinabi Near.
"Truly, it is," Blaire backed him up. "Why would he answer your question?"
"Who knows?" answered Light. "Maybe he's honest, or is confident for some reason? It may even be that he knows Near's plan."
"Teru Mikami, why don't you come in here?" asked Near, as if to test the theory. "Teru Mikami, I know that you're in charge of carrying out Kira's killings right now. You've already written the names down, so there's nothing to be afraid of. Please come in. Or did Kira order you not to come in?"
"Teru Mikami?" asked Light Yagami. "That's right. Stop hiding and come inside.
Mikami didn't even wait a full segundo before pushing the heavy door open, his notebook held tight in his left arm. Just as all of L's successors, reflected about the slight suspicion of Mikami obeying Yagami almost instantly, the former said:
"Your wish is my command, god."
Light ignored this affirmation and asked:
"How many segundos has it been since you wrote the first name down?"
Mikami checked his watch with a maniacal look on his face before starting his count: "35, 36, 37, 38, 39..."
"I win, Near," added Light Yagami, quickly. Here was the confession.
"40!" declared Mikami.
Everyone, even Mello and Volpes who were obviously not in danger, held their breath. Matsuda was covering his head with his arms, as if the sky itself would come tumbling on his head. But after madami than ten other seconds, it became obvious that nobody would die.
"We..." started Matsuda, lowering his hands. "We're not dead! It's already been about a minuto and we're not dead!"
"I've been telling you that nobody would die," replied Near.
"Why?" Mikami, asked, looking at the notebook as if it condemned him to death. Which, in a way, is exactly what it did. "Why won't they die? G-god..." he sinabi addressing to Light, now. "I-I did as you told me."
"Rester, Gevanni, get Mikami," sinabi Near, and the two men obeyed. It only took a moment to restrain Mikami and handcuff his hands. He dropped the notebook in the process. "Gevanni, the notebook," ordered Near, and the younger, dark-haired agent took the notebook and handed it over to Near. "See for yourselves," the latter told the Kira Task Force, raising the notebook, opening it at the almost empty page which contained Mikami's attempted murders.
Nate River Anthony Carter Stephen Loud Halle Bullock Kanzo Mogi Touta Matsuda Hideki Ide Shuichi Aizawa Lillian Llewellin
"What's with that face?" she asked.
"They told me that you were supposed to wake up tomorrow..." he answered. "I... Are you all right?"
"Takada's dead, right?"
"Well... Yes."
"I didn't soak my clothes in blood, did I?"
"Volpes, get serious!" he said, quietly.
"Awww... I'll take that as a 'yes, you did, your dyaket is ruined'. Bloody hell... I guess I'm just all right, then."
Mello smiled weakly, then he looked away.
"Now, onto business," sinabi Volpes, still grinning. "What happened earlier?"
"Hunh?" muttered Mello.
"I heard some girl shout earlier. I don't know exactly when, but I then remember hearing your voice, so you must've been here. It's January 27th, right?"
"Right."
"So, it couldn't have been too long ago. It's been barely a few hours since midday. You couldn't have possibly been here for very long, and I'm sure you were here earlier, when I heard that girl shout."
Volpes thought for a segundo that Mello blushed, but she denied the probability of that happening.
"Before that, I want to apologize. For everything I've put you through. Not only yesterday, but ever since we left Wammy's House. I would apologize to Matt too, if I could..."
"Oh, right, where's Matt?" asked Volpes, with a happy smile on her face. He must've been somewhere around here. But, instead of an answering, Mello just looked down at the floor. Volpes could not believe this. She thought he was with the police like planned, but now... "Did he die, Mello?"
"Yes," he answered after a shaky breath.
Volpes lunged, trying to grab Mello's hand, but her bunk was too far from his chair.
"Please, Mello, come closer," she said.
He half-expected her to request her mga baril right now and shoot him. That's what he would've done. Still, he did as Volpes asked and got up from his chair, walking towards his friend's bunk. Once he was close enough, she grabbed his left hand, holding on to it as if her life depended on it. She turned her head away, trying hard not to cry, but then looked back at Mello, who watched her carefully.
"Maybe I should go," he said. "You shouldn't be upset right now."
"No! No, stay, please," sinabi Volpes quickly. She couldn't give a dam right now about her injury. "You know, it was my choice to come with you. You surely know that, so stop blaming yourself. I'd do this again if I had to choose. Most of all if it would be for you. And it doesn't matter the slightest bit to me that I hit my head the other night. I'm sure you'd agree that I deserved it all." She smiled saying it, but continued talking as she saw that Mello wanted to object. "I don't want to hear you deny that. Just tell me, did Takada have anything in her hands."
Mello frowned before saying:
"Yes. Some scrap of paper. Although I could see no shinigami after touching it."
"That doesn't mean that it was not a piece of the murder notebook. See? If what I did last night meant saving your life, it was most certainly worth it all."
Mello did not answer.
"I swear to you, Mello, tomorrow I'll get out of this hospital," sinabi Volpes after a minuto of silence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 28th 2013, 8:10 am
Mello came again to visit Volpes the susunod morning. He came quite early. He couldn't help but hope that Volpes was feeling better. He found her fully dressed with some clothes which he brought there before she woke up, looking out the window.
"Good morning," she said, once again grinning to Mello, after hearing him come in.
"Good morning," he replied, giving her a very weak smile.
"You're quite early," sinabi Volpes.
"That's because I have news," he replied, making his friend curious. "Halle Lidner called me last night. She told me Near is meeting the segundo L, Light Yagami, today, at one o' clock. She told me where, too."
"Ahh, it's better to hear things from her than from that Amane being. We should get going soon, though. We have to be early, so..."
"You're not coming," Mello interrupted.
"What?!"
"Exactly. You did recover quickly, but I don't want to risk anything."
"Even the doctors were surprised to see how quickly I recovered! I can go!"
"I don't care what the doctors said," argued Mello, but Volpes did not listen. She just quickly got dressed with her jacket, which was also brought with the other clothes.
"You have my guns, right?" asked Volpes.
Mello looked at her for half a minuto before giving out a sigh and nodding. She smiled upon hearing this and turned to leave, but then she turned back to Mello, smiling cunningly.
"Smart," she told him. "Now, tell me. What happened yesterday?" Mello hesitated, so Volpes continued; "At least tell me what you muttered! It was obvious that the girl had already left the room. At the state of her rage, she would've ibingiay you a shouted answer no matter what you would've said. Honestly, now that I think back of it, I'm quite surprised she did not kill you," she laughed. Mello still sinabi nothing. "Oh, Mello, what could've possibly happened?" she insisted.
But, instead of an answer, Mello just kissed her lightly.
"Do you need madami details?" he asked, giving her another weak smile.
"I will, but I'm sure you'll tell me. At least now I know what it was all about. We should go, now."
They got out of the room, Volpes pulled the hood of her dyaket over her head so the bandage won't be visible and they hurried to the elevators. As they hurried along the quite vacant corridors, Volpes grabbed Mello's hand and said, looking ahead of herself: "Honestly, susunod time tell me upfront, Mello. We've been through a lot, I would never laugh of your feelings."
Once again, Mello did not answer. He just smiled.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 28th 2013, 1:00 pm
Light Yagami and his Kira Task Force arrived at the "Yellow Box" warehouse, as it was nicknamed. Blaire was with them. She hired someone to drive L to this place. He was supposed to be there already, so Yagami and the people under him were the last to arrive. Well, with the exception of one person, they were the last to arrive.
The car stopped and everybody got off. Blaire knew, somehow, that this was the end of it all. She only wished Volpes would see this.
The Task Force entered the warehouse. Inside they found five people: one of them was Mogi. Although nobody sinabi nothing, it was no rocket science to figure out which was Near: one of them, who looked madami like a child, stood crouching barefoot in front of everybody else. Before him were some small figurines... Strangest of all was that this person was wearing a mask, a mask depicting L...
"L, those four are the SPK, and the one wearing the mask is Near, I'm sure of it," sinabi Aizawa.
"Yes. I was with Near even before he put the mask on, so I assure you, it's him," confirmed Mogi.
"Aizawa... Mogi, whether this is the real Near or not is of no interest to me," sinabi Light. Blaire could almost taste this lie.
"Wait a minute," started Matsuda. "I don't care who he accuses of being Kira - but that mask proves that he's trying to protect only himself!"
"Matsuda, Near thinks I'm Kira, so it can't be helped," Light said.
"But he was talking so much about seeing you face to face. It doesn't seem fair!"
"I'm telling you, Near has his own ideas about what's happening here, so it's not going to help if we complain about it. Let's just get on with this."
"This mask is just insurance," replied Near.
"Insurance?" repeated Matsuda, shocked.
"I am confident that both Kira and the person being ordered to do the killings - X-Kira - do not know my face. But it is a possibility that everybody else's face is known to these individuals in question." Near poked one of his figurines, the latter falling to the cold, concrete floor. "Of course, this is all assuming that L is Kira... So, since the place and time for our meeting was decided upon three days ago... There is a chance that everyone else's name, excluding mine, may already be written down in the notebook, to be killed. If that were to happen, only Kira and I would be left, and all Kira would have to do is write my name down in te notebook that Mr. Aizawa has with him right now. Though it is my hypothesis that the Kira here does not have the ability to kill just from looking at our faces. So please, give me an oras - no, 30 minutos - to be sure that no one here is marked to die sa pamamagitan ng the notebook.
"Wh-what?" stammered Matsuda, still shocked.
"That's okay. We'll let Near do as he likes. If not, we won't be able to clear things up," tried Light to calm Matsuda down. "Near, I believe that you are, in fact the real Near, and I care little about the face hidden behind the mask. What I would like to see is what you were going to ipakita me pertaining the Kira case."
"That can only be revealed to you after I take my mask off," sinabi Near.
"You can't ipakita the evidence to us unless you take the mask off, but you're not going to take it off? Aren't you contradicting yourself?" asked Matsuda, now outraged. Blaire barely stopped herself from laughing. Honestly, why did you have to explain everything to this person?
"He means that he's going to take it off once he makes sure that everybody is alive," explained Light.
"Yes," confirmed Near, simply.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tension was almost visible. Both sides stood without saying a word, just gazing at each other for those thirty minutes. Matsuda was the one to break the silence:
"Near, it's been madami than 30 minutos now, and nothing's happened."
"Of course," sinabi Light with a certain amount of arrogance. "That's because Kira isn't here."
"Very well..." sinabi Near, taking off his mask. For some reason, even Blaire, who knew him for quite some time now, felt a certain amount of curiosity. "It seems that you are all safe. I'll go ahead and take the mask off then." the susunod moment, his face was completely revealed. Mello, who was standing on the high platform above the ground with Volpes, frowned, while Near smile childishly.
"Okay, so now that you've taken the mask off, what are you going to ipakita us?" half-shouted Matsuda.
"Matsuda, don't rush him," sinabi Ide from behind Matsuda's back.
"I'm sorry. But you're going to have to wait again," answered Near.
"Wait again?! What are we waiting for?" shouted Matsuda, obviously being either impatient, or angry, or both.
"For the one who'll solve everything to arrive," answered Near.
"Someone else is supposed to clear this up?" asked Ide.
The Kira figurine, which could barely differ from the others at that distance, was now facing the Kira Task Force.
"He'll be here soon," continued Near. "It's only a matter of time. There's only one entrance to this building and the only way to look inside is sa pamamagitan ng opening that door. That means he'll either walk through that door or, the very least, open it and peek through."
"And just who this person is, anyway?" asked Matsuda.
"X-Kira, the one who's currently using the notebook and killing people on Kira's behalf. He's bound to come here and bring the notebook with him. And then, he'll see me and write down my real name. Or rather, he'll write down the names of everyone here who knows about the notebook and kill them."
"What?" exclaimed Matsuda, now obviously distressed. "What are you saying? This doesn't make any sense! What are you trying to tell us, Near? That some other guy's gonna drop sa pamamagitan ng with the notebook, poke his head in and kill us all?"
"And you want us to sit back and let it happen?" asked Ide, also sounding quite bewildered.
"Yes, that's correct," replied Near. "Now listen carefully. If someone comes into the warehouse through that door, just let him in without resisting. If the door opens slightly, simply act as if you don't notice anyone there."
"But..." stammered Matsuda, "but that's just crazy!"
"He's already here!" exclaimed Near.
Blaire sinabi nothing until now because she trusted Near. She was quite sure that he knew what she was doing until now, but... She was just unsure at this moment. The door was slightly open, although you could barely notice it.
At that moment, Matsuda's panic must've defeated any other impulse of reason, for he took out a gun of his dyaket and said:
"I-I can't just watch! If this person is really Pagsulat our names down, then...!"
"Don't move," shouted one of Near's SPK agents, pointing his gun along with his other colleague at Matsuda.
"Are-are you kidding me?" he shouted, panic visible on his face.
"Don't worry, you won't die. Please, just be still," Near assured him. "Don't worry. Even if our names are written down, we won't die. And Kira's identity will finally be revealed."
"H-how can you be so sure that we won't die, Near?" asked Aizawa, who obviously was keeping a hold on himself much better than Matsuda did.
"I've tampered with the notebook," Near said, raising a tiny figurine of a Death Note. "We managed to get it into our possession, and replaced the pages. The person behind the door... The one in charge of the actual killing, has been filling up one page everyday, so I just calculated which page would correspond with today's date, and replaced all the subsequent pages."
"Replaced?!" repeated Matsuda.
"You got hold of it? You actually did that?" asked Aizawa.
"The person Pagsulat the names down outside will eventually look inside to see if we have all died," continued Near. "At which point we'll seize him, and the individual whose name is not written in the notebook will inevitably be Kira."
"Y-you're right," agreed Aizawa. "The person whose name is not written would be Kira!"
"B-but..." tried Ide to object. Yet, there was nothing at all to object.
A bit less than half a minuto passed.
"To he one outside..." started
Light Yagami, "did you write the names down in the notebook?"
"Yes, I did," replied a shaky male voice outside the heavy iron door.
"That's strange," sinabi Near.
"Truly, it is," Blaire backed him up. "Why would he answer your question?"
"Who knows?" answered Light. "Maybe he's honest, or is confident for some reason? It may even be that he knows Near's plan."
"Teru Mikami, why don't you come in here?" asked Near, as if to test the theory. "Teru Mikami, I know that you're in charge of carrying out Kira's killings right now. You've already written the names down, so there's nothing to be afraid of. Please come in. Or did Kira order you not to come in?"
"Teru Mikami?" asked Light Yagami. "That's right. Stop hiding and come inside.
Mikami didn't even wait a full segundo before pushing the heavy door open, his notebook held tight in his left arm. Just as all of L's successors, reflected about the slight suspicion of Mikami obeying Yagami almost instantly, the former said:
"Your wish is my command, god."
Light ignored this affirmation and asked:
"How many segundos has it been since you wrote the first name down?"
Mikami checked his watch with a maniacal look on his face before starting his count: "35, 36, 37, 38, 39..."
"I win, Near," added Light Yagami, quickly. Here was the confession.
"40!" declared Mikami.
Everyone, even Mello and Volpes who were obviously not in danger, held their breath. Matsuda was covering his head with his arms, as if the sky itself would come tumbling on his head. But after madami than ten other seconds, it became obvious that nobody would die.
"We..." started Matsuda, lowering his hands. "We're not dead! It's already been about a minuto and we're not dead!"
"I've been telling you that nobody would die," replied Near.
"Why?" Mikami, asked, looking at the notebook as if it condemned him to death. Which, in a way, is exactly what it did. "Why won't they die? G-god..." he sinabi addressing to Light, now. "I-I did as you told me."
"Rester, Gevanni, get Mikami," sinabi Near, and the two men obeyed. It only took a moment to restrain Mikami and handcuff his hands. He dropped the notebook in the process. "Gevanni, the notebook," ordered Near, and the younger, dark-haired agent took the notebook and handed it over to Near. "See for yourselves," the latter told the Kira Task Force, raising the notebook, opening it at the almost empty page which contained Mikami's attempted murders.
Nate River Anthony Carter Stephen Loud Halle Bullock Kanzo Mogi Touta Matsuda Hideki Ide Shuichi Aizawa Lillian Llewellin