𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄

十一 | 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒

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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍
𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒

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"Hello, again."

Aizawa snapped his head up at the sound of the melancholic voice that he hadn't heard for quite some time, staring at the man he knew as Near sitting on the floor of the hotel room he now found himself in. He had been the one to speak, a scattering of toys and the like surrounding him just as he remembered.

"Hello, Near," Aizawa greeted, his and the rest of the previous task force members' shoes clicking against the hardwood surface, the material eventually bleeding into carpet.

"I no longer go by that name," Near corrected, holding a finger up. "It's, 'L,' please."

"Right... my mistake."

"Ne— I mean, L, so... do you think this is Ryuk, again?" Matsuda started, folding his jacket over the top of one of the couches as he sat down, Aizawa and Mogi soon following his lead.

"No," Near hummed. "This is a different Shinigami... and an even more absurd holder."

"Huh?" Matsuda blinked.

"What do you mean by that?" Aizawa inquired, folding his arms over his chest.

"This person that has named Kira's successor is flawed, overused—what I mean is that they will likely look to Light Yagami, what he thought of, and how he carried out his killings," he pointed out, watching as multiple top spinners slowed and collapsed. "It'll surely bring about a mistake that will lead us to them."

"You seem confident," Mogi commented, his body tense with his fists set against his thighs. "How do you know that this person even thinks of Kira in that way?"

"Isn't obvious?" Near chuckled. "They kill in almost the exact same way as the original Kira."

"We know that, as already over a hundred criminals have died in the past few weeks," Matsuda sighed in disbelief, letting his gaze travel downwards to rest on the carpeted floor. "If anything, L is right and this is another person exactly like Light."

"Well... not exactly," Near mused.

"What?" Matsuda frowned.

"Think about it..." Near continued, lifting his face to look each of the other men in the eye, his face somewhat shrouded by the shadow of his white hair. "What made Kira so terrifying?"

"Well... adding to the fact the previously we didn't know how he killed, it was also because there was a strong possibility that he was someone close to us,"Aizawa answered, the other two men nodding in agreement. "And he was. Other than that... it might've been because he knew exactly what to do to get out of a tough situation."

"Yes, exactly. Now, that is because Light's confrontation with you... was direct."

"Are you saying this one's not?"

"Precisely," Near hummed, resuming his stacking of the ladders after losing interest in the spinners, placing each piece carefully over the other. "This Kira doesn't seem as confrontational as Light. I can prove this because when the previous L pointed out where Light was, he killed all criminals in Japan to make a point. Now, when looking at criminals deaths, they haven't spiked in one certain area or another. This Kira doesn't want anything to do with the investigation, or L."

"So... you're saying the successor doesn't act on their emotions like Light does?" Mogi asked.

"If that's the case, then this one will prove to be more difficult to catch, but not by much if what they are doing to continue the original Kira's work is truly what they are planning."

A collective hum erupted from the mens' throats as this new information settled between them, a wave of solemnity washing over them as well, the only sound in the large hotel room being the clicking together of the toy pieces. The sudden opening of the door made them look up, however.

In the opening, two men and a woman with a metal briefcase in hand emerged, their expressions as formal as the suits they were wearing. Commander Rester was on the right with slicked back blonde hair that was just beginning to fade to grey, pale blue eyes, a strong jaw, and even more imposing figure. Agent Gevanni stood beside him, and looked far younger and a bit shorter with dark hair and a bit darker blue eyes. Agent Lidner, the one with the briefcase, was voluptuous in figure with striking amber eyes and honey blonde hair.

"L... we got it," Commander Rester uttered as Agent Lidner set the case on the table. "Lidner was able to obtain it from police custody after we said it was to be used as evidence for the Kira case."

"What is this about?" Aizawa questioned, his gaze having not left the metal container.

"The Notebook that I obtained from Teru Mikami was destroyed as the other was kept in the Japanese Task Force's possession," Near commented as he then set up dominoes around his finished building, making the three men sitting down raise their eyebrows in surprise.

"What? Why?" Matsuda uttered, worry growing as his frown did as well.

"I didn't want there to be a risk of two Notebooks in the human realm, as there are many people who would no doubt want to get their hands on such a dangerous weapon," Near continued, staring at his set dominoes intently.

"Even with that risk taken out, another Death Note has still found its way here," Agent Lidner sighed. "I find it concerning that it's happening in the same region as it did before with the original Kira."

"Your concerns are valid, Lidner-san, so Commander Rester, would you please open the case for me?" Near commanded.

"Of course," he immediately replied as he began to undo the numerous locks of the case before lifting the lid and sliding on a pair of gloves.

With that, he held up the Death Note.

"Why the gloves?" Matsuda inquired in curiosity as Near merely plucked the journal from Commander Restrr's hands without the usage of said gloves.

"The Shinigami that was attached to this notebook is now dead because of Kira. Commander Rester here knows this, however wants to take any special means to not become the owner of such a tool," he answered curtly, holding the book out in front of him with the first page open, resting it spine down against the floor as his dark eyes scanned the text. "Reading this, it's safe to say that Kira-S is able to control their victims time of death, and are killing off criminals every hour beside morning and night where an abundance are then killed."

"So... what are you saying?"

"It's safe to assume that this Kira as well is a student," he hummed in thought as he flicked out his finger to make the dominoes fall.

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To be continued...