𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄

十三 | 𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄

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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍
𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄

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A week.

A week had passed after Near's announcement to investigate all local high schools and colleges in the Kanto region, and not a single criminal had been killed since then.

It's confusing, to say the least.

Picking up a document that detailed any and all heart attack victims from Kira's first kill, the numbers having dropped tremendously, Near exhaled softly as he let it once more fall from his fingertips. The paper slowly descended to the metallic floor of the large building that the previous L had left him, something he trailed with his eyes even if it helped him not.

I never expected for all of these deaths to suddenly come to a complete halt.

In fact...

I expected them to increase.

Though, I suspect that Kira's Successor is merely doing this to invoke a reaction out of me.

And to throw me off.

"This is crazy," Matsuda muttered from the opposite side of Near, having sat on the couch with a newspaper in hand as his other hand ran through his messy hair. "Kira's killings have stopped completely? L, you've said that they'd look to the original Kira for dealing with us, yet this is a totally different reaction than before."

"Well..." Near hummed. "I suppose this would be the natural second course of action."

"Huh?" Aizawa let out a breath, still unnerved at being in the place of L's death, shaking his head briefly with closed eyes before opening them once more for them to rest on Near's form. "No, this isn't natural. If anything, Kira's Successor would have continued killing."

"You are right in thinking that," he said, multiple stacks of cards surrounding him as he placed a few on top of one another. "Kira's Successor likely thought that by doing this, we'd panic since before, we claimed that they were a student. Now... the public is confused and confusion very often leads to chaos. And that's Kira's Successor's motive for not killing."

"They want... chaos?" Aizawa uttered.

"Most people would think that by doing this, Kira's Successor couldn't possibly be a student since their routine is so set."

"You talk as if we aren't included in that 'most.'"

"We aren't," Near immediately shot down his reply with no hesitation. "To answer your question, no, this isn't like Light only because he killed criminals at a set time before L concluded that he might be a student. His Successor saw that and started killing at random times of the day. The only problem with that plan is that we know that the Death Note can control time of death, so they were merely using these random deaths at a front to cover up the fact that they are a student."

Near watched as his house of cards fell, yet his stony did not budge once.

"Oh..." Matsuda frowned, folding the newspaper and setting it on the low table in front of him. "That makes sense."

"What concerns me is that it's like we're trying to pick a needle out of a haystack," Agent Lidner commented, leaning against the desk that stretched across the entire back wall. "And with the killings stopped, that haystack has further doubled."

"Mm... yes... that's true," Near mused.

Kira-S hasn't been killing for long, and they look up to Light Yagami.

Now what can be said about that?

Even if we did find the right school, would we even know who is enacting such deaths?

Light never showed a sign that he was the one behind such grief, and yet the only reason that I was able to catch him was because I was one step ahead of him with L's information.

Now...

I'll have to start from a blank canvas.

Unaware to him, almost across the city, (Y/N) smiled as she scrolled through her phone of the news articles that were popping up the longer Kira—herself—continued to not kill.

"It seems less and less people are starting to believe L's claim about Kira's Successor being a student," Edu chuckled, leaning over her shoulder to stare at the device in her hand. "Too bad that they're completely wrong in that sense."

"No, this is perfect."

"Oh?"

"I imagined that the public would be upset, especially parents since their kids will have to be thoroughly examined, but I never expected it to be on such a level," (Y/N) smiled, stuffing the phone into her pocket as she entered the grocery store that was near her house. "Though, even with this, I doubt L would give up on his search for a student being Kira since the last Kira was also a student."

"Then why stop killing?"

"Edu, the reason I stopped killing was to keep L guessing, not make him give up."

"I thought you said you weren't going to get involved?" He commented, his bones creaking with every step he took.

"Yes, and I plan to keep it that way," (Y/N) hummed as she browsed the aisles. "But that doesn't mean Kira's Successor has to."

I only need to avoid L as (Y/N)(L/N).

If I can do that much...

Then I'm sure playing around with him as Kira's Successor will be fun.

"I'm guessing that you're going to start using the notebook again very soon," Edu hypothesized, now walking with her out of the store, his eyes following the swaying bag that she held, or more so, the juicy red apples that were inside.

"I might... it would be fun if I could use criminals to send a note to L like Light did."

"What would you even send, anyway?" He shrugged. "The previous Kira only wrote the previous L notes to distract him from what was really going on: experimenting with people's death to kill those FBI agents."

"It doesn't always have to be something," she replied, sliding her (E/C) gaze to the corner of her eyes to give him side-long glance. "Just because of who I am and who he is doesn't mean that I have to send him some cryptic note to alleviate him from my trail. I just want him to know that this little 'game' of ours will come to an end. More specifically, he will meet his end by me."

"Sounds fun," Edu cackled rather wickedly. "Wouldn't want to miss it for the world."

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To be continued...