Defective

Survivors

Near had successfully won the game his mentor had lost. Location of victory: Yellow Box Warehouse. Time: 2:41 P.M.

It was still the same day and place. Near was still crouched on the ground, surrounded by Commander Restor, Gevanni, and Lidner. Two notebooks were in front of him: the real one and the copy.

Picking up each, he examined the covers. "Gevanni," he uttered.

"Yes, Near," he responded quickly.

"I do not believe I have all of the answers to this case. There is something I have missed."

"But, we got a confession from Light, and we caught Mikami in the act. What have we missed?"

Near picked up his toy, the toy representing Kira, and flicked it away. "We did. We caught Kira. Light is Kira. I say this because Kira was active a number of years before I began my investigation. I do not know much about this case. In order to gather more information, I would like to go and search Light. I am ninety-seven percent certain that Light has either passed away from his injuries or was killed himself by a shinigami, likely the latter."

"How did you come to that conclusion?" Halle interrupted.

"Having seen the way the shinigami has interacted with Light, I can deduce that the shinigami was not aligned to Light in any way. He was likely just an impassive spectator. Having viewed the spectacle to its end, he no longer wanted to stay."

"So, how would we find him?" Gevanni asked.

"It's simple. We follow the shinigami."

*****

The SPK stood at the top of a single flight of stairs. Light's corpse was located about halfway down. "Halle, you are excused from this. I would like you to search the corpse. Everywhere. I have a feeling the thing I am missing is somewhere on Light's person.

Without question, Gevanni and Commander Restor acted on their order. Gevanni grabbed each of Light's arms and Restor got his feet. They lifted him to the top of the stairs and began their search.

Gevanni removed Light's coat and began to rifle through the inner pockets. In the first pocket he went through, he found a dollar, which he pocketed. He also got a receipt from the local dry cleaner.

The coat was clean. All pockets were completely empty.

Restor then began his search through Light's slack pockets. Again, nothing but a dry cleaners receipt.

"I suppose we could go and search the dry cleaners," Near suggested.

"Look Near. You have already solved the investigation. All of the questions have been answered," Restor responded.

Near stood up. His posture, much like L's, was poor. He hunched over, making it appear as if he was old. His knees were bent slightly. "Commander Restor, one trait of a good detective: any suspicion you have should be investigated. If I intend to ever be a decent detective, I must follow these guidelines. Do you understand?"

Restor opened his mouth to object but decided against it.

"We searched him. He's clean. Just a couple receipts from some dry cleaning," Halle reported.

"Thank you. The four of you, please step away for a moment." Near turned toward each one and gave them a nod of thanks. The three walked away immediately.

As the three left, Near began to pick around Light's coat himself. He picked it up from the ground and stuck his hand in each of the pockets. Empty.

Near's eyes widened. The last pocket he glanced in wasn't like the others. "Gevanni, I need a knife."

Gevanni walked forward as he dug through his pocket. He withdrew a smallish black flip knife. He handed it to Near.

Near opened it and snuck the blade into the pocket. He lined the blade up with the seam and cut. He did the same with the other seams. He pocketed the cloth and handed the knife back to Gevanni.

Gevanni walked back to where he came from. Near began to lag behind. He withdrew the cloth and read.

It's defective, Near.
-Deneuve