Riddles {a Death Note MelloXOC and NearXOC story}

Q&A

A/N: Okay, so after this chapter you won't have to put up with anymore sitting through stuff you've already seen/read.
I would like to point out that this fanfiction takes place in the manga, not the anime. This means that everything, including dates of birth, take place three years before they did in the anime. One of the scenes I included also did not occur in the anime. In this chapter, the final scene, there are various differences from the anime, so those of you who have never read the manga might be a little thrown off.
As for the "memory" Allison mentions, it's true. Light WAS remembering something specific, something horrifying: a conversation he'd had with Ryuk long ago. If you want to know what it was, then you'll have to check out the manga or PM me, since I don't want to spoil it for any potential readers.

======================================================

Allison

"You're wrong," said Near, having guessed whatever it was that Light was thinking. "I owe this to Mello. I'm sure you understand what I mean by that. Look at the page before the page I just turned to; this is the fake notebook we created, but it is exactly the same as the real one.
"The first line of the page on the left."

I never got a chance to look at it, and he held it so that only Light and the Task Force could see the page, but I already had an inkling of what was written down. "Takada Kiyomi sets fire to everything around her, killing herself." Something along those lines.

"I-if Takada is in a situation like that," Mikami began, "then it's my job to... That is my role..."

"That's right," said Near. "When Mello kidnapped Takada, Mikami took out the real notebook, the one he had hidden in a safe deposit box at the bank, and wrote Takada's name down."

"After Takada's kidnapping was announced on the news, Mikami headed for the bank," Gevanni said. "October twenty-fifth was a Sunday, so he went on the twenty-sixth, but my research shows that in August, September, November, and December, he went to the bank on the twenty-fifth."

"Mikami lives a completely fixed life," Near stated, "but just as Takada was kidnapped, he suddenly goes to the bank two days in a row. To be honest, I only thought about the possibility of the notebook being a fake after Gevanni told me about this.
"Come to think of it, we should have suspected when Mikami used the notebook in public and talked to himself about 'not having a Shinigami'. Patience actually pointed this out, but I hastily dismissed her comment. The fact that we found out about Mikami so quickly actually worked against us.
"Until then, we were completely tricked by you, Takada, and Mikami and had replaced the pages in the fake book, so we actually would have lost if I hadn't found out.
"When Mello kidnapped Takada, you were no longer able to get in contact with Mikami, but Mikami still made his move for you, to perfection, in his role as Kira's stand-in. His overt adoration, sense of responsibility and perfection, and his intelligence worked against him this time. It wasn't difficult for us to sneak into the safe deposit room to crack it. It was an old-fashioned safe at a local bank. Also, since you allowed us to look through Mikami's bag when he was at the gym, we already had made copies of all his keys and cards."

"That's right," Gevanni affirmed. "It was an easy task to open that safe. Inside it was a notebook, and Takada's name was written in it."

"Even an idiot would figure out everything from there," Near concluded. Perhaps I shouldn't have, but I sort of just zoned out at that point, having already heard the explanation once before and having no interest in hearing it again. It was only at the end of the explanation that Near caught my attention.

"...but the biggest thanks goes to the one who created the situation: Mello."

That's when I started listening again.