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.
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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.
"Mello may have known about it," Lidner said. "I told Mello that Near was talking about 'bringing an end to this case with his own hands.' But now that I think of it... and after a long silence, he just said, 'Then I guess I'm going to have to do it.' At first I thought he only meant, 'I'm going to bring the case to an end before Near.' But if Mello hadn't made his move, then we would all have..."
"No," Patience said fairly calmly, "Mello couldn't have possibly thought that far ahead. Especially with the limited information he had."
"He definitely expected his plan to go more smoothly than it did," I admitted. There was no point in denying it. Near and Patience were already certain I had gone to Mello, even though I'd said otherwise. "It was Matt's job to throw the smoke bomb in order to cause a distraction. Mello had been certain that Matt would live, but in the end, he didn't. If Mello was so sure that Matt would live, then he likely thought that whatever danger he was in would be minimal."
"I agree that it's unlikely he thought that far ahead," said Near, "but I am sure that he was always trying to get ahead of me, and that's not all. Even if he didn't surpass me... even if he didn't... Mello always said he was going to be number one, and that he was going to be better than me and L, but I always knew that I would never be able to surpass L." My eyes widened. That's what he thought? That's what he knew? Then why had he never told Mello? Though I suppose Mello may have just dismissed the comment, believing that Near was somehow toying with him. "It could be that I lacked the action and he lacked the calm. And even though we couldn't surpass the one we admired on our own, together we can stand with L. Together we can surpass L.
"And now, we are facing Kira, whom L could find no proof against, the very Kira who L was defeated by. Facing Kira with solid evidence before his very eyes!
"Let's see you talk your way out of this one."
At that moment, Light broke down. He screamed; he screamed at the top of his lungs, like he was dying, and he collapsed onto his hands and knees in defeat. He remained kneeling on the floor, his hands on his head as though he were attempting to hide himself from us, but the silence that followed his cry was soon broken. It started as a low laugh, and then it began to build as he rose from the ground and onto his feet. Once he was on his feet, looking at us, his laughter had stopped, and he grinned devilishly.
"That's right," he said. "I'm Kira. So now what? Are you going to kill me right here?
"Listen: I'm Kira and the god of this New World. In this world, I am the law, and I am the one maintaining order. That is the truth. Now, I am Justice. The world's only hope."
I couldn't hide the look of disgust on my face.
This self-righteous bastard really believes the blasphemous shite he's spewing, doesn't he? I thought.
"Are you going to kill me?" he queried. "Is that really the right thing to do? Capturing Kira. That may have been the just thing to do in the past, but now, it's obviously evil. The mentality of the world has changed. It's been six years since Kira appeared. War is a thing of the past, most of the worst criminals have died, and the world's crime rate has gone down by seventy percent. But this world is still rotten."
What did he say next? I can't tell you for certain. At that point I tried to tune out. I tried to ignore everything he said, because deep down, I was afraid that if I listened long enough, I might start to believe him. It was Near's voice that, once again, brought my attention back.
"No," said Near, sticking out his finger to touch his toy modeled after Kira, "you are just a murderer, and this notebook here is the worst murder weapon in the history of mankind. If you had been a normal person and had used this notebook once out of curiosity, you would have been surprised and scared of what happened and regretted what you had done and never used this notebook again. To speak extremes, I can actually understand those who would use the notebook for their personal interests and kill a couple of people and even think that they're normal." He put the Kira toy between his middle finger and thumb and squished it, distorting its shape. "But you have yielded to the power of the notebook and Shinigami and have confused yourself with a god. You're just a crazy mass murderer. Nothing more and nothing less."
"Near, you're wrong," said Light. "I'm the icon of justice now."
"You may be right," Near admitted, surprising us all. "Nobody can tell what is right and what is wrong, what is righteous and what is evil. Even if there is a god, and I had His teachings before me, I would think it through and decide if that was right or wrong myself.
"I'm no different from you. I believe in what I think is right and believe that to be righteous. You are no god, and I feel that the whole idea of you setting the path for all the people to follow is neither peaceful nor righteous, and anybody who claims to be god and kills people from left to right is definitely evil by my standards, but what do the other people here, besides you and me, feel is righteous?"
My eyes tightly shut, and my Rosary in hand, I genuflected. "God have mercy on his soul," I whispered in English.
But the warehouse was large and empty, and my words echoed off the walls. I don't think the Task Force understood what that meant. "God," "mercy," "spirit." These were words they didn't need to know. But Light... Light was an intelligent man, so he knew what those words meant. He knew what I meant.
"I am God," he hissed in English. I don't think the Task Force understood that, either, but we did. I don't know whether it sickened or saddened me more. Just as quickly as it came, his grimace went and was replaced by that eerie yet charismatic smile of his. "Near. You first thought the fake notebook made by Mikami was the real one and replaced the pages in it, and Mikami had the fake notebook that you made. In other words, both notebooks turned out to be fake, when both sides believed them to be real. And the mistake made by both sides was that they didn't test the notebook to see if it was real. So how can you be sure that the notebooks here are real? The notebook you have with you right now and the notebook Aizawa brought down from the Japanese Investigation Headquarters, are they real?
"You already see Ryuk, so let's just say that the notebook you have is real. But the notebook Aizawa has was kept at headquarters, where I had access to it. I could have switched it, and if switched, then I'm the only one who knows its whereabouts. That's right. If you really want to defeat Kira, then you should write my name or Mikami's name in Aizawa's notebook to see if that notebook is real."
"Yagami Light... Kira... I have no plans to kill you," Near said. "I really don't care if the notebook is real or not anymore. From the very beginning, my goal was to capture Kira. All I want is for everything to become clear and for Kira to be captured. You're as good as arrested now, and I'll confiscate the notebook Aizawa-san has. That is enough for now. And I will not announce Kira's arrest or the existence of the notebook to the public. I believe that everybody here can keep that secret. I'll take full responsibility for locking you up in a place where nobody will find you until you die."
Light glanced at Near out of the corner of his eye, his expression unreadable to me.
"He has paper from the notebook with him," Patience said out of nowhere.
"What?" said Commander Rester, unable to wrap his mind around Patience's sudden comment.
Eyes filled with rage, Light clicked on the button of his watch, and a small compartment hiding a scrap of paper slid out. Pen in hand, Light began to write fervently, but was interrupted when Matsuda fired off his gun, hitting Light in the hand in which he held the pen.
Light dropped the pen and fell to the ground, hissing at the pain in his bloody hand.
"Matsuda," said Aizawa in shock.
"You idiot!" Light shouted. "Who do you think you're shooting, Matsuda? Damn you! If you're going to shoot someone, shoot the others! What do you think you're doing?
"Matsuda, I thought you were the only person who understood me. Kira is righteous! Kira is needed! Shoot! Shoot Near, the SPK members, Aizawa and the others."
Matsuda stood there, tears running down his face. He cared so much for Light, and yet Light had been willing to kill off his friends in a second.
"Wh-what was it all for?" Matsuda said. "The chie-no, the Deputy Director... Yagami-jichō... He was your father. What did your father die for?"
"Tōsan?" said Light, the word seeming almost unnatural to him. "Are you talking about Yagami Soichiro?
"That's right, Matsuda. Overly earnest people with a strong sense of justice like him always end up the loser. Do you want a world where people like him are always made fools of?"
"You drove your father to his death, and now you're trying to change the subject by telling me that he was made a fool..."
"A society, a world where people like my father will never have to be made into fools... Yagami Soichiro died to create that. I'm telling you to kill the others so that his death was not in vain! Can't you understand me?"
The only noise in the silence were Matsuda and Light's heavy breathing and the plip of the blood from Light's hand hitting the ground. As if hearing it for the first time, Light got an idea and started using one of his bloody fingers to write the remaining letters of Near's name onto the paper in his watch.
"He's using his blood!"
Matsuda shot twice, and Light fell to the ground. The paper slowly floated to the ground, falling out of Light's reach.
"I have to kill him," Matsuda said. His face was filled with rage, yet tears streamed down his cheeks. He pointed his gun at Light, who was lying almost motionless on the floor. "This guy has got to die!"
"Stop it, Matsuda!" cried Ide.
"Don't do it!" said Mogi.
His weapon an inch away from the bottom of Light's chin, Matsuda cocked the gun. I looked away right before I heard the bang, the cry of Matsuda's name nearly blocked out by the sound of the gunshot that echoed through the warehouse. In the darkness behind my eyes, I could see myself standing over Mello's limp body and pointing his own gun at him.
I just continued to bless myself over and over, repeatedly whispering, "In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti."
Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I looked at Patience, who gestured to Light. I looked at him lying on the ground, a bullet hole in the ground just to the left of his head. The members of the Task Force all restrained Matsuda, whose mouth was open in a silent scream of agony as he cried.
Light rolled over, clambering onto his hands and knees. "Mikami!" he cried. "What are you doing? Help me! Write their names down! Kill them! Kill them... that's your job... what are you doing?"
In that second, the look of devastation left Mikami's face and was replaced by one of outrage.
"How could I write their names down in a situation like this, and with a fake notebook?" he asked, angered to hear the pathetic, desperate ramblings of a man who had just lost it all. "You're not God! What the hell is this? Look what you've gotten me into. You're not God, you're just scum."
"Damn you," Light hissed.
Near looked at Aizawa, who held the small, bloody piece of paper with Near's true name partially written in ink and blood. "Since he had this piece carefully hidden in his watch, he probably doesn't have any more," Near surmised.
"Mogi, Ide," said Aizawa, "help me arrest Kira, Yagami Light, the mass murderer."
"Yes," the two said in unison.
"Stop it!" Light cried, dragging himself along the stone floor in an attempt to flee. "Don't come near me! M-Misa... where's Misa? Misa, kill them. Kill these guys..."
I dropped to my knees then.
Not Misa. Please, not Misa.
I didn't know her personally, but knowing what she meant to Birdie... what she had done to May.
I stayed their, kneeling on the ground with my eyes shut tightly, whispering every prayer I could think of.
"Amane Misa is at the Teito Hotel right now," Near reminded Light.
"Hotel?" said Light. "What is that idiot doing at a time like this?
"Takada... where's Takada? Kill them... write their names down."
We were all silent for a moment as the realization of just how far, desperate and scared Light was hit us all.
"Takada Kiyomi is dead," said Near.
"Dead?" Light exclaimed. "S-somebody... anybody."
"Near, it's over at last," said Commander Rester.
"Yes," said Near.
"Somebody... kill these guys," Light pleaded.
"It's not over yet," Patience disagreed.
"What do you mean, 'it's not over yet?'" I asked her.
"It's like I told you, Allison," she said, turning to look at me. "Light Yagami isn't going to go down without a fight, and even now, even now he hasn't lost... not in his eyes."
"No," Aizawa said. Patience and I had been speaking quickly and in English, but Aizawa seemed to understand the gist of it. "It's over." Switching back to Japanese, he said, "Light, it's over. If you don't give up, you're going to bleed to death."
"D-don't come near me," said Light, crawling away. "K-kill them. Somebody kill them for me.
"Ryuk... I know! Ryuk, you can write their names down. Write their names down into your notebook. Write it, Ryuk. Hurry!"
"D-don't do it Ryuk," said Aizawa, he and the others pulling out their guns to point them at the Shinigami.
"Don't worry," said Near. "If that Shinigami is willing to write our names down when asked, then that's all Kira had to do from the start. So it means that Ryuk does not assist Kira in those ways."
"Not to mention that he was completely cooperative," Patience added. "He told us straight out that scrap pieces of paper from the Death Note work.
"Seems to me like Ryuk's just tagging along for the ride. Death doesn't pick favorites; I don't see why a Shinigami would."
"P-please, Ryuk," Light begged, reaching out his hand and trying to touch the phantom. "You're all I've got left to rely on! Please write the names down!"
"Sure, I'll write it," Ryuk said, pulling out his own notebook which he had kept tucked in his belt.
"What?"
"Ryuk," Light said gleefully.
"Stop it!"
The gunshots were loud and quick, coming one after another and echoing throughout the building. Ryuk was unscathed; he could not be touched.
"Sorry," Ryuk said. "I'm a Shinigami, so you can't kill me with those things, and stuff in the human world can't touch my notebook unless I allow it."
Light laughed maniacally as he watched Ryuk write. "Sucks to be you, Near! The only choice you had was to kill me right away!
"But now that Ryuk's decided to write your names down, nobody can stop him! It's too late. You're all going to die."
"It," said Patience, just as Ryuk said, "No."
Ryuk paused from his writing and cackled, amused with Patience's comment. "Very clever, Piper."
"...It," Patience said, somewhat perturbed by the Shinigami's comment but continuing nonetheless. "He said he'd write 'it.' Not 'them.' He said he would write a name."
"And Light, the one who's going to die," said Ryuk, returning to his notebook, "is you."
"Ryuk," said Light, "you..." Gathering what little strength he had left, Light stood up. "Stop it!" he yelled, and he leaped to attack Ryuk but fell right through the Shinigami, who was no more than an apparition at that point.
"No matter how I look at it, you've lost, Light," Ryuk said, looking up from his note to stare at Light, his bright eyes glowing unnaturally. "I was kind of expecting to see you get out of this one, but if I'm your last resort... you really are done for.
"You've eased my boredom for quite a long time, haven't you? It was a lot of fun, but like the girl said: I'm just tagging along for the ride."
"A-am I going to die?" Light stammered. "I'm going to die!"
"That's right," Ryuk confirmed, turning the notebook so that all of us could see what was written on it. A fresh page on the left-hand side of the notebook, written right in the center, a special place reserved just for Kira.
"In forty seconds, you'll have a heart attack. It's already been decided upon."
"I-I'm going to die," said Light, his eyes beginning to water. He dragged himself across the floor, trying to reach Ryuk. "N...n...no... I don't want to die. I don't want to die! Damn it! Stop it! I don't want to die!"
When I looked at Light, I realized that I held no pity for him, and so I prayed. I prayed for mercy for both him and myself.
"You sound so undignified," said Ryuk as Light reached him and latched onto his belt. "It's not like you, Light.
"I told you in the very beginning that I would be the one writing your name in the notebook when you die. That is the rule between the Shinigami who brings the notebook into the human realm and the first human who picks up the notebook.
"If they put you in prison, who knows when you'll die? I don't want to just lie around waiting for you to die, so it's all over. You should die right here."
"N-no!" Light protested. "I don't want to die! I don't want to go to prison either! Do something! I know there's a way out of it, Ryuk!"
"Once a name is written down in the Death Note, you can't do anything about it. You more than anybody else here should know that.
"Goodbye, Yagami Light."
We all remained silently where we were. Even Near looked speechless. Patience just looked at her watch, either trying to take her attention away from the death that would come or counting down when it would happen. I shuddered at the thought of her taking such a thing so casually.
Then again, after all these years, she's seen far more death than I.
Matsuda got to his feet. "Light," he said, taking a step forward.
"Matsuda!" Aizawa hissed, grabbing his colleague by the shoulder. "Stop it. What is it this time, sympathy?"
In those last few seconds, I saw something in Light's eyes. Perhaps it was his life flashing by, as some say happens, but it was definitely a memory. He was remembering something, and when he let out a shrill scream, I knew it was nothing good.
"I don't want to die! I don't want to go!" Then he let go of Ryuk's belt and fell onto his back, alone on the cold, hard floor. "D...Damn it."
And just like that, Light flickered out and died.
Patience looked up from her watch and then at Ryuk. "Now it's over."
"Depends on your definition of 'over'," Ryuk said with a laugh.
Patience stared at the fake notebook in front of Near, and he nodded, sliding it forward so that she could see it.
She approached the notebook, then got to her knees and looked at its contents. I walked over to her and looked at the names. The Japanese Task Force's names, three names which I assumed belonged to Lidner, Rester and Gevanni, since all the given names were the same.
Nate River
That was the first one written down. Probably Near's name.
Abigail Grey
The name sounded oddly familiar, and I could remember little bits and pieces of the past. A Chinese couple I lived with, and I remember them speaking to each other in Mandarin. After a week, I spoke it fluently, and that's when I was sent away. They had said goodbye to me, handing me the rosary I currently held in my hand, to comfort me in my new life; they had said goodbye to Abigail.
Some of us remembered our names despite being brought in so early, while others eventually forgot. I'd never had any need to remember. Wammy's was my life. And yet still, that little memory was tucked away. A memory of Abigail Grey. That is my name. It gave me a warm, content feeling to learn this. It isn't as though I will ever use it, but knowing is somewhat comforting.
Patience was staring at the name below mine. Her eyes were wide in shock, and I was happy for her. She finally knew her name.
Piper Riddle.