A/N: Written for the 5,10,20,50,70,100 fandoms challenge, fandom 76: Death Note Special.

…not Kira…

'…not Kira…'

Those words burnt, even after the burning ashes of their duty had flown away. Even before the Task Force had spent tireless weeks hunting for this not Kira, before finding a young male dead after writing own name in the Note.

It had been on the report: "Young male writes name under a list of others dead over the past months before death. List matches up with the list of the new Kira's assumed victims".

The lower echelons didn't know about the Death Note. It was only when Mogi had been checking the reports on the last Kira deaths they knew about that the once-Kira task force had found the link.

And, just like that, Kira was gone from the world again. Except they couldn't help but wonder about Near's words still. The public wondered, but they had wondered and argued for an age and would continue their aimless prattle. The Task Force wondered, because they had been heavily involved with Kira, and L.

Not Kira…Near had sounded almost disappointed when he spoke. Had he, too, respected Light, they wondered? Had he seem him a worthy rival? Had he thought Kira had done some good beneath the genocide?

But they couldn't contact Near, and Near seemed to have no interest in contacting them, so their musings became the same as the public: unnecessarily and wild and spreading like a fire through dry grass…because even after the case had been buried and the Death Note validated and destroyed (because they still remembered the doubt they'd had about Near, about Light's final call) they saw reminders: on the news, on the streets, about the not Kira.

But they also saw it more conflicted than the original Kira's reception had been. It had been so black and white then, and only Matsuda had pointed out the grey in between. But so many sat on the grey now, and too many more thought how horrible those who had not found their path in life could toss it away so cowardly. How Kira killing people who said in a moment of desperation or foolishness they wanted to die, leaving no time for ownership or regret.

And the only two statistics that had gone down were life expectancy and suicide rates. They paled in significance to Kira's reduction in crime.

None of them could stop thinking, for a long time, that Light who they were forced to hate as Kira, was better.

'…not Kira…'

It really was the easiest way to think about it. Except that they all showed respect to the true Kira in the process.