"Shinigami."

The young white-haired boy had seemingly spoken it to the emptiness in the room, and the adults present looked around the room in response. The warehouse was empty, but for the six police officers and the boy himself. At least, those were the living occupants.

On the floor among them, a young brown-haired boy lay, dead. Light Yagami had multiple bullet wounds in his body, and the look on his face was peaceful, despite the situation leading up to his death. They had returned him to the wharf warehouse just recently, having found him a short distance away, dead on the stairs of another building.

However, someone else entered. Ryuk the Shinigami faded through the wall into the warehouse, in tight clothing and chain, his mouth wide in a perpetual grin.

"Yo."

Near looked up calmly into Ryuk's face, holding up the black notebook in his hand, which had white, unintelligible characters on the cover.

"Teru Mikami, the previous owner of this note, is dead. In that case, who does it now belong to?"

Ryuk chuckled. "If the owner died, it belongs to the person holding it. That's you."

"I see," said Near, opening the notebook and staring at it. "And with Light Yagami dead, the other note now belongs to Mr. Aizawa. Ryuk now possesses me, yet Aizawa's note has no Shinigami."

"Yeah."

Near curled his hair with one finger. "Mr. Aizawa. Please give me your notebook."

Aizawa looked up after a moment of sadness staring at Light's body. He then nodded and silently removed a second black notebook from a case concealed beneath his jacket, then handed it to Near.

"Shinigami," Near continued, "I have already asked this before, but I will again. The rules you wrote in the first notebook… Were they all true?"

Ryuk didn't speak or move for a long time. "No," he said finally. "They're all true."

This response drew a sigh from Aizawa, but Near made no reaction.

"Very well. I relinquish ownership of this notebook." He held Mikami's notebook toward Ryuk, who just laughed and took the notebook from him.

"See ya," said Ryuk, and a moment later, the Shinigami faded from sight. A moment later, the three cops standing behind Near blinked and looked around, confused.

The older man, known by the name Lester, gave Near a questioning look. "That notebook you're holding… Have I seen that before?"

Near looked up at them. "It seems the Shinigami erases the memories of those who've touched the Death Note after it is relinquished. I will explain everything to you later."

The three cops fell silent, though noticeably unsatisfied, but Aizawa finally spoke up. "Near, now that this is all over, what do we do?"

"It's not over, Mr. Aizawa," Near responded. When Aizawa raised an eyebrow, he continued, "Kira may be gone, but his legacy remains. You don't expect the world to go back to normal if Kira's death is announced. Although, public outcry is inevitable at this point, it would be best to try and keep it at a minimum."

"What do you want us to do?"

"For now, if Kira's death is kept secret, it will at least delay the inevitable riots. Light Yagami will be announced as the last victim of Kira, before it comes evident that Kira himself disappeared. It is easy to suspect foul play, of course, if Kira disappeared directly after taking out one of his supposed greatest enemies. What you should probably do now is make a public denouncement of Kira. This may soften the suspicion of Kira's silence following this."

"And what about you?" Matsuda spoke up finally, his voice shaky and laden with sadness. "Are you just going to leave us?"

"No. The SPK will remain in Japan to help with the aftermath for a few months."

"I don't see the point… Light has bullet wounds all over… It'll be obvious I killed him…"

"You're wrong. Light Yagami was killed by a Death Note."

There was a long, lingering silence, until finally, Aizawa spoke up in an angry growl. "What are you saying?! Are you saying there's still another Kira around?!"

"No. There are no other Kiras, and all the Death Notes involved were in this warehouse tonight. Light Yagami was shot multiple times, but the wounds were not serious enough for Light to have died in a short matter of minutes. At worst, he would have passed out and bled to death after perhaps an hour. And his body still has color in it, as well. We also must take into consideration that the Shinigami that had been present here left shortly after Yagami fled from the warehouse."

"I don't get it," said Matsuda weakly. "What does that have to do with anything…?"

"No," said Aizawa firmly. "Ryuk had a notebook of his own. It might have stepped out to write Light's name down."

"Correct. Though we'll never know the reason, it was probably the Shinigami that killed Light Yagami. The existence of another Kira is highly unlikely, but to be safe, criminals should be watched in case judgment resumes."

"And another thing… There's still one Death Note left, Near. Are you going to destroy it?"

"No. Among the rules listed in the Death Note, there was the rule: 'If the note is made unusable by tearing up or burning, all humans who have touched the Note will die.' Mello told us there was a fake rule in the Note, and since Light Yagami was Kira, it is surely the rule: 'If the owner of the Note does not continuously write down names within 13 days of each other, the owner will die.' The authenticity of the rule before was never tested, and it would be unwise to test it with this note when so many have touched it. For now it will be kept secure with the SPK."

Aizawa looked down at his feet, a heavy frown on his face.

"For now, Light Yagami's body will be given a proper, respectful burial. No one outside this group knows of Light's role as both L and Kira. It should be kept that way to avoid mass panic."

Later, as Near returned by car to his Japanese base with his three companions, Lester—sitting across from him in the back of a limo—brought up another point.

"Near… Are you sure it's alright just pretending like Kira just disappeared? And what about L? The public doesn't even know about the first L's death, how do we even handle the second's?"

"It won't be alright, Commander Lester. However, it is the lesser of two evils, like I said. It is better to pretend he disappeared rather than shock the public by announcing his death. And as for L… Another reason I wish to remain in Japan is to assume L's role for now. However, I am different than L and wish to be known that way, so when I return to America, I will resume my identity as N."

Lester still looked unsure, but nodded. "Well, I trust you, Near. You were enough to take down Kira, even when L couldn't. Let's just hope nothing like this ever happens again."

…

Misa Amane awoke, but kept her eyes clenched; bright lights were flooding her vision. She was too disoriented to tell right away where she was, but she thought she heard some machines beeping in the room. She also felt a dull pain in her body, but it was very fuzzy, as if it was part of a dream she had been having.

Was she having a dream? She remembered something now… Matsuda… Matsuda came back from the wharf. That wasn't a dream, that was real. Matsuda came back from the meeting with N, and told her something… She couldn't think of what it was… Her whole body hurt. She wished Light was there to comfort her. He always made her feel better.

Light. Light was… Light was dead. Matsuda told her Light was dead. Killed by Kira.

Her eyes opened wide, despite the pain of the lights flooding the room. She was staring at an unfamiliar ceiling, but she was in a comfortable bed. It didn't feel like her bed, either. Her whole body was still feeling fuzzy and sluggish, but she finally became aware of just where she was.

It was a hospital room. She was in a bed, with quite a few machines around her. An IV in her arm was steadily dripping morphine into her body, dulling the pain of… Wait… what was it dulling the pain of? What had happened to her? And Light… If Light were here…

Tears began running down Misa's face, blurring her vision. Light was the only thing in the world to her… They were living together, they were surely going to get married after Kira was caught… Instead, Kira took away the only thing that truly mattered to Misa. Her life before Light had been nothing compared to her life after meeting him.

She couldn't live without Light! After five years of being with him, everything was empty now… Her heart had become black… There was no point in living anymore…

She remembered. Matsuda told her Light was dead. She screamed, she cried, she yelled at him to stop lying. She might have even punched him. Then her heart sunk, sunk away into darkness. She took the train to somewhere, and went up to a high place. She remembers seeing the setting sun. Then air, lots of rushing air. She had jumped. Jumped to her death.

But she was still alive. As she began to wake up more, she began to feel the pain in her body concentrated in her arms and legs. Most likely, they were all broken. She didn't think it possible to survive a fall like that, but she survived. How did she do it? Only a god of death could conquer a fall like that. She knew she wasn't a Shinigami… but maybe one was looking over her from heaven. A Shinigami, or an angel… or maybe a devil, to make her stay on this world to suffer.

She would probably get better soon. Her arms and legs didn't look too mangled, so they might heal in a month or two. After that… what would she do? The first thing that came to mind was committing suicide… Attempting it again. How could she live without Light? Or…

Kill Kira. Kira was the one who took Light away from her. Kira was the one who did this to her life. She could do that… Kira took away her Light, it's not like she had anything to lose! Perhaps Light would be able to live happy on the other side when he saw his killer get punished.

One or the other.