Near absentmindedly stirred at his parfait. The girl sitting opposite from him continued prattling away, seemingly oblivious to his disinterest. Near sat back and looked up at the sky, exhaling lightly. He was now twenty-three years old. He had been acting as L for five years now. Yagami Light had been dead for almost the same amount of time, and with the exception of the C-Kira incident, the world had reverted to mostly the same state it had been in prior to Kira's appearance. Well, not quite. Kira's influence still greatly pervaded the media, and there were still a myriad of cults and talk shows devoted to him. Many still insisted Kira was only taking a break, or in hiding. But the crime rate had returned to nearly what it had once been, and a war had even begun recently. Near wondered if this would've happened if Kira had survived longer.

Having decided that none of the clouds were worth his attention, Near shifted it back to his date. She was an aspiring psychological profiler. Ironically, she was still talking about how she had come up with her profile of Kira. She was very far off, even if a few of her assumptions were reasonable. Near considered her. He had met her while sitting in on a graduate class. Not that he attended graduate school of course. The thought was laughable. But it was an easy way to meet intelligent women who were around his age. He had finally come out of his isolation recently after persistent badgering by Halle Bullook. He had found, much to his surprise, that he actually quite enjoyed the company of the opposite sex. And all of the associated benefits. Near still wasn't attempting to build up personal relationships with anyone, but it was a start at least.

This week's girl was quite attractive—a good body, pretty face, nice hair. She was incredibly vapid though, and Near was rapidly losing patience with her talk of Kira, especially when her assumptions and implications began to border on the insulting. Near still held a certain level of respect for Yagami Light after all this time, even though they had been on opposite sides; after all, Light had changed the world, albeit temporarily. He had almost brought about world peace. No matter what you felt about his methodology, there was no denying that he had gotten results. Near never tried to downplay that.

So of course, for this graduate student to be completely off-base, yet talking with some sense of authority, was a bit irritating to Near. Normally, Near had no inclination to ever discuss his role in Kira's downfall, but rarely, very rarely (such as now), he had a powerful urge to tell whomever was talking about Kira to shut up so that he, the man who had actually defeated Kira, could set the record straight. He held this tongue though. Was there even really a need to be insulted on Light's behalf? Even if Near respected him, Light had been a psychopath with a god-complex. Hell, Near had said words of that effect to Light's face.

One of Near's two cell phones vibrated, snapping him out of his reverie. The left pocket, meaning it was likely Halle Bullook. Which meant she had a case that she thought would interest him. Near considered this; Halle rarely wasted his time, but the girl, uninteresting though she was, was clearly attracted to him. Near was certain she would go to bed with him. Near hadn't had serious mental stimulation in a good few weeks, but sex had become his favorite activity. And his late growth spurt had helped in ensuring that he was rarely lacking of it. The case would probably still be there later tonight, Near mused. He turned his attention back to the girl and resumed eating his parfait.

She had just been wrapping up her monologue, unperturbed (Near had been tactful enough to frequently make eye contact with her and nod at appropriate junctures even while lost in thought). "So Norman, what do you think?" Near decided he might as well help her and correct a few of her general misconceptions (politely and gently, of course). He opened his mouth, keeping careful note of which errors he had nodded at anyway, and was about to explain why Kira was not in his mid-thirties when his glance fell on one of the TVs in the café. He froze. His date followed his gaze and gasped. Every single TV was tuned into news stations, and most of the patrons were riveted to the screens.

43 convicted felons died of a heart attack in the last hour.

We have received reports of over fifty criminals dying of heart attacks.

68 criminals have just dropped dead.

Kira has returned.

Near was now acutely aware of why Halle had called him. He was definitely not going to put this case off. The girl was staring at the TVs, awestruck. Near frowned. It looked like taking her to bed simply wasn't an option today. Oh well. Maybe some other time. Near waited until Halle tried calling him again—for she surely would given the circumstances—then apologized to the girl, saying that he needed to take the call. Halle said mostly what Near had expected her to, but he pretended to be surprised, then mortified. He explained to his date that his grandfather had suffered from a stroke (which was technically true; just off by about forty years) and that he really needed to leave. He apologized profusely, quickly scribbled down his phone number, then hastily called a cab.

As the cab took him to his tower, where the former SPK members were already convening, he pondered this sudden turn of events. He had a gut feeling that this would be the real thing—not some petty murderer with no real ideology, like C-Kira. Whoever this new Kira was, he was killing just like Yagami Light had. The only question Near had at that moment was… would this new Kira be anywhere near the level of threat Yagami Light posed? And if this new Kira was that much of a threat, would Near be able to handle him all by himself this time? Near's victory against Light had hinged on Mello's sacrifice. Something that wouldn't be happening again. Near was positive he had grown stronger during these five years, but…

L… I wonder what you would be thinking about right now?

Near knew the answer, of course. L would have already been working out how to narrow down the range of where Kira could be. Near pulled out his smartphone, opened up some news streams, and set to work.