A vast nothingness spread out before Light—a world with no directions or colors. He felt disoriented, like he had been blindfolded and spun around. He held his hands up in front of his face to reassure himself that he could still see.

Not that sight mattered in a place like this…

His body was full of bullet holes, even in the abyss of death, and all he could really feel was the pain from them. Light put his hand over one of the wounds, and found that there was no blood coming out of it. "Of course not," he said to himself. "I'm dead, after all…"

He turned his head to the side and was surprised to see, floating in the distance, the unmistakable outline of another human being. His interest piqued, he started toward the shape, only to find that he wasn't getting any closer. He stopped, realizing it was pointless. Of course he couldn't walk in this swirling blackness—there was no ground to place his feet on. How could he expect to move through it?

Light resigned himself to float passively in the abyss. After all, he was not too invested in trying to have a conversation with whatever ghoul he was sharing his eternal prison with. Perhaps it was one of the punishments of the place, he guessed, that one could see but never reach another human being. And if that were that case, he wouldn't give this world the satisfaction of trying. With a sigh, he leaned back into the swirling nothingness, though it of course made no difference whether he leaned or stood. It all felt the same to him.

His sigh caught the attention of the other party, who turned around—though, at that distance, Light could not make much of the person's features. He did see the movement of the other, however, and assumed the action. After a short hesitation, the person tried, frantically, to walk towards him and—finding it impossible—paused again. Light watched their movements with subdued interest, unconcerned whether or not they'd be able to make it to him.

After some time, the figure began to come nearer to him. Light straightened up, his eyes fixed on the approaching ghost. As the specter, what once was a man, floated through the abyss, his features became more definite, and Light was able to recognize him. "Mikami," he said softly.

"G-god," said Mikami, his eyes wide. There was a hole in his stomach, but no blood came out of it.

Light narrowed his eyes at the man. "You were told not to do anything unnecessary," he said. "My death is your fault."

"I—I thought I had to kill her, God. I didn't—f-forgive me," said Mikami. "I didn't realize…"

"Idiot," said Light, turning away. "Near beat me. He wouldn't have if it hadn't been for you."

"God…"

"I shouldn't have chosen you."

"I-I just did what I thought you'd want me to do," said Mikami, very close to tears. "Please don't say things like that, God…"

"If you had obeyed me," said Light coldly. "Then Near would be dead and I would be alive. You killed me and you killed my perfect, just world."

They were silent as Light looked out at the blackness surrounding them. "So this is what Ryuk was talking about when he said humans who use the Death Note can go to neither Heaven nor Hell," he said. "This is the nothingness he mentioned before…"

"I tried to distract them so you could get away, God," said Mikami quietly.

Light glanced at him sideways. "I don't want to talk about that anymore," he said. "It's pointless to discuss. You failed me. There is nothing else that can be said."

Mikami went silent and hung his head. Light put his hands on his hips and surveyed the empty world again. "If this is where humans who use Death Notes go, there should be more here," he said. "Ryuk told me, when we first met, that he'd heard of Death Notes falling into the human world before he dropped his, so…"

"Maybe it's not," said Mikami. "Maybe this is… is purgatory. The waiting room of the afterlife—something like that."

Light didn't look at him as he said, "That's ridiculous. There would still be more than us here."

"Well," said Mikami. "Maybe—maybe there are more. I don't know how large this place is—maybe it goes on forever in all directions. It's possible that all the other people are just spread out."

Light tilted his head to one side. He'd thought about that possibility, of course, but it was worth seeing if Mikami was of reasonable intelligence to justify keeping him around. "How do you move?"

"Y-you just focus on moving towards something and it happens," Mikami said.

"Towards something?" said Light, staring into the abyss. "Toward what?"

Mikami shrugged weakly and lowered his face. Light turned away and, concentrating on moving through this blank world, began to move away from Mikami. He paused and looked over his shoulder at the other man. "Are you coming or not?"

His eyes widened and, with a nod, he started after Light. When the two were abreast, it became hard to tell if they were moving at all. At length, however, a vague humanoid figure came into view. The pair looked in the direction of the person, who seemed to be moving toward them as they were moving toward it. The figure moved its legs, as if it were walking through the nothingness—however, there was something strange about the way it tried to walk. It walked with a sort of slumping casualness.

Light stiffened and stopped moving toward it. Mikami stopped a little ahead of him, and glanced back. "God?" he asked.

The details of the approaching figure became more definite, confirming Light's suspicions. "Hello, Light," said the person, reaching them.

"L," said Light coolly.

L leaned forward, and dug his index finger into one of Light's bullet holes, causing the young man to grimace. Mikami, who had been observing L's state of dress with obvious distaste, winced at his action. "Don't do that," Light said, pushing L's hand forcefully away. "It's weird."

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, L straightened up some—not all the way up, of course, but on par with his usual posture. "So," he said. "They finally got you. I've been waiting. How does losing feel?"

"You should know," Light answered. "After all, you lost our game."

"Hardly. You were caught by my successors, after all."

Light narrowed his eyes. "How do you know that?"

L shrugged. "Who else could?"

"It was Near," said Light. He nodded slightly toward Mikami. "And it was his fault, not mine."

For the first time, L looked toward Mikami. After an extremely brief glance, he returned his gaze toward Light. "Can't admit to losing, huh?"

"You should talk."

"Who shot you?"

"Matsuda."

"Matsuda, huh?" said L, rubbing his lower lip with his thumb and looking up. He moved slowly into a crouching position. "I wouldn't have expected that. He shot you all those times just himself."

Light nodded.

"Go figure," murmured L. For a while, they were silent. "I knew you were Kira all along, you know. I just couldn't prove it. You didn't fool me one bit. I knew it was you the whole time."

"I knew you knew," said Light. "It was always about never giving you anything to prove it with."

Again they were silent.

"You want to know what I miss about being alive?" L said at length.

"Hm?"

"Sweets."