Special thanks goes out always to my favorite Beta-Readers: Shingami Reimei, Mail Jeevus, and Bucket On The Head! And to Kit-chan, who is kind to this greenhorn fanfiction writer. ;p

(C) Death Note: Takeshi Obata/Tsugumi Ohba (Shonen Jump)

Dogmatic

Near was a bit unsettled from the strange words coming from Mello's end of the cell phone conversation. His tone in voice had drastically changed when Near mentioned how Seppuku managed to force him into the wrong bus express.

Shaking the feelings away, he spouted, "You seriously can't be thinking that it's okay for you to die as long as I'm saved, right? It's extremely out of character for you, Mello."

The blonde was silent for a moment, and then admitted, "Unlike the current L, I'm somewhat of an unorthodox fool. I have to be, or else I can't achieve anything... Still listening, Near?"

"Yes," he mumbled.

"There's still a way for me to survive. I can safely guess that Kiri has the detonation device. If that's true, then she must have a deactivation switch as well, or at least a spare key. I'm going to bet on this assumption."

"'Bet'? Do you mean you're going to create a situation in which Kiri will die too if she doesn't disarm the bomb?"

"Something like that. I'm hanging up now."

"..."

"I'll call later. Just sit tight and don't worry. The last thing I need is your concern."

Near gave a small laugh. "Understood."

...

Kiri was now riding inside a public taxi to speed up her search.

Playing around with her cell phone and looking out the tinted window beside her every now and then, she smirked playfully. 'Without the bomb key, Mello's last hope is my deactivation switch. Knowing him, he'll try to create a situation to make me press this... A situation in which I'll die too if I don't. To accomplish that, he would need to increase the effective range of that miniature bomb on his neck... Preferably by confronting me in an area with a large amount of kerosene or flammable gas. Naturally, his possible locations would be limited, since Matt was the one who had specifically left Wammy's yesterday afternoon for a short amount of time. Thus, this certain place must be somewhere Mello could escape to if he failed to obtain the bomb key. The only such place in town is the area around the sewage pipe outlet... Humph. Before this all started, Mello must have had Matt hide all of his tools around there... A clever move.'

When she reached her destination, Kiri told the taxi driver to pull over and kindly paid him a handsome fee.

...

Hara waited by the apartment complex's entrance, watching as the mail carrier entered inside. 'Timely mail man. I owe him one. Now, to avoid being seen, I'll have less than 10 seconds to pick the lock... Otherwise, I'll look too suspicious and get caught for sure...'

Quickly dashing inside, Hara went to the mail box labeled "Mello" and successfully picked the lock open with ease. Upon opening the safe's door, 10 rectangular wrapped boxes simultaneously fell out and clattered to the floor.

"WHAT THE...?!" Hara exclaimed, his mouth agape.

Matt then casually walked up to him from behind and patted him on the shoulder. "Ah, sorry 'bout that. Mello and I sent a whole bunch of dummy tapes to confuse you! Pretty sweet, huh?"

"D-dummies?!" Hara stammered.

Matt scratched the back of his neck and laughed. "Yup. But... there is one itty bitty problem."

"Wh-What?"

"I can't even tell which tape is the real one myself!"

"HUH?!" Hara exclaimed, in complete disbelief.

Matt crouched down and looked to the tapes with a short smile. "Man, Mello and I sure did a really good job making these... they're all identical!"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ADMIRING THEM FOR?! ARE YOU EVEN TRYING TO PLAY THIS GAME?!"

The red-head shrugged. "I guess there's no other choice but to open each tape by hand..."

Hara sighed exasperatedly and began to open up one of the boxes. "You're a real 'effing moron, y'know that?! Geez..."

Matt then chuckled and swiftly picked up the tape closest to his foot. "Now who's the moron, dumbass?"

He then made off with the tape and boarded a parked taxi outside of the apartment building. Hara attempted to chase him down the street, but it was no use trying to catch a speeding vehicle. Giving up his chase, Hara slammed his fists into the nearest wall and screamed out in frustrated defeat.

From within his taxi, Matt smirked and leaned against the window pane. "Part one is complete, Mello."

...

When he calmed down, Hara whipped out his cell phone and called Kiri. "Sorry, but Matt got the tape..."

Silence.

"H-hello?"

"You retarded bastard!"

Hara sweatdropped. "S-sorry..."

Kiri exhaled into the phone, hurting Hara's ear with a horrible, scratchy static noise. "Ugh, whatever. Since you can't really do anything, I want you to go the fast bus express's first pick up station and wait there. There's a chance that Near might be able to return at the very last minute to give Mello the bomb key..."

"But what about the tape?!"

"Don't worry. It's coming directly my way..."

Hara was slightly confused but spouted a meek, "Oh, s-so we still have a chance, then? Th-that's good. But be careful, Kiri. Even though Mello's determined to put his life on the line, he can still resort to desperate measures... Are you sure you don't want back-up?"

"No," Kiri declined. "I'd prefer to have a normal one-on-one match..."

"Suit yourself then."

...

Mello took a deep breath and cricked his neck. 'The very last second will decide this match...'

That sentence replayed in his mind like an annoying metronome.

He then phoned Kiri's number.

"What is it, Mello?" she answered.

"Let's meet."

"Oh, so you want me to remove the bomb now?"

"You do want the tape don't you?" Mello reminded sharply.

"Fine. Where do we meet...?"

...

Another chapter?! Wow, I'm even shocked myself. But depending on the circumstances, this might be the last quick update in a while... (Since today is officially excluded, school's only in one day! Oh noes! 0o0) And I don't know if I can pull anymore all-nighters... (sorry!)

Anywho, my friends who read this chapter in its written from, were wondering what the chapter title "Dogmatic" meant. Well it can mean both "arrogance" and "positive" which reflects the arrogance Hara had in this chapter with the retrieving of the tape and the postive attitude Matt reflected in his perfomance to mislead Hara. ;p Also the "dog" in dogmatic seemed to work since Matt, the red-headed "loyal dog" and Mello's trusted friend, had his spotlight in this chapter. XD (I apologize for that weird pun.)

Er, I'm steadily running out of good Death Note Fun Facts...:

The Death Note live-action movie comes out September 16th, 2008 on DVD!

(Haha that was more like a promotion ad. than a fact... ;3) So please stay-tuned everyone! Oh, and thanks for 20 reviews!! I never would've thought I'd get this many! Thanks so much everyone... You make this noob uber happy!