Near had walked Kara out of his office and had led her towards the elevators.

"Where are we going?" Kara asked.

"To our apartment while I'm working in this building. It's actually a temporary apartment until I can buy us a home of our own." Near said smiling at Kara.

"Near-chan," Kara said looking at him.

"It's okay Kara," Near said smiling back knowing she was somewhat speechless about the apartment. He had taken a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. "Come on in and tell me how you like it."

Kara had walked into the apartment and thought, "this is more like a house and not an apartment." She paused then said the words she just thought outloud.

Near smiled as he said, "I'm glad you like it Kara-chan."

"Am I going to stay here while you work downstairs in your office?" Kara asked looking at him.

"If you want to. If you still want to stay with me while I work," Near paused then said smiling at her as he placed his hand against her cheek. "That's okay by me as well. I just want you where you will be happiest."

"I think I'll be happiest by your side," Kara whispered blushing slightly as she casted her eyes downward.

Near smiled as he gently kissed her forehead and whispered against her ear, "if that's what you want. I'm happy about that." He paused then said smiling at her, "since I don't have to be at work for a while. And you look a little tired. Why don't we take a small nap?"

"Okay," Kara said blushing slightly again.

Near had shown Kara the bedroom with the king-sized bed in the center. Near smiled as he wrapped his arms around Kara and held her close to him. They had soon fallen asleep as they shared a comfortable embrace.

Near had woken up and noticed he and Kara had slept into the long hours of the night. He had looked at the clock and saw it had read only 5:30 a.m. He looked towards Kara and smiled seeing her sleep with a peaceful expresiion on her face. He gently brushed a strand of hair back that fell over her eyes. He had bent over and gently kissed her lips. Waking her up.

"Near-chan? What time is it?"

"It's after 5:30 in the morning." He said smiling at her.

"5:30? I guess we were both real tired then." Kara said.

"Yeah," Near said lying a little bit. In truth, he was up two hours before Kara woke up. He just wanted to watch her sleep. It made him feel at ease to know she was right next to him sleeping peacefully. And that she didn't have any nightmares from the incidents on the previous night. "Shall we get some breakfast and then leave for work?"

"Yeah." Kara said nodding her head at him.

Kara and Near had entered his office. Lestner, Halle, and Givanni had looked towards them and smiled.

"Good morning. You guys look well rested," Givanni said smiling at them. Making them blush slightly.

"Yeah we did sleep well last night." Near said smiling at them. "Let's get back to work."

"You don't want to be teased anymore." Givanni said smirking at him.

"You're right," Near said smirking at him.

Near had become serious in his work as he began looking through papers as he held one of his planes in his left hand. "Commander Lester. Get me L."

"Right away." Lester said as he turned away and began to dial the number to get ahold of L.

"Are you there, L? This is N speaking."

"Yes, this is L. What can i do for you N?" Kira asked.

"Is this about all you know of the notebook?"

"Of course."

"Well, this much won't tell me how you'd be able to write in people's names simply by looking at their picture. And we can only conclude that's how KIRA does it presently."

"We haven't quite figured that part out yet... I might be going on a limb here. But maybe the notebook KIRA has and the ones the kidnappers took are different. Maybe KIRA has a notebook that lets you kill by just looking at a person's face: or maybe he's not using a notebook at all..."

"Is that so? It's true the kidnappers can't kill people from their face alone..." Near paused then said, "among our survivors are people who surely had their picture taken by the spy..."

"N, there's something I've been wondering about on my part as well..." KIRA said.

"And what might that be?" Near asked.

"We've looked into Mello's background... and found he was your rival, N, for the position of L's successor. N, there's no doubt about it- you're 'Near', aren't you?"

"Yup! I'm Near" Near said jokingly as he grinned.

"So I can assume that Mello's fighting you over L's Legacy, and so he's taking any means necessary to capture KIRA." Kira said.

"That's about right."

"However, no matter how much he's disregarding the means to his end. There's one thing I don't understand; why kill the members of the spk? Wouldn't that make him no different than the killer he's after? Just what is his reasoning?"

"He became a murderer the moment he killed the pilot, the man who got on the plane with Mr. Yagami and the man who picked up th notebook. That being the case; to get to the notebook I'd have to capture Mello myself. But to Mello that would mean 'defeat'..." Near said.

"So why would he kill members of the SPK but not Subdirector Yagami and his daughter, who've had actual contct with him?" Kira asked.

"Well, for one thing he's under the impression, as I am, that your investigative team in Japan is not even incompetent. So he had left them so he can keep coercing info from Mr. Yagami by threatening his daughter's life. Unlike the spy, Mr. Yagami's a one-way source of information to him- he doesn't need to worry about his leaking anything to anyone. And he also wanted him alive to let us all know a thing or two."

"Such as?" Kira asked.

"For instance, he let Mr. yagami hear him speak while eating a chocolate bar. That was done for me to know that it was he who was taking the notebook. Mello wasn't being an idiot by letting that slip out; it was on purpose."

"On purpose?"

"He was taunting me, so to speak. He's boasting about having gotten to the notebook first. To Mello, it's like playing a videogame against me, I think. See who get's to KIRA- the last boss- first. But all I've going on about just now is- how to put it? The best case scenario... it's quite possible Mello wants to change the world to his liking, just like KIRA. He was always obsessed with being number one."

"So what you're saying is that to him. KIRA, you and 'L' all stand in his way." KIRA said.

"As far as Mello's reasoning goes. That's about as much as I'm able to speculate. Now that he's commited murder I can't really expect him to use the notebook to help me find KIRA, now can I? Nonetheless, the string of murders attributed to Mello's group make it easier for us to narrow down their whereabouts."

"And your take on Mello's next move?" KIRA asked.

"Reckoning that too is difficult, but Mello is not likely to stop at anything to get what he wants..." Near said as he hung up the phone.

"I haven't seen him in a long time," Kara said as she sat on the couch and looked over at Near.

"I'm sure he misses you too Kara-chan," Near said smiling at her.

Kara nodded her head agreeing.

Soon afterwards. Kara and Near had left to go back to the apartment they were going to be using for the time being.