And now for a little bit of a more light-hearted chapter. Small disclaimer, though - I am by no means an expert on Rubik's cubes, so if any information presented here is inaccurate, blame me, not Near. Anyway, please enjoy, thank you! :)

It wasn't often that one of Near's team out-smarted him, but whenever one of them did, he sincerely considered firing them. No, "out-smarting" was too strong of a word to describe it - they had simply become so adept at reading him throughout their years as a team, they could predict his behavior almost as well as he could predict theirs. Their growing ability to do this was what made him consider firing them - it was a bit disturbing to Near to have someone know him well enough to be able to fool him in any way, even on the tiniest level.

Such as the moment Lidner produced one of his Rubik's cubes to his son. Near would have liked to have been able say that there was no one else on his level - all those who had once been on his level were long since dead - but more and more, Lidner was proving him wrong. She seemed to have a very thorough understanding of the way he worked (not as well as Roger did, but well enough), and while most of the time this worked in his favor, when it came to things like this, he found himself cursing her.

He stared hard at the camera, watching his agent as she stood calmly by the windows, knowing that she knew what she had done. With his son coming to see him, there was no way Near was going to be able to watch and listen in on whatever it was Lidner had to say to his daughter. This pissed him off like no other, because he was infinitely curious about hearing the girl's side of the story directly from her, and not secondhand through his agent. Trusted as she was, Near knew that he would never get the full details from Lidner, and it was just as well the same coming from the girl. Ergo, the only way he would get to fully know what they had talked about was by viewing the recorded footage later that evening, after everyone else had gone to sleep. This bothered him, because he did not want to wait that long. And not only that, but he had the distinct feeling that if Lidner had gone through the trouble to do all this in the first place, then she most certainly had taken it a step further and had-...

"Near...?"

Near almost flinched at the sound of Rester's voice coming from right behind him. Had he really been that distracted? Damn Lidner...

"Yes, Commander?"

"Do we maybe need to take a break for now?"

Right, he and his team were in the middle of going over a rather large amount of data they had collected on a highly suspicious Kira worshiper who had emigrated from the United States to Japan two years ago. Since that time, the rate of copycat Kira murders and suicides in Japan had doubled, more than warranting further investigating from the team. But that was proving to be a challenge, what with all these incidents with the children taking his attention away from the project...

"It seems we do not have a choice in the matter either way, Commander," he said calmly, not wanting to give away just how distracted he had been, "Soichiro is on his way to see us." He moved his eyes from one of the hallway monitors by which the boy was passing, to one of the monitors in the children's room. Lidner was pulling out her phone just as she - and everyone else, Near included - received an alert that the elevator had been accessed. Out from the corner of his eye, he saw Rester and Gevanni glancing at their phones as well to check on said alert.

Damn Lidner again. She was biding her time until she knew that the boy had reached them. She most certainly knew what she had done. Damn her to hell and back for this...

Well, he didn't have very long to dwell on his annoyance over the issue, because it was only a few more minutes after that that the boy reached him.

"H-Hello," he said, quietly announcing his presence.

Gevanni was the first to respond - with a smile, of course, "Hey, kid. What do you need?"

"Um.. nothing, really," he said, shifting his weight from one leg to the other and clearly waiting to be invited in. Gevanni must have understood this, because he gestured for the boy to enter, which he did, slowly. "It's just that-.. Miss Lidner said I should come stay with you guys for a little while."

"Oh. Well, all right," said Gevanni, getting up from his workstation and shooting a glance at Near, which Near ignored. "Anything I can get you?"

"Um... No, thank you."

The agent smiled, "Are you sure?"

The boy nodded, but Near was not at all surprised when Gevanni abandoned his workstation, no doubt to retrieve a cart full of goodies for the boy anyway, leaving Near alone with him - well, and Rester, but he was making himself busy with their reports, thankfully.

Near eyed his shy son through his latest structure. The boy was fidgeting idly with the Rubik's cube that Lidner had given to him - the ruse to have him sent away - and gazing about the room, but he was otherwise making no move to ask Near to show him how it worked, as Lidner had instructed. Knowing what he did of his son's sheepish, unobtrusive nature and that he would never ask on his own, Near decided to prompt him, "You have one of my Rubik's cubes?"

The boy gave a slight start, blushed at being found out, and looked down at the cube he held in his hand. "Uh, yes. Miss Lidner said you would show me how it works. I-I didn't know it was yours, though."

Near stopped what he was doing with the K-Nex and held out a hand to receive the cube. Soichiro made his way over and placed the cube in his hand, and then suddenly asked, "Wow, did you make that?"

Near was busy turning the cube over in his hands, examining it, but he didn't have to look to know that his son was talking about the K-Nex car he was currently working on. "It's not finished," was his simple reply.

"That's so cool!" the boy exclaimed, his expression lighting up, bright and brilliant as the sun, "It looks just like the one in my game! How did you-.."

He had more to say, but stopped mid-sentence when he turned his attention back to Near and noticed that the cube - that moments ago had been in a complete scramble - was being handed back to him, now in its solved state. And then his expression lit up all over again.

"..Woooowwwww, that's amazing!" he all but squealed in massive excitement, looking over each side of the cube and seeing that each side was indeed uniform and therefore completed. "H-How did you do that?!"

"It's a simple matter of algorithms."

"Algorithms? What do you mean? That must have only taken you like 5 seconds to do!"

"4.19."

"That's so awesome! Can you do it again?"

Truthfully, Near did not quite understand his son's excitement over the solved Rubik's cube, as Near had been able to complete them from about as early on as he could remember, but something about the child's exuberance nonetheless made him want to show him again. He instructed his son to shuffle it up as best as he could, and again to the boy's amazement was able to complete the puzzle within a matter of seconds.

"That is-... That is so coooooooool!" the boy cheered all over again, seeming to be almost on the verge of tears from his delight. He plucked the cube from his father's hand and stared at it in astonishment, as though Near had just performed some kind of magic trick. "I've never seen anything like that before! That's so amazing!" Soichiro glanced up from the cube and Near happened to meet the boy's gaze. "You're amazing, Dad!"

The boy's eyes were gleaming at him in such a wondrous way, Near all at once felt the urge to hide behind one of his towers. The only other person who had ever beheld him in such reverence was the boy's mother, and although the child had his uncle's eyes, Near could see so much more of her in them.

It was too painful. The moment of splendor forgotten, Near turned away from him, intent on going back to the K-Nex. But then the boy was shuffling the cube and handing it back to him and asking him to solve it again.

"I have already done it twice."

"Oh... Okay... Sorry..." the boy murmured, his expression dimming, like a large cloud had passed in front of the sun, blocking out its golden beams.

Even though he couldn't say exactly why, Near hated seeing this. He had been the cause of that frown, however unintentional. On one hand, he honestly wanted the boy to leave. He wanted him to leave and take that smile with him - to take all of his (Near's) memories of Sayu with him. Sayu and her warm smile, her smile that she had once upon a time shown to him despite all his anti-social quirks. Her smile that he had dared to hope she had shown only to him. That hope had died long ago, and had especially been snuffed out along with all his discoveries over the last couple months. She had shown that smile to at least one other person, the same person who was responsible for the demise of their relationship, no less.

And now here it was, happening again, only now everything was in reverse. Here, Matsuda, the malefactor, had received his son's smiles first - he had received them, when it should have been Near. Matsuda had also received Chihiro's respect first, respect that she rationed out so delicately, Near knew he would never see it simply by virtue of his forced absenteeism for the first decade of her life.

Something about all of this almost made Near want to take out his frustration on the boy - the boy and his generous smiles. Push him away so Near wouldn't have to see any of it. But none of that was the boy's fault, just as none of it was Near's. It would be unfair to treat the boy unkindly because of something his mother and prospective step-father had done. It was just that.. he didn't know how to deal with something that caused him so much pain and joy at the same time. How could anyone deal with that much conflicting emotion? He felt like he was the Rubik's cube in its scrambled state, only this one had no algorithms, no straight-forward processes that would bring it to its solved state. It would be much easier for him to undermine Lidner - as she had undermined him - and send the boy back to her and let her deal with it. He didn't want to deal with any of this, but then his son was still frowning and there was some unknown part of him that was shouting out to him that he should at least deal with that.

"Perhaps you could give it a try, instead," he suggested softly.

"But-... I didn't get to see how you did it - you went so fast."

"I did say before that it involves algorithms."

A delicate pair of pink roses bloomed on the boy's cheeks. Seeing this, Near realized that perhaps he had been too blunt and made to amend his previous statement, but the boy beat him to it, "Yeah, but... I-I don't really know what that means. Is that like when you solve a math problem?"

"In a way. It's a set of rules you follow to get an answer."

"Okay... I kind of understand. But how does that make you solve a puzzle like that?"

Near's mind went off on all sorts of long, branching explanations that would likely have looked like a spider's web had they been arranged in any sort of visual manner. And, just as likely, they would have confused the child, who Near knew had more simple, linear thoughts. It made more sense to show him for this reason, and also because Near had learned that his son was more of a visual learner.

"Perhaps it is best if I show you."

Soichiro chirped, "Okay, yeah!" and plopped himself down right next to Near - too close for comfort, really, but Near was not about to ask him to move away either. It seemed that the cloud had moved out of the way and the boy's fluster forgotten. "But-... don't go so fast this time, even though it's the coolest thing I've ever seen."

"First you need to understand all the terms of operating the cube. It's easier to understand when it's in its completed state, so I'm afraid I'll have to solve it one more time for you. Here," Near said as he unscrambled the cube for a third a time, earning another wide grin from the boy. He glanced at the child, who was waiting patiently for him to explain further, and then back to the cube. "This front piece here is, of course, called the front side," he said while pointing. He continued to point as he went along, "Then there's the left side; the right side; the top, or up, side; and then finally, the bottom, or down, side."

"That's not so hard to remember. Up, down, left, right, front - like the buttons on my game controller," the boy commented, elated by the simple steps so far.

"Then there are directions for turning a side - there is clockwise for a right motion and counter-clockwise for a left motion. Left is commonly referred to as 'inverted'."

"Why?"

"Because of how it is notated in an algorithm."

"Um.. I'm not sure I understand that part. Can you show me?"

Near paused. He would need to write it down, but he currently had no pen and paper at his disposal, as Rester had collected everything upon the boy's appearance and taken it back to his own workstation. He turned to ask Rester to return some of the items to him, but it seemed his agent was not quite as focused on his work as Near presumed he was, because the man was already at his side with a blank notepad and pen in hand. With a small smirk at his lips, Commander Rester stooped, said "Here", and delivered the items to the detective before returning to his work.

"Left, or 'inverted', is notated by a mark like this," he went on without missing a beat, drawing a lowercase English letter i upon the notepad. "So if I were to tell you the next step of the algorithm was L inverted, you would then move the cube like this." Near demonstrated by turning the left side of the cube counter-clockwise. "And it would likewise be indicated by the move notation 'Li', as so," he said as he wrote down said notation.

"I think I understand. It's like the buttons you push in a certain order to get a combo move in a fighting game."

Now, Near did not have much experience with video games, save for the small bit of knowledge he had unwittingly gleaned from Mello's friend Matt in passing and from watching his son play, but he smirked nonetheless, "You could say that, if that's what makes it easier for you to remember."

The boy smirked - or as close as he could get to a smirk, which in reality was more of friendly little smile - in return, and the small exchange was so natural, Near felt some of the tension ease out of him, almost as if it had never been there at all, "So what are the other buttons-.. I mean steps-..."

"Notations."

"..-notations in the algorithm?"

"There are actually at least eight algorithms you will need to memorize."

"Eight?!" the boy exclaimed in abrupt mortification as Near began writing down the move notations.

"And sometimes you will need to repeat each one multiple times to get each layer solved."

"Multiple times?!"

"Right."

"But how do you remember all that?!"

Near couldn't really explain how it was he remembered it all, or how it was he knew how to do it in the first place, but he did spend the next ten or so minutes writing down the notations and explaining where each of them came into play. He then instructed the boy to give it a try and helped guide him through solving the first layer. The pair became so engrossed in this task, they neglected to hear the return of Gevanni, who left the food cart sitting nearby, which was also neglected. Their borderline excitable chatter continued on even after that, until a little while later when Lidner returned.

Just as Near was glancing up to see Lidner's unmistakably positive expression, the boy was dropping the cube and clambering to his feet, his relaxed, friendly demeanor all at once abandoned and quickly replaced with the typical anxiety that seemed to take a forefront whenever anything regarding his sister was involved.

"Chihiro-.." he started, only to be interrupted by a smiling Lidner.

"She is fine, Soichiro. We just had a talk between us girls."

The boy paled, glanced at Near, and then blushed. Near was certain there was some subtext in there that he was missing, and he might have considered asking about it were it not for the fact that he knew that Lidner had gone to talk to the girl about skipping her lessons. Of course Near knew that Lidner was only trying to be secretive, but then what had caused his son's embarrassed reaction?

"Not that kind of talk," Lidner supplied, upon noticing the boy's expression. That was still most unhelpful, but Near decided to let it go at any rate. After no one said anything, she added, "There were no locked bathrooms this time either, I promise," which provided significantly more information than her previous statement. Either the talk had gone exceedingly well, or Lidner had taken the bathroom door off its hinges, thus preventing it from being able to be used as a barracade. Near highly doubted that the latter was the case and so became even more curious about their talk.

The boy did not appear to be so convinced, however. "I-I'm sorry," he said to Near and immediately made to leave, without any need for prompting.

Although he was admittedly disappointed by the abrupt end to their conference, Near understood his son's urgent desire to get back to his twin. They had been together ever since - and before - their birth, and so were loyal to each other first above all others. That only made sense. They would have a long way to go yet before establishing their own identities, or at least before willingly setting themselves apart from one another. Still-..

"Soichiro," he found himself calling out after his son. The boy paused and looked back at him. Near picked up the half-solved Rubik's cube along with the inscribed move notations and held it out to the boy. "Be sure to let me know once you have solved it."

The boy hesitated for only a moment before going back and accepting the cube and the paper. A tiny smile shined through his otherwise distressed features. "Okay, I will, Dad," he agreed, and then hurried off.

"Sorry to have interrupted," said Lidner once the boy left the room. "So, what did you guys find on the case? Anything noteworthy?"

The two male agents exchanged a look, while Near made a point of inspecting his K-Nex car for any faults in its design. Of course they didn't get any work done while she was gone, surely Lidner would know that. She was only bringing it up to be obnoxious at this point, so Near did not feel the least bit inclined to respond to her himself. Besides, one of his agents would answer her momentarily anyway and then they could all get back on task.

"Yes, actually, now that you mention it," said Gevanni a tone that was far too serious for him to actually be serious. "We all learned that by making the moves Right Inverted, Down Inverted, Right, and Down six times in a row on a Rubik's cube, you can bring it back into its original state."

Several hours later, after his team and his children had all gone to bed, Near was pulling up the recorded CCTV footage of both in and around the building. He navigated the folders on the drive and when he came to the correct one, the one where the footage from that afternoon should be-...

It was gone. After some brief research, Near discovered that the blonde agent had turned off the recording feature for the cameras in the children's room at some point that afternoon while Near had been busy with other things.

Oh yes. Near was most definitely going to fire her.