December 26th

"Matt, check the body for wounds, and please bring me my backpack."

At first Matt isn't sure whose body it is. It's lying on its front, and the yellow hair has spread out into a halo, like Mello's did when he was sleeping next to Matt. He's overcome, again, with thoughts of Mello being dead. There's a dull thud in his chest.

"Please bring me my backpack so I can start trying to solve this." Near's voice is surprisingly sharp.

Matt just stands there. Useless again. He's always been useless in situations like these: even back at Wammy's, he'd relied on Mello's hard-heartedness far too much. Mello would be able to stand here and look at Matt's body like it wasn't even human, he'd be able to figure out who was doing this, he'd be able to fucking kill whoever had done it. Matt, though. Matt's not even sure his legs even feel like standing any more. He just keeps looking at Mello, who's dead.

There are two huge holes where his arms used to connect to his shoulders, and each hole has an accompanying pool of blood. His legs are splayed out to the sides. Matt feels sick to think about the pain Mello must have been in –

"She's dead, and staring at the body won't change that. Would you please retrieve my backpack from the floor? Due to the brain damage you so kindly gave me, I – "

Matt picks up the backpack and flings it in Near's direction. Hopefully it would hit her. Make her shut up for once. He just needs to think without her annoying little voice cutting in every time he's close to clearing his mind.

"Thank you for hitting me with this. It helped a lot." Her voice is as flat and bored as usual. "Examine the wounds. The killer often left clues to the next victim in the murder scene. "

He looks at the body. There's no way he's going to touch it. "Near – " he starts, but cuts off in frustration when he turns around. Near has got out a toy truck from her bag and is pushing it back and forth along the paint-stained floor. "Near, are you even trying?"

She doesn't look up. "I'm trying more than you are. Check the body for wounds. The killer would leave clues in the wounds, according to Mello – "

At the thought of Mello, rational thought abruptly gives up. He grabs Near, pulls her up against the wall, and wraps his hands around her throat. It would be so easy to kill her right now. If he cut her body up afterwards, then he could just leave her here, bleeding out. They wouldn't even suspect him. They'd know it was that serial killer. He could kill Near and get away with it. Mello would be so pleased.

Near rolls her eyes and gently kisses him. It is highly unnatural and it makes Matt want to kill her even more, if that's even possible. Still, he's so confused that he loosens his grip on her neck.

"That was disgusting," she says a moment later, wiping her lips with the back of her hand. "Now that you've calmed down a little, please go and inspect the body for clues. If we want to find Mello, then we need to know where our killer will strike next."

Matt steps back. His mouth feels like something's rotted on it. Near slips free and folds herself back up into her cross-legged position.

"Oh, and please do try not to attack me every time I mention Mello."

Matt swallows dryly and heads over to the body.

January 3rd

Like the good girlfriend she is, Misa is watching TV with Light's family. Well, Sayu and Sachiko. Soichiro is still busy chasing after killers he'll never catch.

It's strange, because if he had cared to come home, he would have found a killer sitting on his usual place on the couch. It's so funny to Misa that she's the one here, smiling at Sachiko, laughing with Sayu, and they think she's innocent, while Soichiro is aiming in an entirely wrong direction. All thanks to her Light. It's incredibly risky, but it's just so fun.

Once she's filled an entire page with neatly written black rows, her mind is beginning to feel dull. What's even the point of killing? Maybe she'd know if she died. It's weird. She doesn't really feel in control of herself any more. It's like she's watching as a pretty blonde girl acts out her life.

Maybe it's the Death Note controlling her.

Misa takes out her purple gel pen and writes: "2pm, January 15th. Hangs herself in her bedroom." She hasn't tried controlling her own actions like this before. If she writes just one stroke too much, she won't be able to fix it by quickly scribbling her name again so the two death sentences will cancel each other out. Because of this, she pauses before writing herself in. Her pen hovers over the page for a moment too long.

"Misa," says Sayu suddenly, "can you help me with my maths homework? Light's probably busy."

Light's always busy these days. He won't even see Misa so much. She still loves him, of course; she'll never stop loving him. She's just worried he's already stopped loving her. She's just worried he's found someone better.

When she looks down, she finds she's written Sayu's name in the empty space.

"Of course Misa-Misa will help you with your maths homework," she says. She laughs quietly. Light's going to kill her for this. Maybe she's going to die for real. How exciting.

December 10th

The first person to walk in on L and Light making out is Matsuda. This is mostly because this is the first time they've made out, and Matsuda has a habit of walking into literally anything.

It's strange, though, how little Matsuda responds to L being alive.

See, Light had tried to dissuade L from turning up at meetings, he really had, but there seemed to be nothing that could stop him. No matter what he does, L will be somewhere nearby. This time, he'd left his bedroom to get some coffee for everyone, when L had slunk out from Sayu's bedroom, grabbed his hand, and pulled him into Sayu's closet.

It had been so dark in there at first that Light hadn't realised what was going on. Really, it was L's fault that they were kissing right now. He'd been the one who started it, like with pretty much anything. Not that Light's complaining. Kissing L is much more satisfying than kissing Misa, if only for the fact that L doesn't smell and taste like a perfume advert. Of course it's just that. That's L's fault too.

So when Matsuda opens up the closet and finds them, Light's instant reaction is to blurt out, "It's L's fault!"

His eyes had been closed during the kissing – it had felt more natural this way – so the first thing Light sees is Matsuda's cringing face.

"Ah – okay." Matsuda nods, his eyes wide, and his smile wide too, far too wide to look natural "I'll – I'll tell them you'll be there in a minute."

It's only after Matsuda leaves that Light looks into the newly illuminated closet and finds that L isn't even in there. He must have snuck out before Matsuda came in, Light reasons. It's the only sensible justification for how Matsuda didn't see him.

December 26th

Near sorts her dice neatly into lines of threes and fours. It is rather therapeutic. Her neck aches and her head is still fuzzy and her mouth feels weird and she's considering leaving Matt to get murdered.

He's knelt over the body like he's praying to it. Near finds this strangely funny, because she knows that he wouldn't really ever pray to anyone but Mello. And Mello would only pray to God. Strange how it goes round like that. She wants to laugh, but this is a murder scene. It would be inappropriate. Not that that even matters to her any more.

She's leaning against the red wall, which one of Henrietta's legs is pointed at. The left leg is pointed at the yellow wall. Matt is kneeling between her legs, so all Near can see is his back. There are better things to think about than Matt's back. She concentrates instead on lining up the dice so that they're all in a perfectly regular square, with the numbers on the top adding up to the same whichever straight line you choose to use.

After she has done this five times, Matt is done. "Apart from the arms, nothing was removed. She was killed by a slash to the neck. Quite deep – almost to the bone. There are four slashes horizontally along her right shin, and two on her left shin."

Near can't think of anything particularly useful about this. "Maybe he's messed with something in the house? That's what Mello told me he'd do to indicate clues."

Matt stands up and scans the room vacantly. He isn't looking at his best – his hands are hanging limply by his sides. He's adopted a slouch he doesn't normally have. Near has learnt that this happens when he is tired or angry, but not when he is angry enough to attack her. She knows far too well what 'angry enough to attack her' looks like.

Suddenly, his body goes tense. "What is it?" Near asks.

He points into Henrietta's bedroom. She can't see into it from here. "What?"

"There's a – wrapper, a chocolate bar wrapper. It wasn't here earlier." His breathing rate has suddenly increased, Near observes with her usual clinical detachment. "Mello's been here – Mello was – Mello's with the murderer. I – "

That isn't the only possible conclusion. Near is drawn towards another one. "Or maybe Mello is the murderer. He knows enough about Beyond Birthday to replicate his crimes. It would explain why he picked to murder someone with such a similar appearance to Mello. He may have wanted to cause you as much emotional pain as possible."

"Shut up, Near," Matt growls.

Near obediently shuts up.

"Nobody but us knows that Henrietta is dead, so we can stay here for the night. Nobody will come in. I'll take her bed and you can use some of her clothes as blankets. Then in the morning, we're going to find out who's going to die next. We're going to find – " Matt stumbles on his words slightly. The look of blazing ambition in his eyes seems so fizzle out. "We will find Mello, won't we?"

Near doesn't answer, and instead picks up the dice and drops them one by one into her backpack. "Could you please stroke my hair to help me get to sleep?"

He turns in the doorway, then laughs and slams the door. Near hadn't really expected him to indulge her request. There was just a small chance of him even acknowledging she'd asked. Anyway, she'd find it hard to sleep whatever he did. The room had a freshly-dead body lying in the middle – anyone would find it hard to be comfortable.

To her surprise, however, her position curled against the wall is so comfortable she finds herself sinking into sleep. During the night, she briefly wakes to find that she is in a bed and that Matt is stroking her hair gently. She decides not to let him know she's awake – he'd probably kill her for it.