Disclaimer: Not mine. I write merely for amusement.
A/N: I'm slowly running out of steam... I plan to wrap this up after another three drabbles, making it twelve drabbles in all. Thank you so much for your comments, you've been very encouraging:D
IX. Temptation
It's different of course. Light was a misguided man who believed he had the power over life and death, who believed he was god. Near has no such beliefs. He doesn't believe in a god anyway, and really, he doesn't care about justice and truth and all that rubbish spewed forth by Kira. It's a question of completing the puzzle, of winning the game. He only thinks about it as a backup plan. Everyone knows that's essential to be sure of a win, especially when all the odds are against you.
Such as now for instance, when this man, Muto Toya - he calls himself X, the bastard, in a direct challenge to N - keeps evading the police, interpol, even Near himself! and keeps killing and creating chaos and laughing at them.
Three years.
Three tortuous years since the elusive X had challenged them, challenged him and they are no nearer to catching him than they were at the start. They have everything, photographs, names, fingerprints, contacts, spies... and he slips through their fingers everytime.
Near touches the thin scrap of paper - a scrap of the Death Note, it's a backup plan, nothing else - as he stars at the screen broadcasting the news that X has struck again. And as a cold, burning rage fills him at the sight of his nemesis who's thwarted him for so long, he thinks that it would be so easy to write his name... so very easy...
I'm sorry for any mistakes, this was written in a bit of a rush! Comments wlecome!