After the recent swing of events and a resurgence in an all-too-familiar cloud of events, Matsuda, a former member of the Japanese Task Force's special compartmentalized group formed to combat Kira, was far too fed up to continue watching as a bystander. Upon departing from one of the many offices in the cold of Japan, Matsuda navigated the cold, streaky air, the weather far too uncomfortable and discomforting for the seasoned detective and police officer. The National Police Agency of Japan, determinant of general policies and safety standards as well as determinant of command and action during largescale disasters or catastrophes, had done little; effectually nothing in its power to get a better grip on the situation or attempt to intercept the killings. It frustrated him.

Despite past sympathies and empathies with the way Kira operated, finding out the truth caused Matsuda to reach an uncomforting truth; an unsettling notion on the subject matter of the way crime was being dealt with in Japan. News stations turned into propaganda stations with partisan, divided and often untrue, falsified views. The NPA became littered with cases of corruption and individual greed exemplified in the form of crooks at leading positions. Matsuda had been a personal witness of the effects of greed, viewing it at first glance with a demonstration by the Chief Director's son.

 He had rejected his former thought patterns of ever thinking such a disgusting person; such a disgusting former holder of the notebook could ever be thought of as morally just in his mind in any standard. Listless, filing through all of the elements of the investigation put mental strain on Matsuda. Light Yagami had lied to all of them. He had gotten away with a crime so heinous; so deceitful that it shattered the enterprise of justice Soichiro Yagami worked hard to establish as the Chief Director of the NPA. The disappointment Matsuda experienced in the aftermath of the case and the gut-wrenching pain caused by its sordid conclusion leading to the shortlived existence of Yagami without a chance to run him through the criminal justice system lasted months, weeks, and years leading after the conclusion of the Kira case. Even with his confidant and trusted friend, Yamamato, a new addition on the Japanese Task Force, and the presence of the leftover remnants of the previous Kira Task Force, nothing could justify the pain felt in the conclusion of the Kira case.

Shuichi Aizawa, a workmate and board member upon the Japanese Task Force, had grown distant. Communicating very little with the other members and doing very little since the new storm of killings came about, a new line of orders had been issued upon every member in the National Police Agency whether they were investigating the case concerning Kira or not.

Concealment of personal information such as their names and faces was a priority. For Touta Matsuda, it was primarily his name. Data across every circle of the web, recently, had been searched for information concerning investigators tied to the Japanese Task Force. Courts had decided on an official, absolute order, giving the National Police Agency authority to enforce a general standard of safety; to repel the access of information made available about certain officers unless they were said to hold public seats, and primarily make those that held private, powerful seats anonymous, which meant that the new Chief Director of the NPA was a mystery in identity that little of the National Police Agency knew about.

Not even Touta Matsuda knew. The changes to Japan's infrastructure among many things disturbed him as he frisked his way about. Too many buildings rooted from Kira's handiwork were present, and more news stations existing as subsidiaries of the branded Sakura TV, a proliferated product of lies, deception, and dishonesty as well as crooked do-gooding from the original Kira, plagued the streets, preventing a speck of truth from getting through. What angered Matsuda more than anything else about Sakura TV was that the previous force he worked alongside with did little in their power to stop anything that Sakura TV was doing, not even mediating or censoring the falsehoods that went along paper headlines.

Such an example became openly obvious, piquing Matsuda's aggravated interest as he broke to a stop, picking up a newspaper published by Sakura TV in regards to the resurfacing of Kira's killings.

The headline read:

CRIME HITS AN ALL-TIME LOW! CRIME RATE DROPS BY 90% FOLLOWING KIRA'S RESURRECTION! REPORTED ABSENCE OF POLICE PUTS GOOD RELATIONS WITH KIRA AND LAW ENFORCEMENT!

Disgusted, Matsuda threw the newspaper to the side. It departed to the road, drifting through the polluted, cold air before being hit by a car. The turbulent speeds ripped the newspaper apart with the collision. Matsuda watched the destruction of the newspaper as it was ripped to shreds, remnants carried and transported on the unidentified car as it sped through the streets at speeds higher than the specified speed limit. 

Forgetful of his rage, he shook his head, walking away.

That day, however, Matsuda decided there needed to be something done. He entered the temporary, small and reserved headquarters of the Japanese Task Force, shutting the door loudly. Hideki Ide and Shuichi Aizawa were quick to respond, attentive to his loud reaction, their resilient eyes snapping to Matsuda, the apparent center of attention.

Touta Matsuda: "That's enough! We need to do something about this. There's been too many people dying of heart attacks in Japan!"

Shuichi Aizawa: "You say that as if we've been doing nothing. There's nothing more we can do, Matsuda. I assumed that went through your head when you saw the statistics for the amount of heart attacks per 100,000 people in Japan."

Touta Matsuda: "Yes, I know. I know it sounds ridiculous, but isn't there something we can at least do? Kira is killing at a wider, unprecedented rate. What if we have another crisis on our hands?!?"

Hideki Ide: "...We do have another crisis on our hands."

Shuichi Aizawa: "I'm getting too old for this job." 

Aizawa stood up from his seat in the room, taking an exhausted swig from his cup.

Shuichi Aizawa: "...Matsuda."

A glare was given from the senior detective and police officer to Matsuda as silence fell over the room for a brief moment.

Touta Matsuda: "What?"

Shuichi Aizawa: "You and I know better than anyone else that there's nothing we can do. Not with the Japanese Task Force and National Police Agency being so conservative of numbers in approaching this threat. I've tried to reform the way we address crises like this. But every single time the words 'heart attack' and 'death rate' are brought up in Japan, the NPA and Interpol start to get nervous in how to manage attacks like these. We've tried shutting down certain news networks, but the people who run networks have amassed so much power that they simply take the people who control law institutions as hostage."

Touta Matsuda: "So? We can just censor our names. What's the point of being the Japanese Task Force if we can't stand up for ourselves? We're supposed to be the force that stops Kira! Didn't we go through all of these safety precautions so we can stand a chance?"

Hideki Ide: "Your way of addressing this issue is too straightforward, Matsuda. There's a whole legion of people writing in notebooks; people who have the power like the original Kira and his pawns to write the names of people with their faces in mind and have people die instantly of heart attacks the first 40 seconds after writing their names."

Hideki Ide: "With that being said, censoring names would be a viable option... had not Kira been so powerful. At this rate, our very agencies have lost power and influence, and the only reason why crime seems to stoop so low is because of the fear generated by Kira."

Touta Matsuda: "That's foolish! We can still take a stand. It's worth trying. We can't back down just because of some legion. We've already taken down Kira. What about the SPK?"

Shuichi Aizawa: "...The SPK? You mean the Special Provision for Kira? They've chosen to do nothing since the outbreak of this attack. There's no way they'll be keen enough to work with us. Especially that coward Near. He's probably chosen entirely to keep his foot out of this case. Trust me, at every Interpol conference, it's been said that the current L has denied every request to be contacted by the world's law enforcement."

Touta Matsuda: "I don't buy it! We can always try. There's a chance. If the SPK really is that devoid of hope, then they'd at least officially announce themselves defunct to us."

Shuichi Aizawa: "Matsuda, that's enough. You don't know how the SPK works nor do you know how the world works at this moment in time. There was a transaction that went on involving a leader purchasing the power of the Death Note. An auction around the world as it's called around Interpol; various countries where the holder of the Death Note allegedly let the book on for show. It seems if another Shinigami let the notebook fall to the human world, we've probably got multiple notebooks on our hands."

Touta Matsuda: "I'm not stupid, Aizawa. I'm well aware of that! I was there to see it live. It's still fresh in my head."

Shuichi Aizawa: "So that means you understand, then? You understand how difficult this is for us to solve when the rest of the NPA is being so uncooperative? In all practicality, it could be that one of the lead executives of the NPA has one of the notebooks, but that doesn't seem to be the case. We've tried investigating every figurehead of power. Anonymous or public, but we can't find any answers. These heart attacks, senseless killings... they appear to be going on in other countries, but that's beyond us."

Touta Matsuda: "Countries?!? That should be L's main concern, not ours. How are we supposed to solve and get to the bottom of killings happening in other countries?"

Hideki Ide: "Matsuda, just shut up! We'll worry about it later. If you have nothing to contribute, just get away from headquarters and go back home. We'll be ready to discuss something that'll generate compelling progress later if you were to just stabilize yourself and understand that, for a moment, we're trying our best."

Touta Matsuda: "...Trying your best, huh? Yeah, alright. Fine."

With anger evident in his tone, Touta Matsuda shook his head.

Touta Matsuda: "I'm beginning my own investigation for the time being. At least I'll be certain to make more progress than the two of you guys."

Matsuda said, grudgingly turning around, back faced towards the two senior detectives.

Touta Matsuda: "Don't bother to contact me."

He slammed the door closed on the way out.

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𝙱𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚊𝚝 𝚂𝙿𝙺 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚚𝚞𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜...

Stephen Geovanni, Halle Lidner, and Anthony Rester are bunkered in a separate compartment of the headquarters shared with Near as the detective stacked yet another set of cards teetering atop one another, representing a delicate, linear balance. Houses of cards. Structures balanced on one another; kept stacked upon the other to ensure a lingering dependence and emphasis on the balance and culpability of the preceding card. Near found it settling and unsettling at the same time how, if one card were so much as to lose an inch of balance in the house of cards he established, they would all come tumbling down on one another.

A house of cards. In a way, Near found it fitting. Japan was a house of cards at that moment. A shaky foundation built on an ideal that collapsed long ago; one that he had apparently managed to absolve with his genius in the past alongside the contributions made by Mello in assuring such a definitive defeat to the causation of genocide and pointless murder for a temporary period of peace without extramundane conflict embodied in the form of crime. Japan's previous skyrocketing fit of crime whether ranging from simple misdemeanors to transgressions that required and usually were responded with the outrageous punishment of death sentence was too blatant to be ignored, and someone out there believed that they were qualified and obliged to react. Reactionary, that person happened to be the one and only Light Yagami.

Calculating. Cold. Deceiving. And, in a way, brilliant, gifted with foresight and intelligence that even Near's predecessor could not anticipate with the utilization of supernatural forces beyond understanding at the time.

Presently, though, Near and his team understood everything there was to understand about the notebook's properties and had been tracking the samples of it; everything from Light's methodology of killing to the way he wrote and streaked about the names of victims. 

An intently studied specimen, the deceased Light Yagami was a model for future successors of the Kira name. And though it seemed his identity was not known to the public, the original imprint left by Kira was enough to inspire the future world for generations to come, harbored by the very philosophy he induced by his bizarre methods of killing those who embodied the very opposite of the aspect of delicate balance he wanted to shape the New World by. The New World that Near, the successor of L, coincidentally lived in despite his marked defeat of Light.

Countless amounts of victims; names pronounced through renditions of databases of the Japanese alphabet with few English victims or victims of foreign nature to the naturalized citizen of Japan born in the Kanto region were extrapolated from the notebook thanks to the expertise of his investigation team. Stephen Geovanni, Halle Lidner, and many others that existed among the team were only part of the thanks Near had to give despite his tendency to do the exact opposite.

To sit and watch. To remain passive, saying very little.

But doing a lot in the lengths of research.

The house of cards that he managed to bring down wasn't easy. It was with the help of the Special Provision for Kira and the original remnants of the Japanese Task Force that he was able to bring down the previous Kira. But not without scrapes.

Not without cuts, bruises, scars, contusions, and multiple abrasions of degrees that cut deeper than the past that he cut out of memory. 

The past that was sidelined by a childhood of playing with toys, experimenting with conveyor belts of construction and linear nature, all meant for Near's preoccupation of fixing and breaking things down only to reinvent and play with them again. Just like he had done with the identity of Kira by his meaningless preoccupation with intangible, invisible thoughts and the tangible toys he played with. 

But he did little in his power to stop C-Kira aside from denouncing him, and did not stop the auction, only wondering what L would do. And in the present, in the resurgence of Kira's killings, there was only thought paid to what his predecessor would do. 

Nothing more.

Stephen Geovanni: "I don't understand what doing nothing really brings in this situation. Near, if you could at least explain why ―..."

Near: "I'm keeping my foot out of this. I'm not doing anything relating to the Kira case for the time being. That's not anywhere near my main concern at the moment. If my predictions are right, death tolls for someone."

Near's feet stirred, uncomfortably rubbing about one another.

Stephen Geovanni: "...Then what are you doing?"

Near: "I'm thinking about what L would do. Looking at the previous Kira case... and thinking about it as well. Looking for a trace."

Halle Lidner: "A trace of what?"

Near: "Logic. This doesn't make any sense at all. In less than the same span of time the original Kira reigned, this Kira has already managed to kill the same amount; if not more than the same amount of people the original Kira seemed to kill."

Stephen Geovanni: "Yeah. That and the killings seem to be happening on a worldwide scale as well. Brazil, China, the United States, Afghanistan, Thailand, Iran, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and many more appear to be experiencing killings happening on the same scale at an unprecedented rate."

Near: "...If I'm correct, the previous recipient of the auction couldn't have been multiple countries. I remember only one notebook being the promise of the bid. Nothing else. How else could so many deaths happen in the span of such a short period of time and accumulate so much notoriety across so many countries? I'm not wanting to overstate assumptions, but it seems the entity with the notebook this time has intel on more than a region of Japan or the regions of Japan for any matter, but the regions of the world."

Halle Lidner: "That does seem like a reasonable assumption to make. Heart attacks have been pouring in around the world; nearly reported in all countries of the world according to Interpol and the United Nations."

Near: "...With that being said, the original Kira, Light Yagami, lived in the Kanto region during the first storm of his killings. He couldn't have possibly killed this many people in other countries like the current Kira entity has. In a world where globalization is becoming more common and news for other countries is more accessible, it seems Kira could've killed anyone he wanted as long as it was headline news, but the original Kira targeted those that were specifically in Japan to create and mold his New World if my assumptions are correct."

Stephen Geovanni: "If you're generating this much traction on assumptions, you need to do something. It seems a cult is operating on this scale. There's no way it can just be one person. You need to cooperate with the foreign powers of the world before it's too late. If this continues, it could plumb your reputation and make agencies hesitant to work with you again."

Near: "I'm not doing anything just yet. After all, it would do me little good to hypothesize it's safe interfering in this line of operation when I'm not even sure of the method of killing. It could be through the Shinigami Eyes. Or perhaps it could all be one person. I'm really not sure."

Near released a sigh, swapping at the house of cards to send it down. The precarious stack flew throughout the room, distributed elsewhere in an unexpected manner.

Near: "Like I said, I won't be doing anything for a long time. If you ask me, this situation is just a case of a house of cards. Something precarious; designed to fall down, a structure built of pawns and figureheads with an insubstantial or insecure situation or plan. 

If one of my postulations about multiple people having the notebook is true, then it means that this situation can be politicized. Maybe leaders of nations are the ones with notebooks, or someone in Interpol has one. Either way, all I find myself doing when it comes to approaching this matter is grasping at straws. It's better to keep in the dark for now."

Stephen Geovanni: "...Is that so?"

Halle Lidner: "That's all we can hope for. Let's hope this doesn't spiral out of hand."