Near and Mello were fascinating subjects in Wammy's House. 

Geniuses in their own right and masterminds at the field of detective work even as children, they were in a league of their own in an institution that was meant to foster some of the world's greatest minds ever known to man. 

However, there was something off about them. The two fascinating subjects never truly got along.

Near and Mello were the shining highlight reel to the program of Wammy's House.

While L worked on several cases that might have piqued his sporadic interest, Near and Mello were being prepared. Prepared, like many others, in the isolation of Wammy's House, quartered in Winchester, England.

Their challenges and tests at Wammy's House growing harder and difficult all while the Kira case went on. They were getting too old; too mature for the institution to hold them back from their destiny of succeeding a figure as high in importance as L. 

Absolving each and every challenge before them, their uncanny resemblance to L physically and mentally and juncture of investigative skills surpassing every other child at Wammy's House made them the two most qualified candidates for the title of L. 

And yet, in all irony, they'd never seen L. Their only experience getting to know their predecessor was speaking ― or, in Near's case, hearing him from an intangible network. From behind a computer screen. 

The title for the greatest detective in the world was a highly valued title.

A title that only one of them could have. A title that the prideful and animosity-reckoning Mello could not risk having assigned to Near, his definitive and conceptual opposite. Near, on the other hand, a selfless machine, responding to any critique whether indicative of praise or chide with nonchalance and default monotony. Many compared him to a machine of lax operation. Experimenting with toys or sets of building blocks embodied a set of recreational activity affiliated with Near's on-and-off behavior. Not only did he seem to discard human facial features such as smiling, but he was devoid of any social skill. Mello, too, represented traits of the aforementioned; difficult to reach and communicate when compared to other children in attendance of the orphanage known as Wammy's House.

But that all soon changed when Mello came hurtling to a fate of death and ruin; destruction at his own brashness and eagerness to surpass Near during the Kira investigation the two collaborated on in their stride to become the new L. The specifics of his death went unnoticed by large by the public just as the death of his predecessor, L. No one commented a word. The SPK, Near, and all other forces involved well aware of Mello's existence and status as one who once walked among those who were alive did not comment much, either. The investigation of Kira strode on even after Mello's death, though his strides to go to such disastrous lengths in the case against Near's passive, off-the-wall nature of approaching the case had been the reason of success.

And they had caught Kira.

Caught Kira ― minutes before he died. His name was written in the Shinigami Ryuk's name.

Fast forwarding years later, nothing seemed to have changed even in the circumstance of Kira's absence. Perhaps the arrival of C-Kira and a suspicious plot to bid the resurgence of the same notebook that caused terror earlier had changed ― but not much aside from that admittedly. Heading more power and influence than he did before, Near was now perhaps one of the most powerful individuals in the world. The greatest detective of all as far as he knew, though he was neutral about his position and spot. After all, he'd once been competing for it with someone that was undeniably instrumental to his assumption of such a position.

He was now in his early twenties. Establishing himself as the world's greatest detective, the selfless machine acted through his confidant agents, one of those agents being Halle Lidner. In recent years, he had scared off a fake, cheap Kira with an announcement broadcasted in Japan, taken down many fakes and murderous serial killers, and he was now in a period of rest. The media's concerns for Kira had died down, and now he could die down with the title of being the world's greatest detective without doing much else. The probability of another case that required his famed attention span was lower than ever.

But he was wrong. The world had grown too relaxed for the past few years and now there was an onslaught of killings happening through heart attacks caused by what Near could only guess to be an external source. The heart attacks were happening much rapidly and news was coming in quick, but Near didn't do anything.

There was a sudden vibration in the walls of someone's heart, as far off, thousands of miles away in another country, a leader had suffered a heart attack in the middle of a speech. 

Falling to his knees and shaken with a vibration that rattled his body, the country leader eventually died, his heart giving out on him against his will as his full name had been written in the notebook responsible for his current status. The death of such an important figure left many people from many parts of the world outraged and even led to thousands of agencies wishing to partake in capturing this figure behind the murders, but such was impossible. 

Days and days went by. Months, even. 

No one got word of who the true Kira was or another heart attack death again, but many world leaders experienced an unfortunate demise as they had cars rammed into them as they went to other countries to speak about Kira all while Near watched and formed his own understanding of these events while playing with his toys, stacking giant toy boxes on top of each other to create a type of maze. In a way, it represented Kira's kill count. 

Crouching his way through the maze and turning back to observe it with pride of what he created, Near still expressed no visible concern of the Kira case at hand and instead solved other major crimes such as the scamming deal that was going on with world leaders and the alleged accomplices of bombings happening around the world.

Kira was causing mass extinction around the world's nations and countries as an estimated 500,000 population decrease was reported to Near years later, but the detective did not choose to do anything and simply played with toys. What if a legion of Kiras had been committing acts of genocide?

Authorities contacted Near, the current L. 

They tried to speak to him, but he soon broke all connections with Interpol and all investigative agencies, only requesting to have access to their information and no actual communication.

They tried to get him to disclose information about the previous Kira cases that occurred, but he would not. He seemed to either be uninterested or in a state of rest. Regardless, this unknown somebody kept writing names in the notebook until the death count reached great amounts, even nearly totalling 850,000 in total. The death count increased and increased. Still, Near did virtually nothing.

Nothing. 

The sedentary detective watched.