Chapter Text
A stack of papers was plopped down in front of Near as he twirled his hair idly, considering the new situation.
“So.” Near glanced up at the man who had spoken, a large man in a top hat who was sporting an impressive handlebar mustache. “Alright, boy. If you’re supposed to be the next L, or whoever the bloke was, there are some things you need to look over. Synopsis of the case an’ all that.” Near’s attention turned to the stack of papers. He was fairly certain that he already knew everything about the case in which his predecessor had perished, however he decided that it wouldn’t hurt to have a look at the papers anyway. “I’ve got a meeting with Assistant Commissioner Anderson tomorrow to figure out some other logistics. See, now that L’s task force has officially split off from Scotland Yard, we get to make our own.”
“I assume I will be heading this investigation from here?” Near spoke for the first time. The man chuckled.
“We’ll see about that. Usually I’d say ‘hell no,’ since you’re… What are you, fourteen?” Near didn’t respond to this. “But, we’ve worked with your type before. I don’t think Anderson is going to take the chance of underestimating a kid ever again.” The man laughed. Near didn’t show it on his face, but he was a bit puzzled. They had worked with his ‘type’ before? What on Earth did that mean? Near began stacking dominoes on top of the pile of papers he was supposed to be looking at. “Either way,” the man continued. “I’ll be off then. My boy’s not up to dick today, so I gotta make sure he’s alright.”
“You must be a wonderful father,” Near stated, uninterested. “Detective Reed, was it?” The detective nodded.
“Ellsworth Reed, at your service.”
“Good. Reed, then, if you would please have fifteen empty folders, files containing information about everyone in Scotland Yard, and a set of marbles on my desk tomorrow morning before I arrive. Thank you.” Detective Reed chuckled.
“Boy, it’s still not for sure whether you’re even heading this investigation yet. You ain’t my boss.” Near looked up at him, feeling slightly affronted. “However, I’ll see what I can do.” Detective Reed shrugged. Near relaxed a little.
“I thank you, Detective.” Reed nodded.
“But, er, what are the marbles for?” Near didn’t respond. Detective Reed sighed. “Have a good night then, N.” Near nodded, trying to focus on his dominoes. As Reed left the room, another, older man entered.
“Roger,” Near didn’t look up from his dominoes. “Please take these papers. I intend to look over them at the inn.” Roger raised an eyebrow.
“You may wish to stop playing on top of them then, Near.” He gave a small smile. Near blinked and realized that he was indeed still stacking his dominoes on top of the papers he had indicated for Roger to take. He huffed irritatedly and knocked down the dominoes before sweeping them off of the papers and into a box. Roger came over to the desk to put the papers into a satchel. “Put your shoes and coat on, Near,” he reminded the boy, who huffed again. Near hated wearing more than what he was comfortable in, preferring to simply wear a white dress shirt with white shorts and socks, however whenever they went out, Roger insisted that he wear a coat, tie, and shoes as well. Near went over to where he had put his other garments. He tied the light blue ribbon around his collar before slipping on the light blue coat and the same color shoes. Once he was finished, he straightened up and nodded at Roger to indicate that he was ready to leave, and the two of them walked outside to the awaiting carriage. Near brought his right leg up to his chin as soon as he sat down inside the carriage, staring out of the window, deep in thought. He remembered when Roger had informed him of L’s death. He had been back at the orphanage where he had grown up: a place called Wammy’s that was located in Winchester, England. Mello had been there… Near twirled his hair as he thought about where his old rival Mello likely was now. Probably, he had found some hidden-away base to work from, trying to come at this Kira case from a completely different angle. If anything, Near was glad about this, because it meant that whatever Near was not able to do because of legal, physical, or other restraints, Mello would likely be able to, thereby helping him narrow in on Kira all the quicker.
Near remembered how, as soon as the two of them had received the news of the great detective L’s passing, Mello had screamed his head off before packing up his things and running away in order to try and avenge L’s death. Near, however, had taken the conventional path. Roger had helped him set up a deal with Scotland Yard so that he could utilize the resources of London’s police force to catch this mysterious killer, who had taken the lives of many using no information other than the victim’s name and face.
“Near.” Near blinked and looked around, only to notice that the carriage had stopped moving and Roger was staring at him. “We’ve arrived,” Roger said. Near stood up and moved out of the carriage, Roger following closely behind. The innkeeper welcomed them as they walked in. Roger greeted him in return, but Near ignored him as he walked up the stairs, still thinking about Kira. He walked briskly down the hallway to the suite that he and Roger were occupying for the time being while they were working on the case with Scotland Yard. “Do you need anything else, Near?” Roger asked as he handed Near the satchel with the papers in it.
“No, thank you, Roger,” Near replied as he was heading into his room.
“Be sure to get some sleep,” Roger said, though he knew that his advice would fall upon deaf ears. As soon as Near got into his room, he shut the door and went straight to the desk after taking off his outer garments. He set the satchel down and lit a couple of candles to work by. He retrieved the papers from the satchel and began organizing them so that he could go through them.
After a few hours of reading, Near took a glance out of the window. He blinked once, then twice more. Could what he was seeing… be real? There, on the corner of the street, under the gaslight, was… L. But, it couldn’t be. L was dead. Near knew for sure that L was definitely dead, even if the new head of the old Kira task force was now trying to call himself by that name. Near stood up, still staring at the figure of L out the window. His heart pounding, he ran quickly to the door and flew down the hallway, down the stairs and out the door, only to find that “L” was gone. Had Near been hallucinating? He ran over to where he had seen the apparition, now feeling significantly out-of-breath. Still, there was no sign of L. Near figured that he had to have been hallucinating, and so made his way back to the inn. All the while, a figure had been watching him from the shadows.