Hidden Faces – a Death Note fanfic
Chapter Four: Glorious Visage

Matsuda was sitting at home, the TV blaring in the background without him taking notice.

"Near really nailed you, didn't he?" asked Ryuk. "This is going to be entertaining!"

"He's not anywhere near a conviction," said Matsuda. "It'll be over in a few days at most."

"Even so, aren't you afraid he'll stop you?" asked Ryuk. "After all, he beat Light."

"No!" said Matsuda. "He got lucky. This time, I have no Mikami to give me a weakness. He's got nothing on me. I bet he's even got Lester following me but can't get any proof."

"Humans are so interesting!" laughed Ryuk.

Matsuda lifted up the Death Note. He examined the cover, flipped through the pages, reading names here and there. Then he placed it in a box.

"What are you doing?" asked Ryuk.

"I'm sending it to Near," said Matsuda. "He has a right to know he's on the right track."

"Wow, you're confident, aren't you?" said Ryuk. "Remember, this guy killed Light."

"No," said Matsuda. "You and I killed Light."

Ryuk laughed.

Matsuda took a normal piece of paper and a normal pen.

Near, he wrote, I'm giving you my Death Note for safekeeping. Not because you need it, since we both know you kept the pages from Mikami's note, but so we both know this is a battle of wits. Bring it to the Red Apple Publishers warehouse as soon as you get this and we can see who is the better mind. I won't hide behind an L mask like you did. I won't hide behind a mask at all. By the way, your guess about Kira is correct.

And he left it like that. He sealed the letter in an envelope and placed it in the box. He addressed the package to the Yellow Box warehouse turned office and put it his mailbox when he was sure Lester wasn't hiding anywhere. Ryuk laughed.

"So, are you trying to make it look like you now?" he asked. "Near knows your face and name."

"And I know his," countered Matsuda. "If you had read closely, you would have noticed I told him that his guess was correct. Which one? He told us several."

Ryuk laughed.

"So you basically told him nothing at all," said Ryuk. "Interesting!"

"Wrong. I told him who Kira was."

"What?" Ryuk was visibly surprised.

"Which guess? That's the question," said Matsuda. "And because I didn't clarify, he's in the dark."

"Except that the fact that this package came the day after my meeting with Matsuda and Aizawa," said Near to Lester, "seems to indicate that it wasn't one of the alternate solutions."

"Rather," Matsuda continued, "I am referring to the guess he made that he did not tell us."

"And so it seems he is talking about my suspicion of Matsuda," finished Near.

"Incredible!" said Lester.

"Really?" asked Ryuk.

"Yes," said Matsuda, grinning. "But there's a catch."

"Yes," said Near, "But it's a trick. The fact that he's already predicting my guesses means he knows how I think. Case in point: he guessed I had narrowed it down to Aizawa and Matsuda. Therefore he's lying."

"Near won't reconsider, though," said Matsuda. "All the signs point to one of two suspects, Aizawa or me."

"What is the purpose," Near said, "of Matsuda's telling me that he is truly Kira, especially if he's just giving me the Death Note? Supposing I were to use it, killing Matsuda for my suspicions, and then destroy it? It would be the same situation as killing Light and Mikami and then waiting for the judgements to stop. Only this time, there aren't even any judgements! Does he think I'm a fool? No, Matsuda is not Kira. It can only be Aizawa."

"What if it's a test and Matsuda actually is Kira?" asked Lester.

"If he were to give me such a test, he would not put himself on the line. He is acting like Light, and Light was cowardly."

"So Near will suspect Aizawa and possibly write his name in the notebook. Then he will come to the warehouse and be defeated," Matsuda concluded.

Ryuk laughed, long and hard.

Enters Red Apple Publishers warehouse at 2:39 PM

Tells everything he knows about the Kira case

Dies of a heart attack 4:20 PM

"Today's the big day," said Matsuda. "Ready, Ryuk?"

"This is going to be fun!" said Ryuk.

They drove – well, Matsuda drove and Ryuk floated inside the car – to the Red Apple Publishers warehouse. It was about 1:30.

Matsuda parked the car where it would not be immediately obvious and began to walk towards the warehouse. Ryuk followed.

They reached the door.

"Ready for a surprise?" Matsuda asked.

"What surprise?" asked Ryuk.

Matsuda opened the door.

"What?" asked Ryuk. Then he started laughing. Matsuda laughed with him.

"Here it is," said Lester. "I don't see any other cars."

"There's one over in the corner," said Near. "I don't know whose it is."

They walked into the warehouse and opened the door.

"What in the–" breathed Lester.

Quantus tremor est futurus!

Stacked up about two stories, stretching out dozens of feet in every direction, was a pile of black volumes. As they got close enough to find a path into the stack, where Kira undoubtedly was waiting, Near picked up a book. It was a Death Note. Flipping through the pages, he found all the names from the Kira case. It was a copy! All of these books were copies of the original! Undoubtedly, the Death Note Kira had mailed to them was also a copy, although he had taken the time to write in the details of his recent victims' deaths towards the end.

"Kira!" shouted Near. "Where are you?"

"Come in," said Matsuda.

They walked into the maze of copies, surrounded by what was tantamount to a physical representation of Kira laughing in their faces.

"Aizawa should be along in a moment," said Matsuda when they walked into the clearing into the middle of the pile.

"You!" said Near. "It was you all along!"

Quando judex est venturus

"It was Kira all along," said Matsuda calmly. "And I would have helped him if he weren't predisposed to kill me after my usefulness had run its course."

"This Note is fake, isn't it," said Near. "Otherwise, why would you send it to me?"

"It's fake," said Matsuda, "but this one isn't."

He pulled out the Death Note, the real one, from his briefcase and slid it over to Near. Near picked it up and offered it to Aizawa.

"I relinquish ownership of the Death Note," said Matsuda.

"What!" exclaimed Lester and Near together. Ryuk laughed, and floated over to Near's side.

"He's not joking," Ryuk chuckled.

"You obviously retained your memories," said Near, "so you must have a piece on your person somewhere."

In fact, Matsuda had written on his arm with the Death Note pen. He drew the pen and picked up the fake notebook.

Cuncta stricte discussurus!

"This pen has the properties of the Death Note," he said. "And you're holding the Death Note itself. When Aizawa gets here, I will kill him to demonstrate. All you have to do to save him is write my name in the Death Note."

Lester took out a pen and looked at Near.

"Wait," said Near. "Let me think."

He took several Notes on the ground and began arranging them in a complex stack.

"Well?" said Matsuda, standing motionless, pen held loosely in his left hand, fake Death Note poised in the right like a spell book.

"It's too easy," said Near. "You want me to write your name in the notebook. But unless you want to die, which I doubt, then either the notebook is fake or your name or face is wrong."

"The notebook is real," said Ryuk.

"Since your face hasn't changed since the last time we met, I must assume it's your name," said Near. "And if I write and I fail, I will have no option left but to take the eyes."

"You can't," said Ryuk, chuckling darkly. "The ownership passed to Anthony Lester when Matsuda gave it up."

Near stared at Matsuda, willing him to give up information, any information, that might help his position.

"I told Aizawa to arrive at three o'clock," said Matsuda, checking his watch. "It's 2:55 now."

"Lester, will you take the eyes?" asked Near. "Will you give up half your lifespan?"

"I will," said Lester, "on the condition that we burn the notebook and any extra pages you have afterwards. I will sacrifice part of my life to eradicate Kira. That was the bond I took up at the beginning of the investigation."

"Then do it," said Near quietly.

Lester looked at Ryuk and it was done.

Dies irae, dies illa

"Tota Matsuda," he read. "There was no trick."

Near knocked over his tower of Death Notes in a rage.

"Is that all you wanted?" he yelled. "To force me to accept the bargain on behalf of someone else?"

"Think what you like," said Matsuda. His face flushed with triumph.

"Then write his name down!" yelled Near to Lester. "Finish the case!"

He wrote two words. Forty seconds left.

Matsuda stood without moving.

"I think I'll write Aizawa's name in a bit," he said. "You two can live if you're so sure you defeated me."

"The name's written down," said Near, "so nothing can prevent your death. I guess that's what you wanted. You stayed home a few days ago after feeling sick, didn't you? I bet the strain is too much."

The brat grinned at him! He had given up half of his subordinate's life for nothing and he had the audacity to grin!

Thirty seconds left for Tota Matsuda.

"I'm writing his name down now," said Matsuda. Lester dropped the Death Note and drew his gun.

"Write a single word and I'll kill you like you killed Kira," he said.

"You already have," Matsuda said, distractedly checking his watch. Twenty seconds left for Tota Matsuda.

"Ryuk?" he asked. "You aren't going to write my name down too, are you?"

"Why should I?" asked Ryuk. "It's already done. You aren't the owner any more. It's been interesting, Matsuda."

"Thank you," said Matsuda, a chill running down his spine.

Ten seconds left for Tota Matsuda.

"I don't know why you did it," said Near, "but you've lost, whatever damage you did to Lester and me."

Five seconds!

Solvet saeclum in favilla

"No," said Matsuda, regaining energy. "You lost, and it's because you never thought hard enough. All the alternatives you presented were stupid, and you thought you were so great because you took down Kira. Wrong! Ryuk took down Kira. I took down Kira."

Lester gasped. Ryuk began to laugh uncontroallably.

"What?" asked Near. It had been forty-five seconds.

"His name and lifespan just disappeared!" said Lester, panicking. "But he's not dead!"

"All this time, you never thought that Tota Matsuda was not who he appeared to be!" Matsuda shouted. "Not once! You overlooked me! But L didn't! He saw through me at once, and he shielded me from Kira until the threat was past. You were not L's successor!"

He took a step closer.

"I was."

Lester fired his pistol at Matsuda, but it jammed. Then his eyes widened, and he slumped to the ground with a gasp. Near looked at him in alarm.

"You humiliated Light Yagami only because he was too arrogant to double-check his plan and because one of his underlings made a mistake. And you thought you surpassed L for it. I swore to revenge his defeat, but how should I do that?" Matsuda monologued, enjoying it. "The cruelest thing to do, I thought, was to give you the taste of victory at the cost of great sacrifice and then take it away. That's what you did to Light, as I recall."

"Lester! Get up . . ." mumbled Near, hunching over more than usual. "Don't let him win . . . "

"You're still a kid," said Matsuda. "You were never ready. You never surpassed L."

"No . . . " said Near, shaking his head. "No!"

"Light Yagami died alone, all of his friends turned against him, and with no way to prevent one arrogant brat from monologuing his ears off. He died powerless. But with you, I thought the only way to top it was for you to experience the hope of gaining that power."

He had been pacing as he monologued. Now he reached down and picked up the Death Note.

"Here it is, Near," he said.

Near looked up, his face betraying hurt and rage. Ryuk laughed.

Matsuda kicked Lester's pen over to the defeated boy. "And here's a pen for you."

Near picked it up, trembling. Matsuda tossed the Death Note on the floor.

"Come get it," he said, grinning. "Fetch."

Near crawled over to the book. As he reached out for it, Matsuda drew his gun and fired into the boy's hand. Near screamed.

"That happened to Light Yagami, as you recall," said Matsuda, picking up the notebook and walking away from Near.

"You . . . you murderer!" wept Near, cradling his hand and getting blood all over his shirt.

Matsuda had timed Aizawa's coming so that he might walk in on this exact scene. And sure enough, he heard footsteps running in from the North entrance. Aizawa would enter behind his back.

"What is this?" shouted Aizawa as he ran in, looking at Lester's body and Near's crumpled form.

"Surprise!" shouted Matsuda as he whirled and fired, cruelty in his face and his voice. Aizawa slammed against the wall of fake Death Notes, sliding down with his face fixed in terminal surprise, his hand on his pistol.

Teste David cum Sibylla!

"That was your last hope, Near!" said Matsuda, smiling Kira's smile. "How do you feel?"

Near opened the nearest Death Note copy and wrote Tota Matsuda in it. Then he crawled over to another one and did the same. Then a third, a fourth.

"Wrong notebook, Near," said Matsuda. "And by the way, Matsuda isn't my name."

He put his hand up to his face and tugged. The flesh mask he had worn for so many years came off.

"I was never in any real danger, it turns out," he said. "Originally, I was working for a government agency so secret that only three people outside of it heard rumors of its existence. Then this whole Kira business started and, laughably, we lost so many members that we had to disband. This whole 'one world, under Kira' idea worked well for us anyways."

Near, sobbing, crawled over to another notebook, his injured hand still held against his chest, refusing to look at Matsuda's face, to see the face that defeated him. Ryuk laughed.

" 'Tota Matsuda' was an actual citizen of Japan, whom we tracked for his last two years in college and then replaced with myself. He had his memory wiped and was deported to a holding camp in northern Siberia the day I came in. Oh, don't make that face," said Matsuda as Near's expression convulsed in rage, "It's indoors. He's living a king's life right now."

Ryuk laughed harder.

"Turns out, if you look at a picture of someone when you have the Shinigami eyes, you can see their name and lifespan. Well, since I was wearing Matsuda's face at the time, anyone with the eyes or any nosy Shinigami were fooled."

Near collapsed, moaning.

"Is the pain too much for you to take?" asked Matsuda. "Well, I guess you know how I beat you now. This is the end, squirt."

Near made one last effort to look at Matsuda, tears running down his face and his eyes wishing Matsuda death.

"I gave you one honor – I didn't write your name in the Note," said Matsuda, grinning. "But have fun."

He turned and wrenched fake Death Notes from the pile until it collapsed, knocking over more and more of the pile until it fell on Near, who gave one last scream at the fake notebooks rained down on him.

"I expect your legs are broken," said Matsuda, holding the real notebook in his hands. Ryuk floated over to his side, laughing.

"Go . . . to . . . hell . . . " said Near.

"I expect there isn't one," said Matsuda. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cheap lighter.

"Remember this?" he asked, waving it in front of Near's face. "This won't be the first time I've burned a copy of the Note."

Near made no response.

"I can't help it now," he said. "You've gone and written my name all over the place. Well, not my name."

He opened the lighter, staring into the flame for a moment before turning his eyes back to the ground, to Near's broken body.

"Oh, and I'd just thought I'd tell you: I paid for all this with your money."

Near began to cry. Matsuda dropped the lighter on a nearby stack of books and turned away.

"Nate River . . . " he said. "You lose."

He walked away. Ryuk laughed.

Light's mistake had been slipping into complacency once his biggest opponent had been crushed. Matsuda (he had grown used to the name by now, no sense changing anything) would keep a wary lookout for anyone trying to take down Kira. And thanks to Light's groundwork, it would be easy going. The world was used to its shape under Kira, and it would spring back with little pressure.

Matsuda looked at his pen, then sat down to write. The TV station provided him with names and faces.

Judgement was carried out.

"Say, Matsuda, you sure you should be using the Death Note?" asked Ryuk. "After all, you were definitely getting sick back there."

"Power is intoxicating," said Matsuda equivocally. "But I will stay the course."

After a moment of thought, he put down the pen and stared thoughtfully at it.

"I'm going for a walk," he said.

"Are you going to keep writing when you get back?" asked Ryuk.

He stood for a while, lost in thought.

He had defeated Nate River. But Nate River was only a child. Could he handle the awful power he was in control of?

But Light had stayed true to his goal. Was it not best to continue his vision?

He turned to Ryuk and grinned.

"I might. For now, let's go buy some apples."

The End.

Thus concludes the epic saga. I don't care if it's over, though - you still have to write me lots of reviews.

In case anyone was wondering about the Latin in these...I went and found the lyrics to the anime soundtrack, specifically Track 19: Death Note Theme and Track 20: Kyrie. Adding the Latin to the prose had the same effect, I hope, as epic choral music did on the anime.

Also, in case anyone's interested, Chapter Three and Chapter Four were going to be one section, but it got so long that I just split it up into two sections. So it's no longer a trilogy.

This was my first fic. Hope you enjoyed it.