Authors note: Okay, first off this is not your usual Mello/Matt fic. Besides this being an AU, this is rooted more firmly in their friendship than in a sexual relationship. There is also the inclusion of original characters, this was necessary for both character and plot development. You are also going to be seeing relationships and partnerships that are fairly uncommon or not explored in as great of detail as will be presented here. Because some of the aforementioned may constitute a spoiler this story will carry few if any warnings. I have placed this story under an M rating for a reason, please be advised that it is due to mature content that may be violent or sexual in nature. I hope that these are things that will turn readers away. That said, enjoy!

If this perhaps looks familiar, that is because the Prologue was first posted under the title Death Eraser under my other account last year.

Prologue

Erase the name. Strip away the identity. Offer intellectual stimulation in place of any emotional support and family stability. Add to that volatile mixture fragile minds. Minds damaged and made defective by circumstance beyond their youthful comprehension. Broken and many times unable to be fixed.

Shake well.

Let loose upon an unsuspecting world.

The perfect little detectives. Cultivated for their minds, led down a path heedless of their true desires and hopes and dreams for the future.

A recipe for disaster?

Perhaps.

That is if one were honored to have knowledge of and examine closely the cases of A and B. Two letters, the first two of the English alphabet. Yet in this game not first, that distinction alone belonged to L.

A, more known for his suicide than anything that he may have accomplished in his short life. Really I think that was the only thing he ever did accomplish.

B, or B.B. If one wanted to be technical and anal as to the actual code. They claim, as well as he did that it stood for Beyond Birthday. The reality, at least according to me and few of my peers, is that it was also short for Backup Bitch. After all, that is what we all were...backups.

Should the original break or become lost we were to be the cookie cutter replacements.

F

K

M

N

Sure they all stood for something, but regardless of how it was dressed up we knew we were inferior. Second rate hacks when compared to the great and oft times deified L.

But, L was long dead now. A corpse rotting in an anonymous grave. The victim of the mass murderer known as Kira. Near had long since taken his spot, quickly proving that he was the rightful successor to the title.

By age fourteen the pale haired genius had put a stop to Kira's reign of terror. Not that the rest of the world was ever made aware of this. That day in an abandoned warehouse surrounded by members of the Japanese task force and SPK, the boy became a man. And the world only knew the letter N and L was soon forgotten.

I was once a successor to the title. The coveted letter that so many fought for.

Now I am merely the one who cleans house. Still heir, but I now have other obligations thrown in.

N brings the world the justice it seeks, while I on the other hand soil my hands not only with those who are beyond his jurisdiction but I also made tidy any mess that may have once come from Wammy's.

The Old English M embossed on the other wise nondescript manila folder, the assignment was simple.

Damage control. Dead or alive, deliver the individual named within.

Mihael Keehl, at one time ranked behind Near in the line of succession, now just the latest failure gone rogue.