My first Death Note fanfic. Expect this to be short - a handful of chapters at the most. It's mainly based off the anime version, although I'll be using some names from the other Death Note works as well. It's first person, told from Near's pov, because Near is my favourite character and I've always wanted to write a fanfic for him. At most it will have some minor Near x Linda, I haven't decided yet. Anyway, please read and enjoy, and leave a review if you like it!

Death Note: 23 Days Later

Entry 1 - Takedown

Twenty three days. That's the maximum length of time a Death Note can affect someone. A little over three weeks, tops. That's it. Twenty three days. Five hundred and fifty two hours. Thirty three thousand one hundred and twenty minutes. One million nine hundred eighty seven thousand two hundred seconds.

Twenty three days. That's all I had. Now all I have left is one day. One measly day left to live, and nothing to show for it. For all my brilliance, for all my genius, I've been outsmarted by a notebook.

How humiliating.

I'm quite insulted by my own lack of intelligence. I expected more of myself, really. If you can't win the game, if you can't solve the puzzle ... you're just a loser.

Perhaps I should explain myself. Better that than sitting here wallowing in self-pity at my own incompetence. Where shall I start? Hmm ... I suppose the most pertinent moment was about twenty two days ago, when we cornered Kira.

Yes, another Kira. As if three of them weren't enough, Ryuk had to make a nuisance of himself and give a Notebook to another human. Someone who believed strongly in Kira's ideals and wanted to become his successor, to avenge his untimely death. Ironically it was the very Shinigami that gave him his Notebook that had been the one to finally kill Light Yagami, but this new Kira saw me as the target of his divine vengeance.

I have to admit, I was actually excited when he first appeared. Criminals dying of heart attacks, an internet broadcast from someone claiming to be Kira's successor ... just the kind of challenge to snap me out of my boredom and give me something of interest to do. All I hoped then was that this new Kira would present a worthy adversary and keep me amused before I inevitably tracked him down and brought him to justice.

As it turned out he was depressingly stupid. Or so I thought. Learning his identity proved too easy. Taro Kagami, aged twenty five and a member of the Japanese police force. To his credit he went to ground as soon as he realised he had been exposed, and proved to be quite the slippery eel to pin down and capture, so he wasn't a complete moron. Nevertheless we managed to finally track his whereabouts to an abandoned building in Kyoto, thanks to the satellite internet feed he was using to identify and kill criminals.

That's where it all started. That's where it all went wrong. I learned that day that I had underestimated this new Kira, and that he was far more dangerous than I had ever initially suspected.

"In position now," Gevanni whispered, "Door is locked, give me a second ..."

I watched the camera feed from his helmet on a bank of flat computer screens, the view shifting as he knelt down to pick the lock on the back door. A second feed from Lidner showed him at work as she stood to one side, gun at the ready. Rester was at one of the side entrances, waiting for the signal to move in. All members of the team were wearing helmets with tinted visors to conceal their faces, as Kagami possessed the Shinigami eyes. I was taking no chances here.

"Roger, what is he doing now?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the screens.

"He's writing names down in his Notebook. I can't make them out, however."

Unfortunate, but there was nothing we could do about that except hurry. Having tracked Kagami's internet satellite feed I had managed to hack his computer and activate his webcam. I glanced across at the screen Roger was seated in front of and saw our new Kira gleefully scribbling names down, just as he'd said. There was no indication that he was aware of what was about to happen, though. I pressed my hand to the side of my headset and spoke softly into it.

"Be on the lookout for Kagami's Shinigami," I warned the team, "If it is there it should still be unable to kill you without first seeing your faces, so be sure to keep your visors down at all times."

"Understood," came the chorus of replies. I couldn't help smirking slightly. It had taken scarcely a month to get this far, far less time than it had taken me to corner the original Kira. Too easy.

"L, we're ready to move on your word," Gevanni informed me. I didn't hesitate. Kagami was no Light Yagami but he was still a serious threat and needed to be stopped. Now.

"Go," I said.

They swept into the silent, dark and desolate building, pistols drawn and leading the way. Surveillance of the building had allowed us to determine that Kagami had a safe room set up on the second floor, where he kept his Notebook and computers hidden away. As far as I'd been able to determine he had no accomplices and no support - he was doing this all on his own. Another mistake. One of the reasons it had been so hard to nail the first Kira down was because he had so many supporters and allies to do his bidding for him. Kagami had none.

"First floor clear."

"Understood, proceed to the second floor," I instructed. As I continued to watch my team advance through the building I started playing with my hair distractedly. Something was bothering me. This was too easy. Was Kagami really this stupid? He'd issued a personal challenge to me, stating his intent not only to continue Kira's work of judging criminals, but to defeat and kill the one responsible for thwarting the original Kira. He wanted me dead. He knew I was pursuing him, yet to my knowledge he'd made no direct move against me thus far.

Something was wrong, but I wasn't sure what.

"Roger?"

"Still writing names. I must say he seems especially enthusiastic this time ..."

I frowned at that and curled a lock of my hair around my finger in apprehension. My team finally stacked up outside the room Kagami occupied and informed me that they were ready to take him down on my command. Something continued to bother me though. Was this a trap? Perhaps he had booby-trapped the building? Rigged it to explode and take his captors down with him? No, he must know that if I ever tracked him down I wouldn't put myself in harms way like that, and it was me he wanted dead.

Then what?

"L?" Roger prompted, seeing me hesitate. I scowled and lowered my hand.

"Do it."

It was all over in seconds. The door to his room wasn't even locked, and opened without setting off any kind of hidden triggers or bombs. There were shouts, commands instructing him to stop what he was doing and get down. Kagami ignored it all and continued to write frantically in his Notebook. Gunshots rang out and he went down.

"Dead," Rester announced, checking the new Kira for signs of life. I didn't care, I had made it clear that they were to shoot to kill if he did not surrender. Still troubled, my eyes continued to flick from one screen to the next.

"Check his Notebook," I said, fighting to keep the impatience from my voice, "I want to see what names he was writing."

I knew even before Lidner's helmet camera feed showed me what I wanted to see. Somehow I suspected the truth. The others were shocked though, and I heard Lidner cry out with alarm. This was because, written down clear as day in the pages of the open Notebook resting on Kagami's desk, were five names.

Anthony Carter

Halle Bullook

Stephen Loud

Roger Ruvie

Nate River

The correct and real names of the SPK task force members, myself included. And there, pinned up on a board beside the computers were photographs of each and every one of us. I couldn't imagine how Kagami had acquired them, but given his Shinigami eyes they were all he needed to get our real names and write them down.

Which he had done.

My mind raced, calculating how much time had passed since he had started writing. We had twenty seconds at best before we were all dead. Not much time to formulate a plan, especially when facing certain death. It didn't help that my team were starting to crack up at the realisation that they had mere seconds left to live.

"Gevanni, listen to me very carefully and do precisely as I say," I spoke as loudly and clearly as I had ever done, hoping emphatically that he would not question me or hesitate, for if he did then we had no chance at all, "Pick up the pen and write the following exactly as I dictate."

I waited and mercifully he did not question me, his trust in me cutting through his own panic and driving him to follow my instructions. He set his gun down on the desk and picked up the pen Kagami had dropped when they had dropped him. Once he was poised, ready to write, I took a deep breath and spoke again, choosing my words very carefully.

"All die from a heart attack in twenty three days time," I said. The seconds ticked by but Gevanni wrote the words down beneath our names as I told him, while Rester and Lidner watched on, all colour drained from their faces by now. When he was done he lifted the pen from the pages of the Notebook, his hand visibly shaking. I heard him swallow.

"Do you think that will work?" he asked, his voice just as shaky as his hand. I didn't answer him. There wasn't much point. We'd all find out within the next four seconds if I was right or not.

Three.

Two.

One.

... nothing. No sudden chest pains, no abrupt fits. No heart attacks struck anyone, even though forty seconds had passed since Kagami had written the first name down in the Death Note.

It had worked. We were all still alive.

For now.

"We're ... we're not dead?" Lidner murmured in amazement. I let out a sigh of relief and closed my eyes briefly.

"Not yet," I assured her, "Unfortunately all I have done is buy us some time."

Time, yes. Twenty three days to be exact. The immutable fact was, our names had all been written in the Death Note, and anyone who has their name written in it ... dies. At best I had managed to stave off imminent death and push back our execution date by about three weeks. That was the longest time the Notebook could influence anything, and the most time my idea had been able to buy us.

I had grossly underestimated Taro Kagami, for he had gone after me, and he'd done it so well I hadn't even noticed. That was why it had been so easy to track him down in the end - he'd expended all his efforts on identifying me and the other members of the SPK rather than protecting himself. Perhaps he'd even deliberately made himself easier to find in order to lower my expectations of him ... which I had done. It hadn't occurred to me that he might be prepared to sacrifice his own life to have a shot at mine.

Maybe if I had acted sooner ... if I'd been more wary of him I would not have waited as long as I did to move in on him. But by taking things slow I'd signed our death warrants, effectively giving this new Kira the time he needed to get to us. And now it was too late.

"What now?" I heard Rester wonder aloud. I saw Roger watching me and promptly tore my headset off, letting it dangle in my fingertips as I stared sullenly back at him.

"Start a countdown, Roger," I said, not bothering to hide the bitterness in my voice, "The clock is ticking ..."

Twenty three days. That's how much time I had to solve this problem.

That's how much time I had to defeat the Death Note.