Application

Name: Sol

DW username: Bioluminescense

E-mail address: bioluminescense42@gmail.com

Character name: Near

Series: Death Note

Timeline: End of the manga- mid-2000s

Canon resource link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_(Death_Note)

Powers: Near does not have any superpowers in the classical sense, but his mind is brilliant enough to qualify as at least a pseudo-power.

Character background: Near is one of the protagonists from Death Note. He was raised in an orphanage called Wammy's House, where extremely intelligent children are raised to become the world's greatest detective, L. All the children used mononyms in order to protect and conceal their identities, as L had to remain anonymous. Near and his peer, Mello, were the ones chosen to become the next L, but Mello declined immediately, leaving the position to Near alone. Near was the more level-headed, analytical, and logical of the two. He showed a few odd behaviors, such as constantly playing with some sort of toy, wearing nothing but white clothes, stacking things, and usually sitting hunched over or lying on the floor. Mello was less likely to think actions through completely, and was more likely to act solely on emotion. Mello had an odd behavior of his own; he always had a large bar on chocolate in hand, which Near later used the sound of to figure out that Mello was the one who had taken a hostage. He moved from England to the United States, where he joined a team that was trying to catch a mass murderer, Kira. His team was known as the SPK, or Special Provisions for Kira. Kira was a serial killer who could murder with only the name and face of the victim.

His team found that the person who was acting as L was not actually L, and caught him off guard by stating what he knew, and after talking to him over computers, was able to deduce that the new L, Light Yagami, was Kira. Light had taken over the place of L, who he was working with to find Kira, when L was killed. Light had thought that Near, known to him as N at the time, thought that the original L was still alive. Light-L’s team was able to find that N was actually Near with the assistance of another past Wammy’s House resident, Linda, and the drawings of Near and Mello that she was able to create. Near was also able to find that Light-L was not conducting the killings at the time, and that he was communicating with the X-Kira, as Near called him, through a messenger. The X-Kira was named Teru Mikami, and the go-between was Kiyomi Takada. Takada was kidnapped by Mello, and she was killed by Light with a scrap of the Death Note paper, but not before she killed Mello using her own scrap, using the name that she had been given by Light. Mikami, though, did not know that Light had killed Takada, so to attempt to kill her himself, reveals that he had the Death Note. This allowed Near’s team to find the location of the real Death Note that Mikami had. Near came up with a complex plan using several Death Notes, replacing pages of them, and switching the notebooks in order to set everything up so that no one could be killed. Mikami came to the warehouse with what he believed was a working Death Note, and wrote down the names of everyone in the warehouse minus Light, whose date of death he could not see, knowing that he was the one that was Kira because of it, and who he regarded as godlike. No one died, as the pages had been switched, and Near, now knowing how the notebooks worked, was able to use the Death Note as evidence against Mikami. When Near calls him in, he calls Light ‘god’, incriminating both Light and himself. Light confesses, and is killed by the death god who gave him the Death Note in the first place. Near goes on to claim the identity of L and communicate through Roger, the head of Wammy’s House, as L communicated through Watari, the former head of Wammy’s House.

Third-Person Sample:

"Near, face it- there are no links. The victims were chosen at random. "

"No there are." Near flicked a tiny toy robot through the air. "And I am 78% sure that I found it. Look at the crime scene photos again. Do you see it?"

"Frankly, no."

"The first victim, Align Deere was holding a hand mirror that no one who knew him could identify. It was pointed toward a mirror in the bathroom. That was pointed to one in the hall." There were a few nervous stares. "Yes, the angles are all correct. Trust me. Now, the one in the hall was pointed exactly north. The building was built specifically on cardinal directions. It was in the floor plans. The second victim Valley Trace’s house was directly north of Henry’s house. They lined up with only a ½ degree error margin. She was found sitting up, with her eyeglasses on the table next to her. The scene was set to look like she was looking at them. Her friends said that she wore her glasses religiously. But they faced toward a window, which faced a mirror in her bedroom. The bedroom window was open, and the mirror lined up with her car GPS. It was turned on, and it was set to go to the street of the third victim."

"Near, this is too complex. No one would have, or could have, thought of this. You are tying together bits of air."

"Now that you said that, I am 89% sure." Another tiny robot flew, landing in a cup of coffee. Near did not notice.

"Wait how-?"

"Let me go on. The house of the third victim, Derive Rabbitt, was at the end of a cul-de-sac. At the very end of the street where, if you followed the GPS, you would come right up in front of. She was on her bed, staring up. She was paranoid, and had cameras in most rooms of her house. I know what you are thinking, that the cameras would have caught the murderer." Another robot whizzed through the air, hitting a computer monitor making it twitch momentarily. "They were almost all turned off, though, which only she could have done. But the camera lens was pointed toward the mirror on the back of her closet which was pointed toward the window in the hall, which was closed, meaning that the trail did not continue outside. That mirror was pointed in the direction of another camera, which shot southwest. It was out of the way of the killer, so it was left on. It was pointed at the billboard outside her house."

"This is too elaborate not to be exactly right."

"Exactly." Near picked up another robot, and tossed the little plastic toy, which landed under a chair.

"The southwest angle was meant to mislead us. The fourth victim, Cobbler Tailor, was pointed to by the sign, which advertised a popular French shoemaker on one half and a man famous for making extravagant wedding dresses on the other half. Cobbler was found half-crushed under a large armchair. Tied around his shoe was a polished spoon. This was a bit awkward to follow at first, as the mirrors were all at odd angles, and had to be flipped exactly 180 degrees in order to lead to the next. But the final thing, a large silver butterfly, pointed to the west. There are three places that the next victim might be found. We must investigate them all. The next murder might be prevented."

Crunch. The toy robot under the chair was crushed by a wheel.

First person sample:

The murderer has to have access to files containing information about the victims prior to their murders. I have to find this organization, or they will find another victim. I cannot find any pattern in the times of the killings. But this is a race and a game. And I must win.