In a last ditch effort to eliminate his opposition, Light begs Ryuk to write their names down in his Death Note. Ryuk announces that he is going to write "it" in the notebook. Everyone shoots at Ryuk, but the bullets go straight through him. Light shouts out in glee that he has won. However, Ryuk says that he is not writing their names in his Death Note, but rather Light's. He says that Light's situation is hopeless and that if Light needs Ryuk's help, he's already lost. Light remembers what Ryuk said about Heaven and Hell; there is no Heaven and Hell; there is only one place everyone goes to when they die, and that is Mu, or nothingness. Light pleads for his life to no avail as Near and the rest watch him die. Mikami dies ten days later after going insane in prison.

Thereafter, Near becomes the new L. A year later, through fate, L and Light's former colleagues work together to stop a ring of normal drug dealers in the same warehouse they had their meeting in a year earlier. The world realizes that Kira is gone, and crime increases again. Matsuda questions the situation that took place a year earlier. He questions the fact that Mikami, being the careful perfectionist that he was, would have checked to see if the Death Note was the real one and tested it before he set out to the warehouse to eliminate the SPK. He suspects that Near may have used the Death Note to control Mikami and stop him from testing it. Because Near burned both of the real Death Notes at the scene, any evidence that could implicate him would have been destroyed. The fact that Mikami died ten days later only solidifies Matsuda's theory. However, Ide (another member of the taskforce) tells Matsuda that even if his theory were true, there is no evidence, and if Near had lost to Kira, none of them would be alive today. Followers of Kira continue to exist thereafter and worship his ideals of justice.)