[In the weeks following the NPA raid, Mello's position in the race to capture Kira had fallen precipitously. He'd lost the support of the remnants of the LA mafia as well as Kira's death note. A lesser man might have despaired, but Mello had his eyes locked on the goal. Any setback could be overcome so long as he had the will to overcome it, and despite being heavily injured, Mello was not out of the race just yet.
The day he rolled over and simply allowed Near to have the victory was the day he literally died. Too bad for Kira, Mello wasn't dead.
The investigation had shifted focus somewhat, and the stakes had changed. Yagami Soichiro had definitely spelt out his name, meaning the only means of protection he had left was the fact that Kira did not know what he looked like. While he'd taken care to destroy every photograph of himself, there was one left, and that was in Near's possession. To get to Near, he'd have to leave LA and fly to New York where the SPK were based.
But before that, thee was one idle curiosity that demanded his attention. Behind bars in one of LA's maximum security prisons was a man by the name of Beyond Birthday. A man whose name was notorious in Wammy's House where he'd once trained to be the next L. Just as Mello himself had done. To say that Mello felt a sense of camaraderie would have been flagrant exaggeration, but curiosity demanded answers. Mello wouldn't have been involved in his chosen vocation had he lacked curiosity.
It was said that B was fond of puzzles; Mello had obliged accordingly with a small test. The alias Walter G Arbori had been given to secure this meeting. The name was not only a perfect anagram of the names Watari, Roger, L and B, but was also exactly thirteen letters in length. As he waited impatiently for B to make his handcuffed appearance in the holding room for visitors, Mello smirked. Time to see what the previous generation of Ls successors were made of.]
I apologize for the tl;dr, please don't feel obligated to match tag length
The day he rolled over and simply allowed Near to have the victory was the day he literally died. Too bad for Kira, Mello wasn't dead.
The investigation had shifted focus somewhat, and the stakes had changed. Yagami Soichiro had definitely spelt out his name, meaning the only means of protection he had left was the fact that Kira did not know what he looked like. While he'd taken care to destroy every photograph of himself, there was one left, and that was in Near's possession. To get to Near, he'd have to leave LA and fly to New York where the SPK were based.
But before that, thee was one idle curiosity that demanded his attention. Behind bars in one of LA's maximum security prisons was a man by the name of Beyond Birthday. A man whose name was notorious in Wammy's House where he'd once trained to be the next L. Just as Mello himself had done. To say that Mello felt a sense of camaraderie would have been flagrant exaggeration, but curiosity demanded answers. Mello wouldn't have been involved in his chosen vocation had he lacked curiosity.
It was said that B was fond of puzzles; Mello had obliged accordingly with a small test. The alias Walter G Arbori had been given to secure this meeting. The name was not only a perfect anagram of the names Watari, Roger, L and B, but was also exactly thirteen letters in length. As he waited impatiently for B to make his handcuffed appearance in the holding room for visitors, Mello smirked. Time to see what the previous generation of Ls successors were made of.]