Justice

Surrounded by toys at his headquarters, Near voices his belief that the Japanese team shields Kira and that its stand-in L is the killer in person. The investigators, meanwhile, recoil at a Sakura TV program glorifying Kira's verdicts, and they are stunned when the American president declares his country neutral toward the killer. Matsuda wonders aloud whether Kira is truly wicked; Light grants that it depends on one's vantage point but insists their duty is simply capture.

Mello breaks into Near's base holding agent Halle Lidner at gunpoint, yet he wants only the photograph that could expose him to Kira. In exchange he reveals that shinigami are real and that some of the notebook's listed rules are lies. Sifting the claim, Near settles on the clause about death following in thirteen days as the likely fabrication.

Near asks Light to let him test the suspect rule by writing Mello's name, and the whole team rejects the idea, though Matsuda briefly itches to avenge Soichiro. Light grasps that his colleagues have begun doubting him, especially once Near asks them to flag any hint that the replacement L could be Kira. Overhearing Ide confide that he would sooner answer to him than to Light, Aizawa resolves to seek Near out.

Cornered, Light threatens the American president into surrendering whatever he knows about the agents' locations. Demegawa, now Kira's mouthpiece in New York, broadcasts the address of Near's hideout and brands its occupants enemies of Kira, whipping a crowd into storming the building while Misa waits to strike Near down. Light seizes the feeds, blames Mello for the chaos, and privately savors his apparent victory.

The episode draws its name from Light's blunt creed that whoever ends up ruling the world will be remembered as righteous, while the loser is simply branded a criminal. Mello's disfigurement from the earlier blast underscores how far he will go to stay ahead of both Near and Kira.