Vigilance

Gevanni confirms to Near that the commuter targeted on the train has died, then resumes shadowing the prosecutor he has been assigned to watch. Satisfied with the intelligence, Near still frets over whether the unseen god of death backing Kira can be trusted, and issues fresh instructions. Elsewhere, Aizawa helps Light sweep their meeting room for listening devices, all the while turning over his own doubts about the younger man. Seizing a moment alone, he marks the undersides of four notepads, betting that Light has been slipping written messages to Kiyomi Takada.

During an outing with Takada, Light conducts an entire conversation through passed notes, admitting that Misa once served as the second Kira and casting her as impulsive and impossible to set aside. Takada grasps that she is meant to stand in for Misa. Light then steers the exchange toward a shared pretense that the two of them ought to cooperate against Kira, even at odds with their public roles. Watching the broadcast feed, Matsuda and Ide delight in the budding romance while Aizawa stays unconvinced.

Gevanni films Mikami muttering through his lunch break, and the recovered lip movements read as questions aimed at a god of death who has vanished since handing over a notebook. On that basis Near sets the shinigami aside as a non-threat. Slipping into the hotel ahead of the cleaning staff, Aizawa discovers that two of his four marks have disappeared, hard proof that messages are passing between the pair. He travels to meet Near in person, only to learn that the strategist has already assembled his case and now wants the task force present to witness Kira's collapse.

At a televised music festival, Lidner and Rester intercept Misa and Mogi before Misa can take the stage, escorting them away as Takada smooths things over with the crowd. Near explains that he detained the two willingly because Misa's possible tie to the second Kira gives him leverage over Light. After nine that evening, Gevanni breaks into Mikami's gym locker and forces himself to handle the notebook inside, spotting no god of death anywhere near it. Learning that a death note can reserve a killing as far as twenty-three days out, Near calculates that he must confront Light face to face twenty-four days later.

The Japanese title reads as Koshi, and the episode first aired in Japan on June 5, 2007, reaching English-speaking audiences the following June. It sits between the chapters titled Scorn and Malice in the second half of the run. Set on January 3 and January 6, the closing scenes show Light pressing Takada about reaching Mikami and Gevanni photographing every name inscribed in the prosecutor's notebook, the images that let Near match the handwriting and lock in his plan. A small visual slip appears in one of the displayed rules, where the word for victims is printed as bictims.