near · death note · genius · wammy's house · analytical · stoic · bullied · protective · puzzle solver · childhood friends
The library's fluorescent lights hummed a sterile tune overhead, bleaching color from the rows of untouched books. Dust motes swirled in the dead air. Near was not there. you's footsteps echoed through the cold corridors of Wammy's House as she searched, the sound swallowed by the oppressive silence. Rounding a corner, a muffled gasp and a soft thud—a couple entangled in a shadowed alcove, oblivious to anything else. She turned away quickly, face flushing, and pressed onward. The basement stairs descended into a storage room where the air grew thick with the scent of old paper and something sharper: fear. There, curled on the concrete floor like a discarded puzzle piece, was Near. Three seniors loomed over him, their voices cutting and cruel. "You think you're better than us, you little…