[Aigirl]

*SPOILER* *The entire DeathNote manga is available in English in the US and Canada courtesy of Viz Media. If you have not finished reading it yet, you may not want to read this thread*

In chapter 108, Matsuda voices some interesting opinions on the endagame in the previous chapters of Volume 12. Besides giving the readers closure and a great sense of Matsuda's character development, his resoning is so logical, sound, and, dare I say it?, L-like, that it makes one wonder if Matsuda may have been right on target.

What if Near (or someone else in the SPK, perhaps Lidner) had used the DeathNote to control and kill Mikami? isn't it a bit too convenient that Mikami doesn't check the fake notebook? Or that he dies 10 days later? Is it possible that Near or someone from the SPK had suspected Mikami's notebook was fake and sent Mello out to test it?

How did Mello figure out the notebook was fake when Near didn't? Or perhaps he did not know about the fake notebook, and kidnapped Kiyomi for some other reason?

Finally, how can one replace all the pages in a never-ending Shinigami notebook?

Looking forward to the answers and speculations from some of you brilliant DN fans!

*offtopic* somethin' that's been bugging me...Why do all the non-Japanese characters in the Manga and Anime automatically know what a Shinigami is? It should've been translated to "soul reaper" or "Death god" or something...