Finis (chapter)

Finis (フィニス, Finisu) is Chapter 108 from volume twelve and the "last" chapter of the Death Note manga.

Plot
It has been one year since the events from the previous chapter. The world has reverted to the same state it was in prior to the appearance of Kira.

Matsuda and Ide are walking down the street and debating whether what they did was the right thing.

The new Watari, Roger Ruvie, previously the caretaker of Wammy's House, calls Aizawa who is now the detective superintendent of the NPA. He connects him to Near who is typically playing with his toys but is now eating a chocolate bar as a tribute to Mello. He asks Aizawa to aid him in busting a drug deal that will take place in Japan three days from then. Aizawa calls up Ide and Matsuda and tells him about the drug deal bust in the YB warehouse and that they are to meet at 21:00 hours. They ponder at the coincidence that they’re meeting at exactly the same place on the same day that they did a year ago.

Matsuda proposes the theory that Near, who had had the Death Note in his possession, could have possibly controlled Mikami's actions the previous year. This is because Mikami, following his incarceration, lost his sanity and died ten days after Light, making it appear too convenient for their deaths to have occurred in such close proximity to each other. However, Ide says that there is no way to prove this theory since all existing notebooks were burned by Near.

Matsuda further theorizes that Near may have already suspected that the notebook was fake, and he simply allowed Lidner leak the information to Mello in order to manipulate him into taking action. If Near learned nothing from it, he would have changed the date. Ide tells Matsuda that this is all just wishful thinking because Light was Kira, and that he genuinely liked Light. Matsuda then asks why he thinks he did the right thing. Ide answers that, if Near had lost and Kira had won, they would all be dead.

At the NPA headquarters, all of the investigation team gathers around a TV set that shows an "L". They receive instructions from Near, who is now the new L.

In a place with high mountains, thousands of hooded people of all ages walking by candlelight. The group parts and a hooded woman dressed in white walks to the edge of a mountain and clasps her hands in prayer. She says, “Lord Kira.”

Conception
Obata selected the apple to use as the object for the cover page of "Finis," as the apple was used as an important symbol in Death Note and Obata believed that featuring the apple was "the only way to go. "The final set of chapter covers feature close-ups of objects, and so the cover page of "Finis" focused on the apple, with the last rule of Death Note being “Once dead, they can never come back to life.”

Trivia

 * The events from chapter 108 are not featured in the final episode of the anime.
 * As mentioned above, the events of this chapter are omitted from the anime finale. The anime's final episode ends with Light slowly closing his eyes (with an apparition of L's Spirit standing over him - a scene not present in the original manga), and Misa looking out over the horizon, apparently preparing to commit suicide - making the ending feel much more final.
 * Second appearance of Yamamoto, who appeared in the first volume as a friend of Light, and subsequently appears in the one-shot manga.
 * Ohba and Obata have stated that the cloaked woman who appears at the end is not Misa, but a "random follower" of Kira.
 * There are many references to the first chapter in chapter 108, including a 7 years older Ryuu, still unable to get a lift from whoever; three high school girls talking about blowing off studies to go get "wasted", compared to the three girls in chapter 1 who wished to go to a college party; and a gang of bikers riding past. Although there is the obvious absence of Takuo Shibuimaru in Chapter 108, it seems that this is in fact the same gang still riding the streets, possibly in their leader's memory.
 * Ide mentions that Matsuda "was fond" of Light, which seems to suggest that Matsuda held one-sided feelings for Light, even when it seemed that he was Kira. It now seems that he has aimed those feelings towards Yamamoto, possibly due to his previous relationship with Light.