Himself

Himself (彼自身, Kare jishin) is the 3rd chapter of Volume ten and 82nd chapter overall.

Plot
Light knows that Aizawa has accepted the offer, but he has made Misa give up the notebook and got rid of all of the evidence. Besides, stopping Aizawa would seem suspicious.

Aizawa arrives at the new SPK headquarters with a blindfold on. Before taking off the blindfold, Near asks if he had cameras and wires during the day of the riot, and Aizawa answers that he did. Near assumes that the camera was brought along so that Kira could try to see Mello’s face because Kira had not made the deal with the shinigami to get the eyes. Near orders that Aizawa’s blindfold be taken off.

Aizawa tells Near that he still doesn’t completely trust him, but he admits that his theory does make sense, especially if the “13 day” rule is fake. Near confesses that his and Mello’s methods may seem severe, but it’s all out of a desire to catch Kira who killed L, their idol who they respected and longed to be like.

Aizawa tells Mello that the former L placed the present L and a second person under confinement for more than 50 days in order to verify their innocence. They weren’t completely exonerated until they discovered about the “13 day” rule. He tells them that after the 50 days, L was still reluctant to let them go free. Therefore, L devised a plan to make Soichiro Yagami pretend to execute the suspected Kira and second Kira saying, “I’m going to kill Kira, and then kill myself.” When Soichiro was not killed, they concluded that the suspects could not be Kira, and L released them.

Near concludes that Kira predicted his confinement, wrote the fake rules within the real rules, gave the notebook to someone else, waited until L caught the person and read the fake rule.

Aizawa believes that this theory makes sense. However, it is all based on assumptions. Then, Near asks Aizawa for the names of the two people, but he refuses to tell them.

Near thanks Aizawa for his cooperation and predicts that the new L has probably already found a replacement second Kira to do the killings for him. This is why it will be hard for him to investigate.

However, Near points to the fact that Soichiro Yagami said, “I’m going to kill Kira, and then kill myself,” which leads him to believe that Soichiro and the Kira suspect were related. He concludes that the present L and possible Kira is Light Yagami.