Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement (承認, Shõnin) is the fifth chapter of volume nine and seventy-fifth chapter of the Death Note manga series.



Plot
Light is annoyed by the fact that Mello isn't dead. He wants to try and persuade people at Wammy's House who'd know Mello's face to write his name in the Death Note, but they cannot be contacted. He suspects that this is Near's doing and that Near doesn't want Mello killed because he is a potential source of information for him.

Just then, Near makes one of many repeated calls to L. He is unsatisfied with the ease in which Kira somehow contacted the Japanese Task Force and located the Mafia hideout. Light simply tells him that he has told Near all he knows. Near takes the matter no further.

While playing with a space base made of LEGO, Near outlines his frustrations to his SPK colleagues, mainly: Why did Kira assist the Japanese Task Force in recovering the Death Note from the mafia, and why did they believe him so readily? Additionally, why did Kira leave a Death Note containing potential clues to the very people who are trying to capture him? There is also the four year gap between the Task Force getting the Death Note from Higuchi and Kira only making a move to get it back when it fell into the hands of the Mafia. He's becoming convinced that Kira and the current L are one and the same.

Halle Lidner and Commander Rester, however, find this hard to believe. Near admits to being only "seven percent" certain, but needs Mello to gather the rest of the evidence. He also orders them to check out the Task Force members.

The U.S. Vice-President, now President due to the death of the former President, David Hoope, holds a press conference in order to proclaim that the United States has accepted Kira and will do nothing to stand in his way. For the benefit of his colleagues, Light appears to be furious by this announcement, but secretly he is delighted.

The SPK wonders what will happen to them now, and Near answers that they will most likely be dissolved, expressing disgust in the vice president's actions.

Back at the Task Force's HQ, Matsuda wonders aloud whether Kira is really all that bad; after all he is fighting against evil and for a peaceful world. As a cop he feels that he is duty bound to capture Kira, but, as self-confessed weakling, he can also see the benefits of Kira's actions. Aizawa counters this by saying that it's a peaceful world based on fear. However, Light chimes in by saying that Kira will be considered either good or evil based on the results: if Kira is captured, then he is evil; but if he brings the whole world round to his way of thinking then he is good.

Conception
Ohba said that the chapter's title "Acknowledgement" refers to the United States Government accepting Kira and Light's acknowledgment that he knows that killing people is morally wrong.

Ohba went on to say that that the U.S. Government's act is "probably more like "recognizing" than "accepting".