Meanwhile

Meanwhile is the eighth chapter of volume eleven and ninety-sixth chapter of the Death Note manga series.



Plot
In a flashback: on Sunday, December 27th — Stephen Gevanni reports that Mikami follows a very strict time schedule where he goes to the gym every Thursday and Sunday from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. He takes the notebook every time. Gevanni believes that he will probably be at the gym next Thursday, the 31st. Near instructs Gevanni to touch the notebook then while he prepares a special diversion… for insurance.

Thursday, December 31st — While Mikami is working out, Gevanni goes into the locker room where there are no surveillance cameras and opens the lock to his locker. He touches the notebook in the locker. He does not see a Shinigami, at least up until this point. He follows Mikami home, and he still does not see a Shinigami. He reports this to Near.

Near then asks Mogi if he remembers some of the rules of the Death Note. He particularly asks if he can confirm the rule that states that you can control a person up to 23 days before their death. Mogi says yes.

Near decides that he will face Kira in 24 days, just in case Kira is controlling Gevanni before death.

January 3rd — Takada and Light are having a casual conversation for the investigation team to listen to. Meanwhile, Light writes to her that Misa has been kidnapped by the SPK, but assures her not to do anything because nothing will leak out of Misa’s mouth. Light is confident because he has made preparations for his final showdown with Near. He writes to Takada to tell Mikami to "confirm". Once he has done that, he instructs Takada to phone or message him immediately with, "I want to see you quickly."

January 6th — Gevanni has been following Mikami for a week after he touched the notebook. He has still not seen a Shinigami. Near instructs him to go to the gym with Mikami, and snap a picture of every page in the notebook. He wants to see if there is any habit in Mikami's writing down of names. He tells him to also take a picture of the cover, back cover, spine, and every outside detail.

Near receives the pictures of the pages in the notebook and notices that Mikami has a habit of writing enough names to fill a page once a day. Near now feels confident that they can catch Kira this way.

Conception
Tsugumi Ohba said that the chapter title "Meanwhile" relates to all of Gevanni's actions in the chapter. Ohba explained that the title meant "Meanwhile, Gevanni was…" when it came to him doing something different.