Fanfic / Noel

The Noelverse is a Death Note Fan Fiction series by TzviaAriella. The basic premise of the series is that Light Yagami survived the confrontation at the Yellow Box Warehouse and was taken prisoner by Near.

At the beginning the first story in the series, Noel, Near has been working as the new L for two years, while Light has been stewing in bitterness in a solitary-confinement cell. When Near finds himself confounded by a series of murders that he suspects may be the work of a former student at Wammy's House, he reluctantly asks Light to consult on the case, and Light reluctantly agrees. As they work together, the two come to understand each other better and develop a grudging respect.

Please Drink Responsibly is a short story set in between chapters 12 and 13 of Noel, in which Near's team celebrates his birthday and Near and Light deal, or try not to deal, with things that happened to them during the case.

Resurrection is a full-length sequel set three years after the events of Noel, in which Near asks for Light's assistance with another case... this time involving a Death Note.

A third multi-chapter story in the series, Reunion, is complete as of February 2024.

The stories can be read on fanfiction.net or Archive of Our Own.

Tropes in Noel and Please Drink Responsibly

Tropes in Noel and Please Drink Responsibly include:

• Alone with the Psycho: Not exactly alone but both Light and Near are at Janus's mercy. She even gloats about what she's gonna do to them.
• And This Is for...: Light slaps Janus 7 times for the people she murdered, saying each victim's name as he's doing it. She retaliates by shocking him repeatedly while reciting the names of his victims; given how many there are, even the small portion of the list that she gets through results in a permanent burn scar.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: A platonic example.
  • Light comforts Near when the latter becomes distressed while they're being held captive by Janus. Later, he kills Janus to save Near's life, despite their history. He claims it's for his own good rather than Near as he has little chance to escape with his injuries but admits to himself he doesn't know why he did it.
  • Near returns Light the watch his father gives him for graduation with a few modifications.
  • Near offers Light a chance to contact his remaining family. He declines though.
• Birthday Hater: Near.
  Coming of age was important. Coming of drinking age is not. If they expect me to get drunk today. They had better think again.
• Brutal Honesty: Near is this, according to Light.
• Butt-Monkey: Light, even after he gains their trust and become something of a friend and a consultant to Near.
  You're all determined to see me drunk, aren't you?
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Near's reason for keeping Light alive is that he too brilliant to just kill off and might be useful later.
• Consulting a Convicted Killer: Although the reason Near consults Light is not that he has special insight into serial killers as a general category but because he has proven himself capable of matching wits with Wammy's graduates and because Janus left hints related to the Kira case at her crime scenes.
• Death Faked for You: Near has everyone other than Roger and the SPK convinced that Light is dead. Matsuda doesn't quite believe him.
• Deadpan Snarker: Light. Usually toward Near.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Inverted. Light recognizes the contempt behind Near's team addressing him as "Kira" and asks them to call him by his name if he's going to work with them.
• Driven to Suicide: Misa, much to Light's shock as he believes she can get over his death like she did her parents.
• Everyone Has Standards: Light would never kill a child, which is not something Janus can say for herself. He is also unable to watch Janus molesting an unconscious Near and offers himself in his stead.
• Faux Affably Evil: Janus is smiling and chipper as she describes to Near and Light how she's going to torture and kill them, even going so far as to mockingly express concern for a prisoner having a sore back due to the position she's bound him in.
• Hates Being Touched: Near.
  [Halle] should have known him well enough by now to know he hated to be touched, but neurotypicals often forgot such things.
• Leave Behind a Pistol: Light believes that the chin-up bar in his cell was actually installed so that he could hang himself if he chose to, and that Near would be pleased to see him do so... which is part of why he doesn't.
• Loony Fan: Like many Wammy's students, Janus is driven to harmful extremes by her idolization of L. Her initial motivation for committing murder is to humiliate Near and expose him as an impostor.
• Loophole Abuse: How Near convinces Ryuk to let Light live. He reasons that Light has no direct connection to either Death Note, both of which is burned by Near while the ones who did are already dead so Ryuk has no responsibility with Light. He's still going to write Light's name but it would be years in the future.
• Recursive Canon: Janus wrote Another Note as an attempt to make the public aware of L's accomplishments. It was never published in-universe, as Roger forced her to scrap it due to security concerns.
• Replacement Goldfish: Light is this to Roger.
  One of his students gets gunned down in Japan, and four days later [Near] put him in charge of a similar-aged Japanese genius full of bullet holes. [Near] should have known he'd see it as a replacement.
• Right in Front of Me: Light has a philosophical conversation with a Kira-worshipping street preacher who naturally has no idea who he's talking to.
  Preacher: I'm a prophet of God, young man. When Lord Kira stands before me, I'll know.
• Serial Killer: Janus. She considers Near taking over L's legacy and employing Light's help as insults to L's name and sacrifice, thus she wants revenge.
• Significant Name Shift: Near shifting to addressing Light as "Light" instead of "Kira" is a sign of their improving relationship.
• Shock Collar: Near initially makes Light wear one as a condition of his being permitted to leave his cell and work as a consultant.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The main arc of the story concerns Near and Light moving from this to a place of mutual respect.
• Theme Serial Killer: Janus' victims other than Roger are all men with the initials "NR" who are the third in their family to have their name. This is, of course, an allusion to Near's name and status as the third L. She leaves other symbolic tokens related to Near at the site of each murder.
• Verbal Tic Name: Near's alias comes from the only word he said when he first arrived at Wammy's House, which in turn came from the first sentence he heard after his mother almost killed him: "That was a near thing".
• Villainous Rescue: At the climax of the story, Light manages to get free and kills Janus with her own knife. As Light approaches Near, knife in hand, Near expects to be stabbed as well... but instead, Light cuts his bindings.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Roger tells Near that his use of a Shock Collar to control Light is gratuitously cruel.
  Near: L would have done the same. Don't tell me he wouldn't.
  Roger: Yes, he would. That doesn't make it right.
  Near: He survived five bullets. One little shock won't kill him.
  Roger: And it wouldn't kill you to show a little grace. You won, Near. He knows it better than you.
• Would Hurt a Child: One of Janus' victims is five years old.

Tropes in Resurrection (unmarked spoilers for Noel)

Tropes in Resurrection include:

• Anger Born of Worry: Near's anger about Light's fake death is partly this and partly straightforward anger about his employees and prisoner deceiving him.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Janus was a Wammy's kid obsessed with protecting L's legacy; Libra is a Kira copycat.
• Cut-and-Paste Note: Libra's message is an audio example, using the recorded voice of Nick and Julia's first victim, a political opponent of Nick's father.
• Driven to Suicide: After being cornered by Near and denounced by his father, Nick Wolff writes his own name in his Death Note.
• Faking the Dead: With Matsuda's and Lidner's help, Light tricks Nick into thinking that he and Julia are dead. In order to sell the deception, they also trick Near, although he learns the truth once the case is over.
• Jack the Ripoff: Libra uses a Death Note to enact vigilante justice and states in his first public announcement that he will succeed where Kira failed.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Matsuda explains how he convinced himself that Light was an inhuman monster as a way of coping with his guilt about shooting his former friend... and then realized that Light himself might have had a similar thought process about the first criminals he killed. Recognizing this similarity lead Matsuda to see Light in a more nuanced way and ultimately to want to reconcile with him when he found out that Light was alive.
• Paying It Forward: Light decides to honor Roger's memory and pay forward the kindness Roger showed him early in his imprisonment by providing companionship to Julia during her imprisonment in his old cell.
• Smart People Play Chess: Nick Wolff and Julia Nguyen play chess; the latter is a FIDE master who teaches the former, which may be a hint that Julia is ultimately wiser and more competent than Nick in other areas.
• Suicide Dare: Aizawa tells Light that he ought to keep his promise to ensure Kira's execution if Soichiro died on the Kira case, the obvious implication under the circumstances being that he should kill himself. He comes to regret saying this, especially when Light appears to have died trying to stop Libra.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Near's reaction to Light's fear of Libra:
  Near: Stop wallowing in self-pity and look around you, Light. The world is full of murderers in cells, and they've been living in fear of the Death Note for a lot longer than you. If you can't stand six days of it, imagine what you put them through for six years.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Near gives one to Libra at the climax.
  Near: You're a plagiarist—a cheap imitation, nothing more. That's why Kira evaded capture for six years, and Libra barely lasted six weeks.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Nick's goal of becoming a superior alternative to Kira was inspired largely by his father's comments on Kira and his general belief system. His father's repudiation of him and his goals drives Nick to suicide.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • The Task Force, particularly Aizawa, have this reaction to learning that Near kept Light alive without their knowledge.
  • Rester's response to Near ordering him to torture Julia Nguyen. Near explains that he gave that order in her presence as an intimidation tactic and doesn't actually expect Rester to follow through.
• Would Hurt a Child: Libra plans to kill all the current students at Wammy's House in order to end the line of succession for L. Light is horrified by this.

Tropes in Reunion (unmarked spoilers for Noel and Resurrection)

• Dramatic Irony: Prime Minister Tsukikawa's phone conversation with Light. Not only does he not recognize who it is he's really speaking to, he doesn't realize that Kira is the very man who oversaw his daughter's rescue.
  Prime Minister: I’d never come out and say this publicly, but at times like these? I sometimes wish that Kira were still around.
• Meaningful Name: The kidnapped girl's family name is Tsukikawa, which is a real Japanese surname written with the kanji for "moon" (the same kanji Light's name is written with) and "river" (Near's surname). In the Death Note fandom, "Moonriver" is a common ship name for Near and Light.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Sachiko suspected that Light was Kira throughout the investigation. She kept quiet to avoid getting her son killed if she was right or losing his trust if she was wrong.