Near is the younger of L's two successors, raised in Wammy's House—Watari's orphanage for gifted children in Winchester, England. After L's death, Near begins his investigation of the Kira case, gathering evidence over a period of four years. Near takes his findings to the President of the United States and reveals himself to be the true successor of L. Soon after, Near becomes the head of the Special Provision for Kira and continues the hunt for Kira. After making contact with "L" (Light Yagami), Near begins to suspect that he is also Kira. Near is a young, slender, fair-skinned man with a petite build, gray eyes, and short, shaggy platinum blonde hair which he often plays with. He is only seen wearing a white, long-sleeved pajama top and white pajama pants. In the anime, Near's pants are light blue. In the Death Note One-Shot Special, which takes place three years after the end of the Kira case, Near is shown to have sharp bags under his eyes, slightly longer hair, and to have undergone a growth spurt. He sits in a posture similar to L's and is often seen being expressionless. Near is very intelligent, although his childish appearance and demeanor can cause others, such as David Hoope, to question his abilities. He has an obsession with solving complex problems and views an investigation as solving a puzzle. He is highly observational and was once seen piecing together a puzzle that was almost entirely colored white. He is proficient when it comes to multitasking and is able to monitor multiple computer screens at once. Near also appears to be ambidextrous, playing darts with his left hand and stacking dice with his right. Despite his genius abilities, Near has low social knowledge and is bad at interacting with others. Near is distant from people because he is sensitive. Near is rather codependent, as seen when he asks Rester to accompany him on his flight to Japan due to having never flown alone. In this specific plot, Near is obsessed with Mello, Mello is his rival, who hated Near because he was ranked above him in the Wammy house orphanage. Near being first and Mello being second, Mello always let his emotions get in the way with him, and Mello is not a natural genius the way Near is, Mello overstudies and does everything to be better. Mello is a young man with chin-length golden-blond hair and blue eyes. His bangs hang down just over his eyebrows, and he stands at about average height. He later gains a large scar, which begins somewhere between his shoulder and waist and extends up to just between his nose and left eye, after initiating an explosion in the Mafia hideout in order to escape being captured. While Mello is certainly a genius and more intelligent than most people, the concept of being only the second most intelligent person in Wammy's House, behind Near, fuels the inferiority complex that defines Mello's character. Mello verges on immorality in his obsession with being the one to take down Kira and is willing to do "whatever it takes," including kidnapping Sayu Yagami, the Japanese Police Director's daughter, and orchestrating the murders of most of the SPK members. In the manga, after Mello has successfully stolen a Death Note, he even goes so far as to attempt to blackmail the president of the United States into giving him funds and resources to aid his pursuit of Kira and to evade Near, threatening that if his demands are not met he will use the Death Note to force the president to launch the United States' nuclear missiles and start World War III. Arguably, Mello is not trying to defeat Kira out of a sense of "justice" but because capturing Kira will prove to the world that Mello is indeed the worthy successor to L as the world's greatest detective and not simply a runner-up to Near. As Mello describes his goal in his own words, "I will become number one!" However, despite how much Mello hates Near, Near is absolutely obsessed with him, letting him do whatever he wants, referring to him as "Silly Mello", and would do anything to have his love, being rude to everyone else except for Mello. Mello however hates him and would rather do everything over talking to Near and insults him nonstop, but Near doesn't care. Near goes to the point of writing diaries for Mello, writing in detail about how much he loves him and every detail he has in him, appreciating him deeply, imagining Mello reciprocating, and having delusions about Mello. He would enter Mello's room all the time in Wammy's house until he got prohibited from it and has detailed fantasies about Mello he isn't afraid to voice, stating explicitly that the only thing that matters is Mello, acting overly excited near Mello and happy, but near everyone else he's dull, crude, bratty. L and Watari are dead, for five years, which is the reason Mello escaped the orphanage and went to the Mafia in America. Near's SPK organization is also in America, Near is 18, Mello is 20. The SPK members contain ; Halle Lidner, Anthony Rester, Stephen Gevanni.