Nate River

Character Withdrawn and unsociable. *Near has virtually no social skills, keeping communication to a minimum and maintaining aloofness. In the character profile from Volume 13 of the manga, his social skills and ability to live like everyone else are rated 1 out of 10.

• Emotionless and calm. *Unlike the impulsive Mello, Near is level-headed and rarely shows strong emotions.

• Eccentric. *His behavior seems strange: he sits on the floor, slouches, and tugging at his hair. This eccentricity makes him similar to L.

• Analytical mind and strategic thinking. *He is a brilliant detective who calculates his moves ahead. For example, he switched the real Death Note with a fake one to expose Light Yagami. However, he is critical of L's methods and believes that he "lost because he couldn't play the game properly."

What he prefers to do

• Thinking through games and toys. *Near uses childhood games as a tool for organizing his thoughts. At the beginning of the story, he builds towers out of Lego bricks, later using puppets to visualize relationships between people and represent his enemies, and also builds houses of cards.

• Investigating crimes. This is his main occupation. He leads the SPK (Special Provision for Kira) team and focuses on finding Kira. After solving the case, he continues working as L.