into the death note-verse

just recently i was rereading death note when i noticed something in chapter 90. near points out the existence of both L-kira (light) and X-kira (mikami), but points out that they cannot be killed because there's no guarantee yet exactly who they are, or if there are more kiras. my brain might just be fried rn but i got to thinking, even though near acknowledged the possibility and accounted for it, would that have worked for light? hypothetically speaking of course, since at this point he didn't have any more (real) death notes to work with besides his own and mikami's (damn it sidoh)

let's say he did have another note (ha) to work with. my reasoning is that surely among kira supporters, both japanese and global, light couldve found someone equally as capable of serving under him in the same way mikami did. though it would be a bit of a risk, in the event that both light and mikami were unable to act as kira (with light knowing that the connection between himself, takada, and mikami could be connected), wouldn't it be worth it to assign another kira? especially either somebody foreign or absolutely unrelated to NHN, the japanese police, or anything that could possibly be tied back to light. like i said, having a foreign kira would be difficult for light to keep under control and therefore a risk, but seeing as how light was able to control so many people with little effort, i don't think it would be out of the realm of possibility. and at this point in the manga, he's already being backed into a lot of corners. i'm sure it's something he'd think about, and something near did canonically consider.

even having considered it, would near have been able to locate the hypothetical Y-kira in time for light to think of a way out? despite the way light seems to devolve in the latter half of the manga -- largely because, in my opinion (and that of tumblr user mikami) soichiro's death made him cynical and isolated in a way that he wasn't before, and in a way that worked toward his detriment -- i think that it's possible for him to have set up a memory retrieval for misa in the event that these resources had been available to him, and if this Y-kira was the only kira still available to keep killing, and to take the suspicion off himself, takada, and mikami. writing out a complicated plan for all that is beyond me right now, but it's a ton of fun to think about.

i don't know why i always think about how different things would've turned out in the story if only one or two factors had changed -- i think it's because i'm extremely invested not only in the plot as it exists (which is often brilliant and always entertaining, to me) but in the motivations, thoughts, and feelings of the characters themselves. it's a lot of fun for me to either give them more opportunities or back them into more corners, and see if i can think up a way they'd weave the situation in their favor. it's also a great way to get an idea of the inner workings, ideals, etc. of the characters, which is half of what i do when i read/watch death note (the other half, of course, is getting excited for mikami to show up :p). not a lot of a point to this little ramble, just wanted to delineate some of the types of thoughts i get whenever i reread the series. despite all of this being hypothetical and non-canonical, it still feels like im discovering new things about the story, because i'm utilizing the canon characterization to the best of my ability. so yeah, i'm gonna head to bed now before my brain splits up into a thousand different death note timelines lol. good night everyone x