Deku's Wisdom

Death Note Vol. 12: Death Note, Vol. 12

ISBN
9781421513270
Publisher
VIZ Media
English release
Pages
216
Chapters
99–108

Death Note Volume 12 begins with the pursuit following Takada's kidnapping. Chapters 99–108 make this the final standard main-story volume, continuing directly from the previous book. The licensed opening checked here covers the pursuit and first contacts after the abduction, leaving the ending itself unread for this note. How to Read is a separate reference book, already included with the twelve story volumes in the Complete Box Set; Short Stories is another separate purchase.

Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.

Takada's captor tries to sever contact by ordering her to surrender her clothes and phone. She negotiates for a blanket, and the inner account shows that the concession matters to what she can conceal. The scene gives her a decision under coercion without converting the abduction into consent. Elsewhere, the televised killing of Matt is followed by Mello's private apology: his plan did not make him expect that result. His regret does not restore his partner. When Takada reaches Light, he asks questions that sound protective while privately checking whether she followed instructions and how to locate her. Her belief that he will arrange rescue and his own calculation appear beside each other, rather than as the same intention. The opening makes access to a helpful voice another uncertain form of protection. The checked passage ends before its consequences arrive.

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Collected in Complete Box Set.

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Spoiler — from the ending. Tap to reveal.

“No, Light. The one who's going to die... ...is you.”

Ryuk, Death Note Source / locator: Death Note manga, Vol. 12, chapter 107, counted p. 173 (Viz English edition). Read first-hand on 30 September 2026 in a library scan of VIZ's paperback Vol. 12 at the Internet Archive (item deathnotevol12fi0012bats_u0q0; title page "Vol. 12 Finis"; copyright page "First printing, July 2007"), the page shown by the public reader's in-book search, with no login and nothing borrowed; page image 803 by 1307 pixels. Said to Light, in answer to his "But now that Ryuk's decided to write your names down, nobody can stop him! It's too late, you're all going to die!"; Light's "?!" and "Ryuk, you..." follow. Two consecutive balloons in one panel, "No, Light. The one who's going to die..." and "...is you.", both with tails pointing down to Ryuk, who is writing in his notebook. Printed ellipses retained, lettering case normalized. The page number is counted, not printed: no folio is printed on any page of this scan that was seen after the front matter, and p. 173 is counted 166 leaves on from the chapter 99 title page, which the contents page puts at p. 7, the scan putting the later page of each opening first. A skipped or doubled opening in the scan would make the count two pages off; the chapter placement does not depend on it (the contents page starts chapter 107 at p. 167 and chapter 108 at p. 189). Other printings were not seen, nor VIZ's digital edition, whose contents page differs from this printing's in one chapter title ("Face-to-Face" for "Face to Face"). Until 30 September 2026 this row carried Wikiquote's different wording ("No, Light. The only one who's going to die... is you.", cited there under chapter 107); replaced with VIZ's wording on that date. Viz · Publisher source
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The terms stated on the first day, executed on the last, with no malice attached to either. Ryuk warned in chapter one that he would be the one to write the name, and the follow-through arrives as a correction rather than a sentence: Light has just finished announcing that Ryuk is about to kill everyone else in the room. Nothing here is a judgment on what Light did. The arrangement simply ran out, which is colder than any verdict.

Spoiler — from the ending. Tap to reveal.

“Dad? Are you talking about Soichiro Yagami? That's right, Matsuda. Overly earnest people with a strong sense of justice like him always end up the loser. Do you want a world where people like him are always made fools of?!”

Light Yagami, Death Note Source / locator: Manga, chapter 106. Checked first-hand against VIZ's English on 30 September 2026, Vol. 12, chapter 106, counted p. 158. Read in a library scan of VIZ's paperback Vol. 12 at the Internet Archive (item deathnotevol12fi0012bats_u0q0; title page "Vol. 12 Finis"; copyright page "First printing, July 2007"), the page shown by the public reader's in-book search, with no login and nothing borrowed; page image 813 by 1297 pixels. Four consecutive pieces of lettering, "Dad?", "Are you talking about Soichiro Yagami?", "That's right, Matsuda. Overly earnest people..." and "Do you want a world...", in two panels that show only Light; none has a tail, and they are read as his from the panels and the sequence, after Matsuda's "What did your father die for...?" Lettering case normalized. The binding gutter of the scan cuts the left edge of the second and fourth pieces: the S of "Soichiro" is not visible at all, and the first letters of several other lines are partly cut. Every visible character matches this row, and each cut word has only one reading. The page number is counted, not printed: no folio is printed on any page of this scan that was seen after the front matter, and p. 158 is counted 153 leaves on from the chapter 99 title page, which the contents page puts at p. 7, the scan putting the later page of each opening first. A skipped or doubled opening in the scan would make the count two pages off; the chapter placement does not depend on it (the contents page starts chapter 106 at p. 147 and chapter 107 at p. 167). Other printings were not seen, nor VIZ's digital edition, whose contents page differs from this printing's in one chapter title ("Face-to-Face" for "Face to Face"). Viz · Publisher source Wikiquote · Transcription 2+ source organizations
Read the commentary

By this point the argument has cost him everything it can cost, and it still has to be defended, so he defends it with his father's corpse. Soichiro died having traded half his remaining lifespan for shinigami eyes, and Ryuk observed at the time that he died believing his son was not Kira. Light knows both facts. The position he has held since chapter one requires that a man who refuses to kill has lost, and Soichiro refused to kill while holding the notebook and the eyes he had paid for. So the doctrine eats him. What makes this worse than cruelty is that Light is not lying: inside his system the conclusion follows, and he reaches it standing in front of the men who carried the body. The system was always going to arrive here. It took a warehouse to say it aloud.

Spoiler — from the ending. Tap to reveal.

“Near, you're wrong. I'm the icon of justice now.”

Light Yagami, Death Note Source / locator: Manga, chapter 105. Checked first-hand against VIZ's English on 30 September 2026, Vol. 12, chapter 105, counted p. 142. Read in a library scan of VIZ's paperback Vol. 12 at the Internet Archive (item deathnotevol12fi0012bats_u0q0; title page "Vol. 12 Finis"; copyright page "First printing, July 2007"), the page shown by the public reader's in-book search, with no login and nothing borrowed; page image 813 by 1297 pixels. One balloon, word for word, lettering case normalized. Said to Near after his "You're just a crazy mass murderer." "Nothing more." "And nothing less."; Near answers "You may be right.", the last words on the page. The balloon's tail points to a standing figure in the wide shot of the warehouse, and the panel beside it shows Light. The page number is counted, not printed: no folio is printed on any page of this scan that was seen after the front matter, and p. 142 is counted 137 leaves on from the chapter 99 title page, which the contents page puts at p. 7, the scan putting the later page of each opening first. A skipped or doubled opening in the scan would make the count two pages off; the chapter placement does not depend on it (the contents page starts chapter 105 at p. 127 and chapter 106 at p. 147). Other printings were not seen, nor VIZ's digital edition, whose contents page differs from this printing's in one chapter title ("Face-to-Face" for "Face to Face"). The commentary's account of the rest of Near's answer follows Wikiquote; that page of the scan was not seen. Viz · Publisher source Wikiquote · Transcription 2+ source organizations
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Chapter one wanted to reign over a new world. This wants brand recognition, and the drop is the whole biography. The word he reaches for belongs to public relations: not the ruler of a new world, not even its judge, but its image. Years of killing have converted an ambition into a market position, which is what happens when the ambition was about being seen to be right. Near's answer begins on the same page, and it is not a rebuttal. Nobody can tell what is right and what is wrong, Near says, and he is no different from Light. He then judges Light anyway, by standards he calls his own, and that is the move Light cannot match, because his entire structure depends on somebody occupying higher ground. Light needs the position. Near only needs to be correct.

Spoiler — from the ending. Tap to reveal.

“Once a name is written down in the Death Note, you can't do anything about it. You more than anybody else here should know that. Goodbye, Light Yagami.”

Ryuk, Death Note Source / locator: Death Note manga, Vol. 12, chapter 107, counted p. 178 (Viz English edition). Read first-hand on 30 September 2026 in a library scan of VIZ's paperback Vol. 12 at the Internet Archive (item deathnotevol12fi0012bats_u0q0; title page "Vol. 12 Finis"; copyright page "First printing, July 2007"), the page shown by the public reader's in-book search, with no login and nothing borrowed; page image 813 by 1297 pixels. Said to Light after Ryuk has written his name. Excerpt: the two boxes in the top tier of the page, read right to left. They answer Light's "Do something! I know there's a way out of it, Ryuk!!", the last balloon of the page before, on which Ryuk has told him "I told you in the very beginning that I would be the one writing your name in the notebook when you die." Neither box has a tail; they sit in a panel filled by Ryuk's face, the second overlapping its left border, and are read as his from that and from the sequence. Lettering case normalized. The page number is counted, not printed: no folio is printed on any page of this scan that was seen after the front matter, and p. 178 is counted 173 leaves on from the chapter 99 title page, which the contents page puts at p. 7, the scan putting the later page of each opening first. A skipped or doubled opening in the scan would make the count two pages off; the chapter placement does not depend on it (the contents page starts chapter 107 at p. 167 and chapter 108 at p. 189). Other printings were not seen, nor VIZ's digital edition, whose contents page differs from this printing's in one chapter title ("Face-to-Face" for "Face to Face"). Until 30 September 2026 this row carried Wikiquote's different wording ("Once a name is written down in the Death Note, you can't do anything about it. You more than anybody else should know that. Goodbye, Light Yagami.", cited there under chapter 107); replaced with VIZ's wording on that date. Viz · Publisher source
Read the commentary

He has called him Light for a hundred chapters. Here he uses both names, and both names are what goes into the notebook. That is not sentiment breaking through; it is the reverse. Ryuk has moved his friend into the category of entry and the grammar has changed to match, the way a clerk switches from a first name to a file reference. The middle sentence is the crueler half anyway. Light is the world authority on the irreversibility of the notebook, has killed with it for more than four years, and he has to be reminded of the rule by the creature who dropped it into the human world. There is no lecture and no verdict here. Ryuk is closing a ledger, and he is polite about it.

Spoiler — from the ending. Tap to reveal.

“You drove your father to his death. And now you're trying to change the subject by telling me that he was made a fool...”

Touta Matsuda, Death Note Source / locator: Manga, chapter 106. Checked first-hand against VIZ's English on 30 September 2026, Vol. 12, chapter 106, counted p. 159. Read in a library scan of VIZ's paperback Vol. 12 at the Internet Archive (item deathnotevol12fi0012bats_u0q0; title page "Vol. 12 Finis"; copyright page "First printing, July 2007"), the page shown by the public reader's in-book search, with no login and nothing borrowed; page image 803 by 1307 pixels. One balloon, word for word, printed ellipsis retained, lettering case normalized. Its tail points to Matsuda, who is aiming his gun at Light. It is the first balloon on the page and answers Light's "Do you want a world where people like him are always made fools of?!" at the foot of the page before; Light replies "A society, a world where people like my father will never have to be made a fool... Soichiro Yagami died to create that." The page number is counted, not printed: no folio is printed on any page of this scan that was seen after the front matter, and p. 159 is counted 152 leaves on from the chapter 99 title page, which the contents page puts at p. 7, the scan putting the later page of each opening first. A skipped or doubled opening in the scan would make the count two pages off; the chapter placement does not depend on it (the contents page starts chapter 106 at p. 147 and chapter 107 at p. 167). Other printings were not seen, nor VIZ's digital edition, whose contents page differs from this printing's in one chapter title ("Face-to-Face" for "Face to Face"). Viz · Publisher source Wikiquote · Transcription 2+ source organizations
Read the commentary

Death Note spent a hundred chapters making this man the joke, and the payoff needs every one of them. Matsuda is the one who gets patronized in briefings, who blurts, who has to be managed. He is also, in chapter seventy-four, the person who reassured a dying Soichiro Yagami that Light was not Kira, and he said it to comfort him, and it was false, and he said it because he believed it. So the moral verdict in the warehouse goes to the character with the least standing and the largest personal debt, and it is the only accusation in the scene that is about a man rather than a principle. Near has the evidence. Matsuda has the grievance, and the grievance is what makes Light bleed.

Spoiler — from the ending. Tap to reveal.

“I have to kill him! This guy has got to die!”

Touta Matsuda, Death Note Source / locator: Manga, chapter 106. Corresponding VIZ English checked first-hand on 30 September 2026, Vol. 12, chapter 106, counted p. 161. Read in a library scan of VIZ's paperback Vol. 12 at the Internet Archive (item deathnotevol12fi0012bats_u0q0; title page "Vol. 12 Finis"; copyright page "First printing, July 2007"), the page shown by the public reader's in-book search, with no login and nothing borrowed; page image 803 by 1307 pixels. The lettering reads "I have to kill him. This guy has got to die!": the first sentence ends with a period, not an exclamation mark; existing quotation and this punctuation difference retained. It has no tail and sits in the white space beside Matsuda, who is aiming at Light, in a panel that shows only him. The page number is counted, not printed: no folio is printed on any page of this scan that was seen after the front matter, and p. 161 is counted 154 leaves on from the chapter 99 title page, which the contents page puts at p. 7, the scan putting the later page of each opening first. A skipped or doubled opening in the scan would make the count two pages off; the chapter placement does not depend on it (the contents page starts chapter 106 at p. 147 and chapter 107 at p. 167). Other printings were not seen, nor VIZ's digital edition, whose contents page differs from this printing's in one chapter title ("Face-to-Face" for "Face to Face"). Viz · Publisher source Wikiquote · Transcription 2+ source organizations
Read the commentary

Nobody in the warehouse is less qualified to pass this judgment. Matsuda has no case, no authority to execute anyone, and a personal stake that would disqualify him from any investigation, and he is wrong on procedure besides, since Light is already finished and shooting him settles nothing. Grant all of it. Then read what Near says a chapter earlier: that nobody can tell right from wrong, that even with a god's teachings in front of him he would still have to decide for himself, and that he is no different from Light Yagami. That is the most sophisticated position anyone in the series reaches and it cannot convict. The only person present capable of certainty is the one everybody has spent years talking over. Death Note hands him the gun and declines to apologize for it.

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