Why does the Death Note never run out of pages?

Question

It is kind of intriguing the Death Note never runs out of pages...

How to Use: XXXI

The number of pages of the Death Note will never run out.

Source

Since it's made of an unknown matter it's not really that difficult to believe, but we didn't really see the effects of this rule in the anime, which I guess could be more important than most of the rules (unless you show me some other point of view in the answers), by analyzing:

The thickness of the Note should increase:

By assuming that the number of pages will increase every time you use the Note pages to make it endless, we would clearly see that the Death Note will get thicker, since the number of pages is rising, and we would clearly see that the Note of Light would be too thick after his long years using it.

The already written pages remains:

We could also deduce that the pages that are already filled do not disappear since both L and Near did analyze the names written on the Notes and the names of the dead victims as another evidence of the conviction.

Now as a question:

We know that the user can rip some pages from the Note to use them later, now what would happen if the user rips all the pages from the last one filled to the end cover of the Note for using them later? :

1. Will it be judged as destroying the Note?
2. Will it be judged as ripping some pages?

If 1), the Note will be rendered useless.
If 2), would other pages appear in the Note? In case they appear, could the user keep ripping off pages and giving them to hundreds of people making Kira everywhere? Why didn't Yagami Light do such a thing as becoming the master of the page users and the only one knowing their names in case they disobey him, and as a result, creating an army for himself made of the Kira fans?

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Check also: Why is there an entire Death Note if only one page is enough?

Answer 1

Since there are multiple questions, I will divide the answer also into multiple sections.

Why doesn't the thickness of the Death Note increase?

The rule quoted in the question seems to contradict a statement that Sidoh makes in one manga chapter. He says that to get his Death Note back, he has to wait until the current owner dies or till the all the pages are filled up. Since both the manga and the How to Read sections are canon, I would call this an author mistake. However, an interpretation is possible wherein both statements could be correct, without causing contradiction. Let us consider the three cases.

• How to Read version of the rule is correct.
  If the pages in the Death Note never run out, we can assume that new pages will grow somehow once all pages have been used up. The most plausible explanation for why the book doesn't become thick is that Light tore away and destroyed some or all old pages after the new pages grew.
  
  L or Near only verified that the people whose names were then present in the Death Note had indeed been killed. They did not, and could not, verify that there were other people killed whose names are not in the Death Note.

• Sidoh's statement in manga is correct.
  In the manga pilot, the Death Note consisted of 60 pages with 38 lines per page. Once you ran out of space, you could ask your Shinigami for a new one.¹ The pilot chapter is usually considered non-canon, but it is possible that the authors planned for the Death Note in the manga to behave similarly and simply forgot about it when they wrote the How to Read.

• Both versions are correct.
  We could interpret the statements as the following. When Sidoh said that the Death Note's pages are filled up, he was referring to the physical Death Note. The How to Read section refers to the logical or conceptual Death Note. The new notebook that the Shinigami gives could be seen as the "continuation" of the earlier book. Since there's no limit to the number of times you can ask the Shinigami for a new book, the pages never run out logically.

How is tearing the last page interpreted?

This is an easy one, since a torn page from the Death Note is still technically a part of the same Death Note. This can be seen from the following canon events, both of which Light puts to good use for his plan.

• Someone touching the torn piece will see the Shinigami associated with that Death Note.
• Someone who has lost memories of the Death Note, will remember them, after touching that torn piece.

This implies that until that last page is filled up, the book is still considered to be not filled up.

Could Light rip-off pages and distribute them to create a Kira army?

Technically, he could do it, but there are a number of reasons this would not be a good idea.

• From the explanations in the first two sections, it follows that unless all pages are used up, Light won't be getting any more pages. (Until all pages are filled up, new pages won't grow, or the Shinigami won't give you a new book, depending on which version is correct.)

• Distributing the Death Note pages increases Kira's chances of getting caught. Even if he chooses people with a "high sense of justice" as he wants, not many would be as smart or careful as him in covering their tracks. There's a good chance someone would spill the beans, over a glass of alcohol, for example. Moreover, if the pages fall into the hands of Police, they could serve as evidence, which would eventually be backtracked to him.
  
  Even if Light has their names and faces, he cannot possibly keep track on their every activity, and killing them after they have committed a mistake would not help him much. In particular, note that:
  
  

  what eventually contributed to Light getting caught was Teru Mikami acting on his own, without waiting for Light's orders.

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¹ Death Note Manga Pilot, Chapter 0, page 26.

Answer 2

While it's definitely vague, it could be assumed that the Death Note rule about Infinite pages only applies to Death notes in Possession of a Death God (i.e., full pages simply disappear and are replaced with new at the end of the book, since Death God's have no real reason why they need to keep the pages), where as Death Notes in possession of Humans have a finite number of pages (as is specifically stated by a Death God), but can be erased and reused as needed (If they think to do so before the pages are all used up).

Which is really the only way IMO that Near's trick could've worked.

Answer 3

Some rules have been changed in How to Read from what was mentioned in the manga. For instance, Sidoh states in the manga that for him to get his notebook back, he would have to wait for the owner to die or use up all of the pages, whereas in How to Read, it is stated that there are an unlimited amount of pages in the Death Note. In contrast, the rules listed in the manga pilot chapter, included in How to Read, state that the notebook has 60 pages with 38 lines per page, and that when the owner runs out of space to write in the notebook, they "may ask the original Shinigami owner for another."

Answer 4

Well in the pilot manga, it states,

There is 60 pages and 36 lines on each page, if you write small you can write as many names as you want.

Meaning eventually it would run out. But! It also says you can ask the shinigami for a new Death Note. However, this doesn't happen in the anime, meaning the pages must regenerate, somehow.