Death Note: The Next Kira (Part One)

Chapter Forty-Six: Volunteer Work

FEBRUARY 6, 2006

TOKYO, JAPAN

AT 9:00 AM

                                                                        MARIE

We were in the football stadium of another Japanese American High School. "Good morning, students," Mr. Mikami greeted us. "Good morning, Mr. Mikami," we greeted him back. "Well," he began. "I must say that I'm glad to see everyone again. As of now, we have no idea what caused our school to collapse and I have advised every construction worker in the Kanto region to not perform any construction on the Kanto Region American High School until the police have found out what caused the buildings to collapse in the first place. As a result, all Japanese American Schools have been shut down for the remainder of the school year just in case something like this would happen again." We all sighed in relief after he said that. "Anyway, class," Mr. Mikami began. "Since I'm too scared to send anyone back to school, I've decided that we are going to be doing some volunteer work."

Everyone chattered happily after he said that. I on the other hand remained silent and had to listen to what else Mr. Mikami had to say. "As you can see here, Ms. Hirota, Ms. Seraphim, and I have some envelopes with different kinds of volunteer work for each of you. Whichever one you get in the envelope is the job you'll be assigned to for the remainder of the school year." I heard a lot of people quietly chattering to each other and I stayed silent as I did earlier. "Alrighty, class," Mr. Mikami. "I hope that Ms. Hirota, Ms. Seraphim, and I will see you at lunch downtown before our dismissal at one." Everyone cheered after Mr. Mikami said this. 

A COUPLE OF MINUTES LATER...

                                                                     MARIE

I was down on the football field looking for an envelope that had my name on it. However, I couldn't find one. "Can you search for mine, Khloe?" I asked her. I watched as Khloe sniffed for the envelope that had my name on it. "Ni hao, Marie," I heard someone say. I turned around to find Mei and Jirou behind me. "Oh, hey," I greeted them. "What's up?" "Nothing much," Mei answered. "But Jirou and I have a question we'd like to ask you." I listened closely to what Mei and Jirou had to say. "What do you want to ask me?" I asked them polietly. "Well," Mei began. "Jirou and I are both helping out at Niko's main onsen house because she's out of town. This means we get to have free access to the place and get to bathe in the onsens along with her sentos for free. We were also thinking about inviting a friend to come along with us and we were hoping that you'd be free to tag along." She paused for a moment and I tried to think about what I was going to say. "You can bring a plus one too if you'd like," Mei continued. "It'll be a blast." 

I still tried to think about what I was going to say. "So," Mei continued. "What do you say?" I sighed. "I'll think about it," I answered. "Yay!" Mei let out right before she giggled. "See you later." I watched as Mei and Jirou walked off. "You two!" I told them as I waved goodbye to them. Once they were gone, Khloe and I continued to look for the envelope with my name on it but we still couldn't find it. Just then, I heard footsteps approaching my direction. "Hey, Marie," I heard a girl say out loud. I turned around to find Alissa and Osuke standing there. "Hey," I greeted them. "What's up?" "Oh, I'm just so happy that Osuke and I get to be working not that far away from each other!" Alissa answered right before she giggled. "I get to work at the Barbie Store in the mall and I'm not too far away from Osuke since we're both going to be working in the same mall together!" 

"Wow," I let out. "That's really something." "Yep," Osuke agreed. "I get to work at a Starbucks. I was hoping that I would get to work at a Bonsai tree store like in The Karate Kid. To be fair, I loved The Karate Kid Part II more than the first one." I chuckled. "Well," I began. "They're both really great movies. I've been trying to get into the third one, but the only things that were good in it were Terry Silver, Mike Barnes, and Jessica Andrews." Osuke shrugged his shoulders. "It was good," he told me. "Just not as good as the first and second one." "Anyhoo," Alissa began. "We'd better get going since we don't wanna be late." I watched as Alissa turned and gave Osuke a smooch on the lips. Osuke had his eyes open for a few seconds before closing them and placing his arms around Alissa.