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 had 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 politely.

 "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.