Death Note: The Next Kira (Part One)

Chapter Forty-Nine: Trouble from Two Grieving Families

FEBRUARY 10, 2006

TOKYO, JAPAN

SUNRISE 

                                                                                 MARIE

I rode my bike down Tokyo when I rode by Niko's onsen house. I saw Chief Matsuda and Commander Aizawa talking to this elderly couple, a Chinese woman, and a Japanese couple with their younger daughter. They were all crying about something, but I didn't know what they were crying about. When Chief Matsuda and Commander Aizawa went into the onsen house, I pedaled my way to the sidewalk and parked my bike. I ducked under the crime scene tape, making my way to Chief Matsuda and Commander Aizawa. 

"Chief Matsuda! Commander Aizawa! Is everything okay?" I asked them. The elderly couple didn't respond but gave me this intense gaze with daggers in their eyes. "What happened?" I asked them. The elderly woman let go of her husband and made a furious look. "怎么了,你问? 您一次保存了我们的孙女,现在您问我们吗?!" the elderly woman asked. I watched as she picked up a rolled newspaper and started hitting me with it. 

I yelped as she hit me with it. "你真该死,你这不可靠的自私的女孩!" the lady shouted at me. "Please, stop!" I begged. "What are you saying?" "我是说你曾经有过异象! 您为什么看不到再次使用您的愿景来帮助我们的孙女!" the lady shouted at me and continued to hit me with the newspaper. "I'm sorry," I began. "I don't know what you're saying!"

"Mom, just stop!" the younger Chinese woman exclaimed, taking the newspaper out of her mother's hands. 

 The older lady stopped hitting me with it, but continued to look at me with hatred in her eyes. I then heard footsteps approaching me. I turned and saw a younger woman who looked to be a couple of years older than my mom approaching me. 

"How could you not see it?" she asked.

 I was confused when she asked me that. "See what?" I asked.

 The woman sniffled as tears ran from her eyes. "My Jirou snuck out this morning with his girlfriend, Mei," she began. "Mr. Mikami and Ms. Hirota found their bodies early this morning. They were boiled alive in an onsen! They're gone! And because of you, they're never coming back!" 

What the woman said hit me like a brick. I was shocked once I heard this. 

"What?" I asked in disbelief. Mei and Jirou are...dead? I thought. 

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Arima," I told her. "I had no idea that something like this would happen.

 Mrs. Arima turned around and walked away. "Mrs. Arima," I said out loud as I tried to stop her. "Mrs. Arima," I raised my voice.

 Just then, a little girl walked up to me with tears in her eyes. "Hey," I said gently.

 She sniffled right before she talked to me. "You saved Jirou and Mei once," the little girl began. "Why couldn't you save them again?" 

"Akiri!" I heard a guy say. I watched as a man, whom I assumed to be Mr. Arima, picked Akiri up because she didn't panic when he did so. 

"What the hell are you doing?" Mr. Arima asked me. "You've already done enough by ignoring the fact that my son and his girlfriend were getting boiled alive in an onsen! I don't need you putting the only child we have left in the same situation!"

 Akiri buried her face so I wouldn't see it and started crying. I watched as Mrs. Arima joined her family. 

"I'm sorry," I told them, feeling bad for them. "If there was anything that I could have done or if I..."