Chapter Text
The television blared with more headlines of people being killed overnight by Kira, the mythical figure doling out heart attacks to whomever they felt deserved it. The news presenters all seemed to flock to the stories, eager to capitalise on the killings to increase their viewership. It made Maki sick, especially when she saw how excited her daughter was about those reports. Nowadays, it was the first thing that Mayu did when she got up in the morning or came home from school; sitting in front of the television and searching through the different channels for anything about Kira.
"Mayu, turn that off", Maki told her daughter firmly, vehemently ignoring the way her daughter moaned out an irritated 'But mooomm!' in response. "I'm serious, I don't want that kind of violent thing playing in the background during breakfast".
"It's fine, it's fine", Takashi, her husband, seemed to not be put off nearly as much by the reports. Maki frowned at him, hoping that he'd get the hint that it was a request to get her daughter to think less about that sort of thing, but whether purposefully or ignorantly her husband missed that signal. "It's quite normal for kids at that age to get really into something like that. It might even inspire her to become a detective someday like that 'L' person".
Maki seriously doubted that, as much as she knew it was a cruel thing to think about her daughter. Becoming a detective took serious grades and hard work, and it was not a great sign that her twelve year old daughter purposefully ignored her English and Science studies until the school sent her home with a disappointing report card. Mayu had even joked about how she would simply become a trophy wife instead of getting a job, which Maki had tried very hard to not take as a personal insult.
The thirty-six year old mother pointedly ignored the sounds of the television still on in the living room as her daughter and husband joined her at the dining table, quietly eating her breakfast while resisting the urge to tell her daughter to stop craning her neck to look into the other room.
"I was thinking about getting a job". Wanting to change the mood at the table - with her daughter practically glued to the TV and her husband reading the morning newspaper without even touching the miso soup she had painstakingly made - Maki brought up the discussion of jobs with them both. "There's a small Japanese sweets shop on the far side of the city that is hiring, and I was planning on applying".
"Why? We aren't lacking money, are we?" Her husband asked confused, clearly under the impression that as long as he brought in enough that that was the end of it. He was one of the several businessmen working at a nearby bank in their region, which meant that they certainly weren't lacking as a family.
"I want to feel like I'm doing something meaningful to society, rather than staying indoors for most of my life", Maki said, not intent on just taking Takashi's word for it. She may have married him and taken his last name of Gushiken, but she most certainly was getting increasingly frustrated with just being the meek obedient housewife. "I feel like the only reason I leave the house lately is just to go shopping; it's claustrophobic".
"I think it'd be a good idea", Mayu agreed with the idea, finally paying attention to the food in front of her now that her opinion was asked on something more tangible than the killer taking over the news feeds. Naturally, Mayu was far more of a free spirit compared to her father, so the notion of becoming slightly more independent didn't faze her in the slightest. "Besides, maybe I could get a discount at the sweets shop!"
"Perhaps", Maki smiled at her as she said so. It was something the two of them had in common even at Mayu's young age - that unnatural love for things sweet and cute - a thing that reminded Maki often that she truly was her daughter beyond the typical identifiers in their shared chocolate brown hair. "I would need to get the job first".
In contrast, her husband sighed quietly. Maki could remember how affectionate and romantic he had been back when they were in their twenties, little signs of love being displayed nearly every minute. Almost immediately after their marriage, that same kind of display became extremely... Scarce. Nowadays, the closest thing he would show in terms of loving her like a true husband would be the several gifts he handed to her; as though to buy his way around how cold he had become.
She waited patiently, but no answer came from him after that sigh. The message was clear, he was allowing her to go and get the job if she was so insistent about it, but he was not happy about it. Maki wanted to sign in return, but held herself back in the last moment. Mayu didn't need to see that sort of exchange between her parents first thing in the morning.
After breakfast, everyone got themselves ready to head out, the key in Maki's hand turning with a resounding click to lock the house after them. She was going to be the first one back from her trip out in the Kanto area anyway, so it made sense for her to keep the key on her person; carefully tucked into one of her pockets for safekeeping.
"Bye mum! Good luck with the interview!" Mayu excitedly yelled and waved as she ran down the road towards her school, with her mother smiling happily and returning that same wave. Maki took particular note that her daughter hadn't bothered to say goodbye to her father and briefly found herself wondering whether that sort of estranged relationship was simply commonplace in Japan, or if their family was the odd one out. Takashi said nothing to either of them, instead silently making his way down another route to some other train.
Maki set out to planning her day as she walked along to the nearby train station, slipping on her beige jacket and smooth black leather gloves. They both had been assorted gifts she had gotten from Takashi over the years, and she had found it funny when her daughter proclaimed that her mother looked like some 'cool spy agent' when wearing them. It was largely the latter that made her want to wear them again, still desiring to be seen as an extraordinary person in her daughter's eyes... Now if only her husband could get her a proper scarf; her hair was barely shoulder length and the colder wind was blowing right on the back of her neck.
Ah, Mayu needs some new textbooks to make up for her failing English, Maki remembered as she took out the shopping list she had prepared that week when she would go out. It was also the reason why she had her dull white shopping bag slung over one of her arms, planning on combining the trip out with her grocery shopping to get some assorted things. If memory serves, that book store will be closed by the time I get back... So I suppose I'll just have to carry them along with me, Maki decided as she neared the train station.
Making her way through the assorted amounts of people into the underground complex, finding her way to the small book store nestled into the wall was not all that difficult. Because of it's smaller size, the owners had the policy of letting people leave their bags on a rack near the front so that the chances of smacking into another person were reduced.
A young man stood near the rack, but in a hesitant manner as if he'd never been inside the store before. It wasn't all that surprising that he was new to the area - his bag threaded around his fingers still held a little tag as if it had been bought minutes beforehand - lingering by the rack but not quite working up the courage to leave behind his newly bought goods. Maki felt it was right to demonstrate how safe it was to do so, her softly looping her white bag's handles around one of the metal hooks of the rack. She noticed his hoodie tilting in her direction to take in her particular movement (she was unsure whether he was looking at the handles of her bag or the gloves she happened to be wearing), and gave him a patient smile to indicate that it was quite alright; this was a safe area.
She busied around the shop to find the three textbooks that Mayu needed, wanting to get out of other people's way as soon as possible. Like a breeze, she paid for them and made plans to leave, Maki noticing that the young man had finally decided to leave behind his bag at the rack - his still displayed the price tag on it - but he hadn't entered just yet. Perhaps he was still unsure of what he wanted to buy and was hanging back until he knew exactly? That too was fine, as she collected her bag and deposited her newly acquired books into it before setting off.
Had Maki not been in such a hurry, then she might have felt the odd weight of the bag after getting it back, but her mind was preoccupied enough to not notice the extra book in her bag. Not only this, but all thoughts of the young man at the front of the store were gone; who was watching her as she walked away.
Maki largely had been looking for the train timetable to indicate which train was arriving at the platforms at what time, but she seemed unable to avoid several of the television screens plastered around the train station. They had started to show more news reports about Kira (honestly, did they do no others nowadays?), her silently grateful that her daughter wasn't there to pay attention to it.
"Today there have been five new deaths that have been concluded to be heart attacks around the country", the news reporter told the news with monotony clear in their voice, as if this news was somehow boring in every manner to them. Maki frowned as she descended a nearby staircase, thinking that it was highly offensive to the deceased to treat it as mundanely as the weather. "These ones have been quite odd in comparison to the previous cases, as these were men who had been released from prison and rehabilitated into the community".
That certainly caught her attention, Maki pausing momentarily in her next step. Kira, as the internet liked to call them, had always only gone after the people who were still within prison or failing that, the ones who were currently involved in some kind of trial determining their guilt or innocence. But now it seemed that they was beginning to cast their net wider, it seemed like that was not as concrete an assertion that could be stuck to anymore.
Maki had once gotten into trouble herself with the law, back when she had been involved in the wrong type of crowd as a teenager. She had never gone quite as far as some of the unrulier students who committed assault against others, but she certainly wasn't always an angel throughout her life. If Kira became bored enough, would they consider her a stain on humanity's reputation too?
What a reprehensible person, she settled for thinking that as she stood near the edge of one of the platforms. Combined with those thoughts the air seemed to chill several degrees as she stood there, but she shrugged them off with the idea that she simply was put in a foul mood from the reports all around the station.
A train softly rolled into the station at the platform she stood at, but Maki did not board it when the speakers throughout the station announced where the train was going to. It wasn't hers just yet, so she'd have to wait just a bit more.
Without glancing behind her, Maki seemed to suddenly get the impression that someone was lingering closely behind her. She had no concrete reason to back it up with - her only reasoning being that odd feeling that someone was staring at you, combined with an... Eerie feeling, like a spider slowly crawling up the back of her neck.
"Excuse me", the voice speaking softly behind her nearly made her jump right out of her skin. It turned out there was someone right behind her, and Maki found herself wondering whether she was standing in their way; why else would they stand so close to her? She gently shuffled to one side, but found that the person behind her did the same movement as if to prevent her from glancing back and seeing them. "I think I accidentally dropped one of my books into your bag back at the store".
The man behind her spoke with such confidence that most people's instinct on second guessing that claim got momentarily overridden in Maki's mind; her opening the white bag looped around her left elbow to check. True to what he had claimed, there was an extra book in there that didn't seem to belong with the textbooks that she had bought. Pitch black, it certainly stood out against the light blue and white textbooks.
Even through her gloves, Maki could feel that the book's cover had an odd texture to it when she touched it. Not leather but most certainly not paper either, it seemed to feel quite cold even as her fingers grazed it. Her face reflected her curious attitude as she picked it up and inspected it for a moment. The back of the book was completely blank save for the pitch black colour, and she was surprised to find it was not like the typical Japanese book - fashioned to be used from left to right unlike the right to left of Japan. From the glimpse of the papers that fanned out, it was a typical notebook with straight lines like most others, with a single pitch black page near what would have been the front of it.
Maki noticed a hand appearing at her side, undoubtedly from the young man standing behind her, a clear gesture that it was definitely his. While part of her was curious to see what the other side looked like, she buried that curiosity in place of being polite and handing it back to the young man.
"Thank you" The young man thanked her cordially, and Maki muttered a sentiment about how it was no trouble at all. She didn't even bother to look at the young man's face as he passed her by to enter the open train doors, her attention paid to searching through her bag in search of any other stray books that had managed to wander their way in. Honestly, how embarrassing, she thought.
Her search through her bag was interrupted by the sounds of some odd noise, like someone with a large coat was flapping it about in the wind like some child. After ensuring that there was no other book in her bag beyond the ones she had expressly bought, she looked up to figure out what the noise had been... And through the closing train doors in front of her, she saw it.
Put bluntly, it was a monster. Whatever it was seemed to be staring back at her, with large yellow eyes that seemed to permanently be bulging out of it's head like a corpse. Further cementing the corpse notion in her mind, it's upper half seemed to be a horrific dark blue, like she was seeing some sort of apparition that had been drowned underwater. It's face and neck were attached to a pitch black gangly body with haphazard stitches, and out of the back of those black shoulders were sharp feathers that seemed like they were closer to razor blades than a tool for flight. With long clawed fingers that resembled stories of witches disgusting claws combined with a jagged smile that stretched far too wide around it's face, she truly felt like it could have unhinged it's jaw and eaten her whole without even grazing her skin with it's jagged yellow teeth.
Why... Why wasn't anyone else frightened with what they saw?! Surely if everyone else was seeing the same creature they would be screaming in fright, so why weren't they?!
Frazzled, she looked around her and found nothing but apathetic faces around her. One man even went as far to yawn - possibly out of boredom, but more likely out of a sense of being tired - really telling her that nobody else was seeing the monster despite looking in the same general direction as her.
Looking back, the monster hadn't left in the slightest. Just as she began to think that she was going mad, she noticed that the monster was sticking quite close to the young man that she had seen in front of the book store and returned the book to. Maki considered yelling out and asking him to look behind him, to get some kind of affirmation that she was not going insane, when she noticed something peculiar about the young man. His hood was tipped forward too much to make out any real defining feature, but she could just glimpse his lips and the bottom of his eyes.
He was grinning. Not just an average smile or a carefree one, he was looking positively pleased with himself; like a thief after a magnificent heist. With the ease of someone who had planned it thoroughly in their mind, the train proceeded to whisk both the young man and monster away to some other destination.