Chapter Three
“Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel. “Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel, forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.” - Amos 5:1
* * * *
“No…”
Yuri opened and closed her eyes several times, and every single time that she’d opened her eyes, she wished for the scene before her to vanish. And each time, she was solely disappointed. The scene before her oddly resembles a horror movie flick that she’d watched with Miki and Michio once a few months ago.
But unfortunately, this is reality, not a movie.
Yuri’s mind completely shut down as she saw her mother lying in a pool of her own blood that she didn’t even realise that she was walking over to her mother’s body. She had only realised it when she felt a warm and sticky hand grasped her own hand, and realised that she was half-kneeling by her mother’s body.
Hitomi Yagami was still conscious, if only barely, and blood was trailing from the sides of her lips, and the hand that was grasping Yuri’s own was wet and sticky with the blood of Hitomi Yagami. A slash wound was clearly visible on the pale neck of Hitomi, and it seemed to be taking a lot of effort for the woman to breathe, let alone talk.
“Yu…ri…” Hitomi gasped out.
“Kaa…san…”
“I…don’t have…much time.” Hitomi said weakly in Japanese through gasps, and Yuri could feel that her mother’s life was slowly slipping away, and grasped onto her mother’s hand tightly as if she could hold onto her mother’s life that way.
“No! It won’t be that way! I…I’ll call for an ambulance now! You’ll be just fine, kaa-san!” Yuri cried, and a light tug on her hand caused her to stop.
“It’s…too late…” Hitomi managed to smile weakly despite her current state. “Listen…Yuri… Go…to your uncle…to…the country of Japan… He’ll…protect you…”
“What are you saying, kaa-san?”
“He’ll…protect you… I…disapprove of…what he does…but he will protect…you…” Hitomi gasped for air as well as the energy to speak. “I’ve…never asked you…for anything at all… Just…this once…I want you…to listen to me… Go to…your uncle…to the country of Japan… Do not…return here again… Niisan…was right…like he…always was… Listen…Yuri…” Hitomi grasped tightly onto Yuri’s hand with her remaining strength. “Kami… Do…not trust Kami…”
Yuri can only stare at her mother’s strange words. “Huh?”
“Do…not trust Kami…” Hitomi repeated her last words weakly, gasping for air, and more blood trailed from the sides of her lips. “He…is no…saviour… I…was a fool… I…trusted that man…against my better…judgement… Listen…Yuri… In this world…power is everything… I…knew that right from the start… Trust…no one…but yourself… Live on…Yuri…”
Hitomi’s eyes rolled to the back of her head as her eyes slid shut, never to open again, her hand slipping out of Yuri’s grasp, and landing with a light thud on the carpeted ground beneath her.
“Kaa-san!”
Yuri then spied a white chrysanthemum flower lying by Hitomi’s side; along with a bloodstained knife which Yuri is willing to bet is the murder weapon. Her eyes then widened slightly as she picked up the flower that is meant to be an offering for the dead.
Almost like a movie on fast rewind, Yuri suddenly recalled the previous day when she had came home from school, and had seen that woman in her house, and her mother’s reaction to the white chrysanthemum flower that she had with her…
—and you’re probably going to need it soon enough. Though I doubt that I’ll be able to hear your comments on my flower arranging skills which is a pity. After all…you won’t be living long enough to see them…
Yuri felt a hot white flame of anger rise up in her as she snapped the stalk of the flower in half in her hand. She now knew who had murdered her mother in cold blood. This flower…is her calling card.
Like that woman was mocking her.
“Oh God…”
Yuri turned around at the sound of an unfamiliar voice, and saw a group of blue uniformed police officers standing at her door, the group of them looking quite pale, and seemed as if they were about to faint as they took in the sight before them.
Yuri suddenly realised what the scene must have looked like to them, and she panicked a little as the police officers walked into her house whilst one of them spoke quickly into his walkie-talkie, summoning for some backup.
“I…I didn’t do anything…!” Yuri tried to defend herself as one of the officers pulled her away from her mother’s body, as another covered her mother’s body with a sheet. A loud click was heard as a pair of handcuffs snapped around her wrists. “Believe me! I didn’t do anything!”
“Contact Irene,” said the police officer who had just summoned some backup with the usage of his walkie-talkie. “I think that we’re going to need the help of a social worker. Preferably a counsellor and a lawyer from the MCYS (Ministry of Community Youth and Sports). Probably both.”
“Roger.”
“I didn’t do anything! Let me go!”
Yuri tried struggling against the hold of the police officer who had quite a firm grip on her. She then turned towards the direction of her mother’s covered body. On the coffee table in the sitting room, the last petal from the stalk of sakura blossoms fell off and floated gently to the ground.
* * * *
“…can’t believe that this had happened…”
“…yeah, tell me about it…”
“…a nine-year-old child…!”
“…you were there at the crime scene! You saw the entire situation for yourself!”
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Miki Ishigawa was nearly going crazy with worry.
Her eldest brother had given her a call from the police station informing her and her second brother, Michio Ishigawa, that Yuri was arrested under the charge of murder, with the victim being one Hitomi Yagami.
Miki was currently at the police station with Michio, waiting impatiently for Yuri, and for Michiru to settle whatever affairs that he has to. Being the younger sister of a CID officer, Miki knew the law like the back of her hand, and knew that in murder cases where a murder suspect is a minor with no other relations, a counsellor or a CID officer will have the child under their care until the case is resolved.
And from what Miki had heard from her brother, the higher ups had ordered that Michiru be the one to keep an eye on Yuri during the investigation.
“How could this happen?” Michio muttered from his seat beside Miki, his knees drawn up to his chest.
Miki didn’t say anything.
She had literally suffered from cardiac arrest when she had received the phone call from her eldest brother. She and Michio immediately hailed for a cab to head down to the police headquarters where Yuri was being questioned.
It had been close to four hours since then, and Miki was getting more anxious and worried as each second passed, until the sound of soft footsteps reached her ears.
Miki and Michio both looked up as Yuri walked into the waiting hall, looking utterly exhausted. She looked as if she’d gone through hell and back. Her eyes were red and puffy which indicates that she had just been crying, and Miki thought for a moment that her best friend looked almost like the living dead.
A woman who seemed to be in her mid-thirties was with Yuri, which a police officer earlier had introduced as a voluntary counsellor from the MCYS, and was also a lawyer who deals with juvenile cases. She was also the lawyer who would be in charge of Yuri’s case.
Michiru walked out of the room which Yuri and the lawyer had both walked out of a few moments prior, a dark look on his face as the lawyer turned to address him, one hand on Yuri’s shoulder.
“With that, she will be in your care whilst the investigation is pending,” she said, and Michiru nodded. “Yuri will be excused from school until then. And seeing as how you are already acquainted with her, and you have family members who will be able to keep an eye on her in your absence, she’ll be in your care.”
Michiru nodded grudgingly. “Understood.”
* * * *
Lightning flashed across the dark skies, and not a moment later, thunder rumbled threateningly in the distance.
It sure fits the mood. Miki thought sourly to herself as she closed the windows of her bedroom, before turning towards her best friend who was leaning with her back against the headrest of the spare bed in her room which Yuri had used during the few occasions when she had stayed over.
Yuri’s mother, Hitomi Yagami was the closest thing to a mother that Miki had ever known, not having known her mother, and she had practically grown up together with Yuri. Thus, Miki knew for sure that Yuri killed no one, least of all her own mother!
But Miki also knew that not everyone would feel the same.
She knew for sure that Michio would also feel the same that she does, but she’s not so sure about Michiru. Lately, it feels like she had been drifting away from her eldest brother, and her two brothers have been arguing on a daily basis. Furthermore, Yuri never did like Michiru much for some reason. When asked, all Yuri would say is that she feels that he’s too ‘pompous’, whatever that meant.
It had been hours since they left the police headquarters, and Michiru had driven the lot of them home in his car. The ride back home had been eerily silent. Michio who was in the front passenger seat had glared at his brother who was driving, before casting worried and concerned looks at Yuri and Miki.
It was now nightfall. Yet none of them could find it in themselves to have dinner, as they had no appetite for it, given what had just happened.
Miki looked at Yuri and sighed.
The woman lawyer had told her and her two brothers everything about what they were supposed to do for this particular case regarding Yuri. One of them must be with Yuri at all times, and Miki was actually half-inclined to take off from school for a week or something, had Michio not stopped her, stating that he had just graduated from the Polytechnic, and he can hold off looking for a job for the time being and stay with Yuri.
“Yuri, are you alright?” asked Miki softly so as to not startle Yuri as the girl literally jumped at every sound and every little thing, that it pained Miki to see her once cheerful and vibrant friend reduced to a scared little mouse.
Yuri flinched slightly away from Miki as the latter sat on the bed that Yuri was on, her knees drawn up to her chest, her hair ruffled and untidy, a far cry from the usually neat and tidy look that
Yuri always kept.
“I didn’t do anything…” Yuri muttered like a mantra from the time when Yuri was finally released into the Ishigawa family’s care until now. “I didn’t do anything… I didn’t kill my mother… Why didn’t they believe me?”
Miki didn’t say anything, but her eyes were downcast as she took one of Yuri’s hands into her own, ignoring the slight flinch from her best friend who acted like Miki is about to hit her, finding it awfully cold.
Whether it is from fear or from the shock of finding her mother’s body, Miki had no idea. It had taken every ounce of her persuasive skills to get Yuri to enter the bathroom, and for Miki to clean her up, as Yuri was still in a severe state of shock.
“Don’t worry,” said Miki softly. “They’ll find the real culprit. Your name will be cleared in no time.”
Yuri shook her head, slowly regaining her senses as Miki managed to get through to her.
“They won’t,” said Yuri in a voice that sounded like she was about to cry, pulling her hand out of Miki’s grasp. “I know who killed my mother. I told the police officers who were interrogating me earlier at the station. But they refused to believe me.”
Miki didn’t say anything.
The lawyer had told Miki and her brothers that Yuri had claimed that a woman by the name of Alice Kwok, the owner of a rather famous boutique had murdered her mother. Thus, the police had taken the woman in for questioning, only to have her claim that she was shopping with her daughter during the time of the murder. Jessica Kwok, Alice’s daughter, had confirmed the claim, and thus, Alice was released.
And because the claim of one Alice Kwok being the murderer of Hitomi Yagami came from the main suspect in this case, the higher ups had refuted Yuri’s claim, causing the girl to nearly snap earlier in the station.
Miki believed Yuri.
She knew all about Yuri’s problems with Alice Kwok and her daughter Jessica. The latter had been a senior in their school who took delight in making Yuri’s days in school a living nightmare, until Jessica had graduated about a year ago, and was currently in her first year in some unknown secondary school.
But is the problem between Jessica and her mother with Hitomi Yagami that serious that Alice Kwok will actually resort to murder?
A pair of muffled arguing voices reached Miki’s ears just then, and she turned towards her closed bedroom door, sighing, as she recognised the voices as both her elder brothers’, and had a faint guess as to what the two were arguing about.
“Get some rest, Yuri,” said Miki reassuringly, patting Yuri’s hand before getting up from the bed and walking towards the door, slipping out of her room quietly and closing the door behind her.
And almost immediately, the silence that had surrounded her ever since taking Yuri back to her home was immediately destroyed.
Both her brothers – Michio and Michiru were standing in the middle of the sitting room, barely inches away from each other, and snarling at each other like they would both like nothing better than to pounce on the other. Miki was afraid of the look on Michio’s face for a second, as her brother looked like he would like nothing better than to tear his older brother to pieces.
“Why wouldn’t you help Yuri-chan[1]?!” Michio yelled at his brother in Japanese for what seemed to be the umpteenth time, and he had such an expression of fury on his face that Miki was strongly reminded of a dragon breathing fire at everything that dared come near him.
“It’s like what I’ve been telling you, Michio-baka[2], it’s not that I won’t, it’s that I can’t!” Michiru snarled back at his brother, both hands curling into fists, trying to prevent himself from attacking his brother right then and there.
“Can’t or won’t?” Michio snapped back. He glared defiantly at his brother, his breaths coming in heavy pants because of all the shouting that he’s been doing for the past half hour. “…you seriously think that Yuri-chan killed Hitomi-obaa-san[3], don’t you?” He said dangerously.
Michiru didn’t say anything, and Michio’s famous temper came to the surface just then. “How could you?! Don’t you know Yuri-chan well enough by now?! We fucking grew up with her! Are you so blind that you couldn’t see that Yuri-chan loved Hitomi-obaa-san more than anything else in the world?!”
“When it comes to the law and justice, I’ll give way to nothing,” said Michiru at last. “Not even to my friends or my siblings.”
Michio glared defiantly at his brother, clenching his hands into fists by his sides. “You’re going to make the same mistake that you did when otou-san[4] died, aren’t you?” he hissed, and Michiru jerked back like he’d been slapped, and Miki could only stare.
‘Huh?’
“You’re just running away!” Michio shouted. “You ran from reality! You ran from the truth! You ran from yourself! That’s why you chose to be a police officer, didn’t you?! But look at yourself! You’re making the same mistake again! You’re running away again! You’re just like before! You daren’t face up to the truth!” Michio’s nostrils flared in anger. “Can you seriously tell me that you’ll willingly let them punish an innocent girl who didn’t do anything wrong?”
“If she didn’t do it, she has nothing to fear,” said Michiru stubbornly.
“Even the law is not omnipotent.” Michio stated.
Miki finally found her voice. “Niisan!”
Both Michio and Michiru turned at the sound of Miki’s voice, and saw their younger sister standing at the door of her bedroom staring at them. “Why are you both arguing again?”
Michio and Michiru exchanged glances before looking away.
“It’s…nothing,” said Michiru, refusing to look at his younger siblings. “I’ll be going out. Don’t wait up for me.” And without even waiting to hear his younger sister’s reply, he walked towards the front door and opened it before walking out, slamming the door shut behind him.
Miki could only stare.
What was that all about?
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[1] -chan: A form of suffix used to address someone familiar or younger than you in Japan, usually a female
[2] Baka: Stupid or idiot in Japanese
[3] Obaa-san: Aunt or auntie in Japanese, though it can also mean ‘old lady’
[4] Otou-san: A form of address for one’s father in a Japanese family