Chapter 1 – Gods of Death
The schoolyard outside the classroom was empty except for the prefect who stood guard for latecomers. In contrast, the indoors had every seat filled by students, burying their noses inside textbooks and cramming their brains with information that they most likely would never use.
"Miss Abigail, care to tell me what the main factors for the arts style changes in Classical Greece were?" the homeroom teacher said to a young brunette seated by the windows.
"Euh, the plague, the Peloponnesian war, the rise of democracy and the death counts that followed these events are a few I can name." Abigail answered, unsure if she had missed any important aspects.
"…Very good Miss Abigail, as I was saying the arts during the fifth century…" her teacher's voice slowly tuned out of her mind. Her eyes followed a black notebook falling down from the skies unto the school grounds. A book, could it have fallen from the roof? There was a high probability of that being the case and suicide was her first assumption. These thoughts played in her head throughout the lecture. Bell tolls come; Abigail grabbed her belongings and sprinted towards the upper level stairs.
"Hey Abby, wanna hang-"asked a passerby classmate of hers just before she bolted down the hallways.
"Sorry not today, in a hurry!" she shouted, running as fast as she could uncaring for her jumbled words. She was not one to pry into someone else life but suicide was definitely not the answer.
More importantly, why the school refused to lock the exit to the roof was beyond her. She hurriedly pushed the door open to find the area vacant. The high strung fences made jumping difficult but not impossible. Was she too late?
Her heartbeat rang up to her ears; she slowly approached the edge of the metal enclosure. She peered down and was glad to see no corpse at the bottom. She sighed and made her way back to where she last saw the notebook. Maybe someone had already picked it up?
When she got there, the notebook was gone.
She didn't think much of it later, a student probably accidently dropped it or it was another prank or gods forbid a bully stunt. She apologized for freaking her friend out and returned home with a peace of mind, but it was short lived.
"I can't believe this! Another school shooting! Come look at this! Those poor children! Who could do something this cruel?" Seiko Koguchi, Abigail's landlord and housekeeper wailed at the scene she watched on the electronic box. Abigail was studying abroad in Japan for the next three years and to confess, she believed Japan to be one of the safest places in the world prior to moving in, but now she was having doubts. Despite the country's low crime rate, they seemed to have been a rise recently and she couldn't put her finger on it.
"Koguchi-san, I don't why they would do it but…" things were not looking good, the police could not access the building. The crazed man held a child as hostage. Koguchi-san looked paler and paler.
"What's this!? We've received a report saying that the assailant has collapse!" A reporter yelled at the camera, they managed to catch a shot of a boy running out of the elementary school crying and sobbing. An officer covered by his team, quickly picked the boy up and took him to safety.
"The police aren't sure what the cause of the criminal's fall was but we may have speculations that it may have been a heart attack." Her landlord breathed out happily and closed the television.
"People like him deserve what's coming to them" she said with a frown. The older lady quietly left the living room to prep diner.
"Criminals are still people…" Abigail murmured under her breath. It may be true that some people are beyond saving but at the end of the day, she wanted to believe that everyone had good in them. Or at least that seemed like the morally right way of thinking in her opinion.
She was ready to call it a day, besides she did not have much of an appetite at the moment. Suddenly her cellphone rang. The screen displayed her mother's ID.
"Oh sweety, I feel like it's been forever! How are things on your side!?" Abigail perked up at her only parents' voice. She missed her so much, it has only been two months since she left Canada but she got homesick time to time.
"Everything is fine mom, oh you won't believe how nice people have been..." Abigail had lost track of time until Koguchi-san called for her.
"Sorry Mom it's time to eat. I miss you too" she bid her farewell and hung up with bitter sweetness. It would be rude not to eat her food after she went through all the trouble…
The meals they shared were mostly healthy, miso soup accompanied by pickles, grilled mackerel and a bowl of rice was the usual. She was not complaining on the contrary she started getting accustomed to these low calorie plates.
Who was she kidding? The fried chicken at the seven eleven was to die for.
Unfortunately, she had a curfew that she needed to respect it, meaning her crispy chicken cravings were not a menu option. The dining table was fairly quiet, making her overly conscious of the tension coming from Koguchi-san.
"…Abby-chan, I know this may sound weird but do you believe in gods of death?" her housekeeper asked, evading eye contact.
"Well…hypothetically it wouldn't be impossible, it's just that we don't have proof of something like that existing" she answered, unsure as to where all of this was going.
"I see you're absolutely right" continued Koguchi-san in a serious tone. Dismissing the precedent topic, the eldest of the two remained silent throughout the rest of her meal.
Abigail thanked her for the food and finished cleaning up before heading back to her room.
Gods of death, huh? I wonder what they'd look like.
Unbeknownst to the girl, a Shinigami stood by her bedside with a mocking smile plastered on its light colored visage.
AN: Well here's my first fanfic. Hope it wasn't too bad! If you made it this far, thank you for reading!~