Another Life in the Day
"...and in the end, we found once-mighty Kira aka your uncle lying dead in the warehouse. Luckily, we evaded the news press's consistent inquires over Kira's real identity, the Task Force reassembled once again, and I married the love of my life, who gave me two beautiful babies. And we all lived happily ever after. The. End." Touta Matsuda emphasized the last word with apparent relief, as though finally releasing a burden off his chest.
"Finally," Sayu Matsuda sighed, who was sitting on the couch next to Touta and holding starry-eyed Soichiro close. "Finally, it's over with."
"I'm glad I know more about uncle Light," six-year-old Soichiro responded solemnly.
"But you looked rather disturbed during every story time for the past month!" his mother said
Eight-year-old Ayumi, perched on her father's lap, cried, "Aww, I can't believe it! The story was so good; I never wanted it to end!"
"Ah, but it really did happen! That's what makes it all the more exciting," Touta said, smiling.
"But, Touta," Sayu said worriedly, "only you could have the gall to tell a bedtime story about killers and shinigami and death notes to children that age. It's disturbing for young children!"
"Don't worry, Sayu!" Touta rubbed the back of his neck and laughed, albeit a trifle shakily. "Ask Ayumi, was she affected in any way?"
"Nope! Best bedtime story ever!" Ayumi answered cheerily, bouncing up and down on her father's knee.
"But what about you, Soichiro?" Sayu demanded.
"Yes. Like I said, it was interesting, and I liked it too," Soichiro repeated steadily, though his knuckles were white from the grip on his mother's shirt.
Sayu didn't buy it. But she decided to discuss this a bit later – when she could prove to her feather-brain of a husband that scary stories had a bad influence on little children, even if the effects were subtle.
"Off, children." Sayu dropped little Soichiro down and waved Ayumi off, too. "Your father and I want to have a little talk."
The two children retreated silently, but in the corner of the room to play instead of their bedroom, as they did whenever they waited for their parents to really shoo them to bed, and then say good night to them.
"How was work today, dear?"
"Exhausting. What a long day, as usual." Groaning, Touta Matsuda pressed his hands to his face. "Why do killers always choose Saturdays to carry out their murders? Anyways, we had another homicide report come in today. We connected it to the bizarre ciphers that have been popping up all over downtown lately. Have you ever heard of the Zodiac case?"
"I can't say that I have."
"It's a famous American case a bit similar to ours, only it was never solved. That wise guy Near thinks he has what it takes to crack the case, but this is still gonna be tough." He sighed. "Poor homicide victim had his brains bashed with a table leg, turns out. Gruesome, but that's what you expect to see when you're a police detective."
While Touta was relating this, a confrontation arose between the children.
"I bet you were scared. Especially of that creepy shinigami," Ayumi teased, and she began to tug on Soichiro's sleeve, who was on the floor putting together a complicated puzzle.
"No."
"Whaddya mean, 'no'?"
"No, I wasn't scared."
"I heard you kept having nightmares. You know, you're not gonna be good police detective if you're scared of everything."
"Just leave me alone, Ayumi," he snapped.
But Ayumi didn't stop there, and she brought herself up to her full height.
"Fine," she said haughtily. "I'll prove what a scaredy-cat you are." She ran upstairs, and in another minute she returned, clutching a notebook in her hand.
"See this?" Smirking, she held up a black notebook with the words "Death Note" scrawled messily onto the cover. "If you were brave, you'd fight me and take this notebook from me before I kill you first."
"You're bluffing! It's just a fake notebook!" Soichiro retaliated. But since he was only six, the thought of a premature death gripped him so that he was frozen in fear.
Ayumi grinned. "Oh, you don't know that. For instance, would you believe me if I said I see a shinigami right behind me?"
Clearly, she could be very heartless sometimes. She opened the notebook to a random page and started writing.
"No-o-o-o!" Soichiro cried in fright, which elevated to a scream. He lunged at the notebook, and by the time he did, their parents already noticed.
"Oh, look, honey," Touta said blankly to a horrified Sayu, not believing that their daughter had crossed the line with her antics – again. "Ayumi is continuing the legacy of Kira." Then he instantly leaped into action, and he snatched the notebook away.
"Ayumi, are you trying to scare your brother again?" he said sternly. Sayu glared at Ayumi, arms crossed over her breast.
"I was kidding," Ayumi muttered, shuffling her feet on the ground. Soichiro had tears in his eyes.
"Apologize, young lady," Sayu growled.
Ayumi did, and after her mother gave her a well-deserved slap, Touta quickly glanced around the room, as thought a bit wary of something. It made Ayumi giggle.
"Otosan, you don't actually believe that I designed this fake notebook myself, do you?"
"You never know whether the shinigami are behind this." He rubbed his neck nervously when he remembered meeting those particularly creepy gods of death. Yeesh.
"That's it." Sayu ushered both children upstairs. "Both of you, it's past your bedtime. March upstairs right now. Especially you, Ayumi. If I hear one more time from Soichiro..." She left the threat to Ayumi's imagination, but she got her point across.
After the a chorus of good nights, the children ran upstairs, and Matsuda reclined on the couch, sighing with exhaustion.
"I told you so," Sayu said simply as she poured Touta an extra cup of relaxing matcha green tea. "I told you there would be consequences to your bedtime story. See what Ayumi did? She pretended to be using a killing device! I thought I banned any resemblances to death notes in this house a long time ago!"
"Actually, she may have picked it up from me," Touta admitted. "I have a lot to learn about parenting 101."
For instance: Never threatening to write your child's name down in the death note when they misbehave, no matter how angry you are at them, definitely makes the top of the list.
"Well, we all know what a bad influence you sometimes are as a father," Sayu said, but when Touta looked somewhat hurt, Sayu pinched his cheek to reassure him that she was joking. "But I still believe Soichiro is still too young to hear such tales."
"Don't worry, Sayu!" Touta accepted the tea handed to him. "I thought if Soichiro was mature enough to help his older sister learn multiplication at his age, then I thought he was mature enough to handle the truth about his notorious uncle." Pride surged through Touta at the thought of his youngest one's precociousness.
Sayu rolled her eyes. Now she knew why Matsuda used to be known as the idiot back in the days when the SPK was still active.
"You're mixing up precociousness with maturity," she snapped. "You know how sensitive Soichiro is."
"I warned him that this is not the type of bedtime story he would want to hear, but he just wanted to know more about his uncle sooner than later!"
Sayu said nothing, but sipped her tea in silence. She knew it wasn't that simple. The kids were taught that their uncle was known for some heinous deeds. But when Matsuda once let slip that Light was a serial killer – and his form of killing was via death note, at that - the children asked for further details. Matsuda, who deep inside wanted to relate his adventures to someone(Because ordinary people would otherwise consider him bonkers), consented. It was a long but intriguing detective story though, especially where their father was concerned, and the retelling turned into a weekly series of bedtime stories every Saturday night when Matsuda came home extra early from his shift. Soichiro, who was sensitive, was at first disturbed that a relative could be so cruel, even if from Light's point of view the killing of criminals was for the greater good of society. He did, however, want to hear more about this case, as he himself was hooked to the suspense his father's story contained.
"He wanted to hear the story," Touta repeated. "You could learn by observing what the kids just said, Sayu. The reason Soichiro agreed to listen was because he wants to be a police officer. He knows the risks based on the scoop I give him about my job. But he wants to be a brave and honorable person. He wants to fight crime and solve mysteries, like his role model Ryuzaki did. Even when Ayumi questions Soichiro, his mind is set."
"Honorable? Brave?" Smiling sadly, Sayu shook her head. "In a cruel world such as this, we know that price for having such traits. No wonder Otouusan didn't want me married to a police officer. That said, anything to make my late brother die – twice – from embarrassment if he saw his ultra-moral nephew today."
"Mm." Touta nodded. He perfectly understood what she meant by that. Soichiro Matsuda was the spitting image of Light Yagami. Same light brown hair, same brown eyes, exact same precociousness. But what made him stand out so from his uncle was that Soichiro Matsuda inherited a strong moral compass from his late grandfather, Soichiro Yagami.
Touta thought about Ayumi. Her facial structure resembled her father's, but that was where the similarities ended. Where she lacked in brilliance, she more than made up for it with a strong, brash attitude, something Touta never had.
She's jealous of her little brother's intelligence and is not afraid to show it, Touta decided. No wonder she acts up.
Touta sighed, his age showing through his weariness despite his normally youthful appearance. So this turned out to be an average day in my life after the Death Note incident. The usual shift at the Task Force, only without Soichiro Yagami. The presence of Sayu's face in the evening. Breaking up fights between my two children. The taste of matcha tea every Saturday. It's a sweet day in the life, though. Well, more like a life in the day, since one day feels like an entire lifetime has passed. Then he frowned slightly.
Man, I must be getting old to think this way...
KoolKat: *Splutters drink everywhere* WHAT?! Aren't you the same author who writes comedic, fluffy stories about children's movies like Frozen, BH6 and Spirited Away...? Why do you choose such a dark anime all of a sudden?
Me: Surprise. *smirks at alter ego* And hey, I thought it was a pretty interesting anime either way. So ssh! ;)
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Thanks for reading!