Orou slowly opened her eyes as the dim light of early morning seeped into her bedroom. At the age of seventy-four, she was in surprisingly good shape, and still woke up early each morning to make breakfast and go about her daily activities. Being a retired nurse, she had spent the past fifteen or so years of her life doing volunteer work for various charities.
She had lived a decent life. Having never married, she had no real children, but had, in the years since she'd moved to this neighborhood, become known as a kind old woman who loved kids. And she did. She'd often invite them in during the summer and give them cool drinks, telling them stories of her childhood, or feudal Japan. She'd watch neighborhood children when their parents went out, and thereby knew almost every family in the area.
It had started years ago, when she retired. She decided to move away from the city into a quieter area, and had found the house she lived in now. The day she moved in, the young next door couple and their three year old son, Light, had welcomed her with open arms, and a lopsided cake which she still had a picture of on her living room wall. That same day, Mr. Yagami had been called in to help with a murder investigation, and his pregnant wife had been left alone to take care of Light. Being the kind hearted woman she was, Orou went over and took care of them, rather then unpacking her things. After that day, she and Mrs. Yagami had remained close, and she had even been present the day Sayu, their daughter, was born.
She'd watched the two children grow up, had gone to most of their birthday parties, and still talked to them as often as she could, though lately Light seemed more distant, as she hadn't talked to him in a while...still, she figured it was simply him growing up. Knowing him, he was probably studying hard as ever. He'd always been such an intelligent, and hardworking boy.
Yesterday she'd saw him walking from home, looking rather agitated, and she swore she could see him muttering something to himself, so she'd gone outside to say hello, and find out what was wrong. The minute he saw her his facial expression instantly changed, and when they talked, he seemed in a rather good mood.
"Light it's been such a long time, would you at least like to come in and have some tea?" She had asked him.
"I'm sorry Orou, but I really need to go, I have get back to studying." He had replied. He, as well as all the other children, called her by her first name not out of disrespect, but because she had always insisted they do so. To some degree it made her feel younger.
"Oh please Light." She asked again.
He started to say no, but stopped, as if he'd realized something.
"Well, if you insist, I guess I can come in for a little." He said with a smirk.
"That's more like it!" She said, leading him inside past the apple tree which he had planted with her some years ago when he was still a child. She treasured it and took great care of it, making sure to give the Yagami's a nice basket full every now and then. Currently there were only a few of them growing on the branches of the tree, she'd counted four earlier that day, as she did most days.
They went inside and talked for a little bit while sipping on tea, Light had seemed especially curious about her financial welfare.
"I heard about the scandal the other day," he said. Unfortunately, a member of one of the organizations she helped run had taken a bunch of money before leaving the country. "Aren't you worried? I heard a lot of the money he took was yours."
"Oh I'm fine Light," she assured him. Then she leaned close, "Between you and me, I saved up a nice amount of money before I retired." She chuckled, "Besides, that man apparently died yesterday," She took her empty cup to the kitchen sink, "I overheard some of the other members talking about it, saying that it might have been 'Kira' helping us..." She turned back around to see Light staring at his tea, looking lost in thought.
"Orou..." He began, "Do you believe in Kira?"
"Well Light, I certainly can't deny his existence with all the events that have happened lately..." She paused, "But I certainly don't think he is a righteous god, if that's what you mean."
In all her years she'd known him, he'd always been a cheerful boy, but for one split second, he gave her a cold, hard glare that sent chills down her spine.
"Why not?" he asked.
"Well, Light," she started walking back towards him, "I've been around quite while, and never before have criminals been 'judged' like this..." She sat back down at the table across from him, "If he's a god, where has he been the past seventy-four years?"
"Well I guess that makes sense," he admitted, "But don't you at least think he's righteous?"
She paused.
"No one person has the right to judge others like that." She finally said, "He can't possibly know who is truly innocent or guilty if he is a normal person...and it's not his place to decide."
He had stopped looking her in the eyes, and stood up, pushing his chair back into the table.
"I understand Orou..." He said coldly, "It's getting late, I should go."
"Okay Light." She said, following him to the door. In truth, it had only been about ten or fifteen minutes, and she realized that her opinions of Kira must've upset him.
She watched him leave, and with a heavy sigh turned to go back inside, stopping to inspect the apple tree. Something about it was different...
After counting the apples again, she realized that one was gone. She looked around on the ground to see if it had fallen, but found nothing, not even the core. She finally dismissed it as being her old age finally kicking in, and went back inside to retire for the evening.
Now it was early morning. She sat at the same table, alone now, quietly drinking her tea and listening to the sounds of birds outside her window. She couldn't help but think about Light. He'd changed so much, she didn't understand how the caring little boy she'd known for so long had become so cold and distant...
Suddenly, and inexplicably, her thoughts changed completely. She didn't understand why, and didn't stop to question it, but she suddenly realized that she needed to withdraw a thousand dollars from her bank account. She couldn't think of the reason no matter how hard she tried, but without stopping, she set off to the bank, and took out the money, the entire time thinking of nothing but her objective.
Next she needed a newspaper, and without questioning why, walked to a convenience store nearby and bought one, using the change in her purse to pay, rather than any of the thousand dollars.
Soon she found herself walking again, only realizing that it was to a small park when she was about halfway there. She knew what she was doing made no sense...yet she couldn't stop...it was if...someone else was controlling her, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop them.
She wanted to yell, to scream, but her mouth stayed closed, and her legs kept moving forward. Suddenly her arms began to move, taking the newspaper and opening it, before placing the envelope of money inside, and rolling it up.
Finally she arrived at the park, her legs lowering her onto the bench with the least amount of people nearby. Carefully, her arms placed the rolled up newspaper onto the bench next to her. She tried to pick it back up, but her arms, no, her very mind ignored the small part of her that remained sane. Without delay, she stood back up, and headed towards a nearby busy street.
Each step seemed like it was a lifetime, and she began to think about everything, about the children, her apples...thoughts of her own childhood returned as she fondly remembered her grandmother...
Soon she found herself thinking about Light again...or wait, she was looking at him!
Walking across the street in front of her, was Light Yagami.
He grinned as he saw her, but this was not the warm, kind grin she had seen before, this sent more chills down her spine like when he had glared at her yesterday when she'd mentioned Kira...
She wanted to grab onto him, for him to help her, to stop her, but he payed no more attention to her, instead looking behind her, towards the bench, towards his prize.
It was in this moment that she understood. The warm hearted boy she'd known had been killed by this monster. She said not a word as he walked past, and he too remained silent. But she knew. She didn't understand exactly what she knew...it was a strange feeling, about Light...he was no longer really Light...either way, she had to tell someone!
Using all of the strength she could, she struggled for what seemed like a lifetime to stop, to say something, anything!
And finally, she did. Her legs finally came to a halt. She was so relieved, she didn't even notice where she had stopped.
The middle of that busy street.
As she panicked, her mouth finally opened.
"Light-!" Was all she screamed before her life ended.
Light stopped to look behind him, already a small crowd of people had gathered around the scene of the tragic accident. The driver of the large delivery truck swore he hadn't seen her until it was too late, and already someone had called an ambulance...
But it was plain to see, she had not survived the impact.
No one would stop to question the young man walking away with a rolled up newspaper, as he walked off from the park, away from the accident. They had no reason to.
"So Light, what're you gonna do with all that money?" Ryuk asked, hovering behind the self proclaimed god.
"I need it to buy some things that'll help me avoid suspicion of being Kira..." He explained. "Since I don't have a job, I'd normally have to ask my parents for money, which isn't normally a problem...but with L watching me through those cameras, they'd get pretty suspicious if I asked for a large amount of money for no reason."
"Couldn't you just make up a reason?" The curious Shinigami asked.
"No. L has already proved how far he's willing to go. Even if I gave a legitimate excuse, they'd probably look into it. This way, they don't know I have this money, and if I do things right, they won't know about anything I buy with it."
"Ah, that's pretty clever, but did you really have to kill that old woman? Couldn't you have made anyone else do that?"
Light stopped, and looked down.
"It's people like her that will make it difficult for me change the world..." He looked back up, "People are going to need to realize that Kira is righteous."
Ryuk chuckled.
"Whatever you say, Light."
Without saying a word, Light continued forward, pausing only once, to notice a dying apple tree, the dead leaves floating to the ground.
That was the last time he allowed himself to think about Orou Yochiko.
"Ryuzaki, as usual, here is the list of prisoners that have died from heart attacks this week." Watari said, handing a newspaper to the famous detective known as 'L'.
"Thank you, Watari." he said, taking it. Mr. Yagami was in the other room watching his family on the surveillance cameras. L had come into the other room to get this newspaper and something to eat from Watari. As he took a bite of cake, something caught his eye.
Elderly Woman Killed In Tragic Car Accident.
He couldn't understand why he payed so much attention to it, but he read on. She been hit by a truck, in what was obviously an accident, but strangely, a thousand dollars had come up missing...
She also had lived next door to the Yagami's.
A cold chill ran down his spine, and he placed the newspaper onto the table, heading back into the other room to continue his duties as the lead detective in the Kira case.
She had screamed before she was hit, the article had said, but not just a scream, a word.
"Light..."