Little Akira sat on the floor while her mother was playing peek-a-boo with her.
She smiled a toothy grin at her mother.
"Mama, mama, this is fun."
And she would hug her mother round the neck. Mrs. Hajamishi smiled warmly and hugged her daughter back.
"Mama, when will daddy be back?" asked Akira, "I miss him."
"He will be back soon, dear."
They smiled at each other for a few more seconds before a loud crashing sound was heard from outside.
"Mama! What was that?" asked Akira.
Her mother gasped and rushed outside.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Akira could only watch from outside the window. Two men cloaked in black, were shooting her father. They persisted, shot after shot, till he was dead.
Her father, covered in blood fell to the ground and Akira watched this, noting every single detail, blood spurting out from his chest, as if it was in slow motion.
Akira banged her fist against the glass screaming helplessly.
She saw her mother in hysterics, crying and begging on her knees to the two men, and how they slapped her ruthlessly across the face.
"Mama! Mama! Mama!" screamed Akira.
She saw how the men threw her to the ground. How they shot her repeatedly on the chest; how they shot her in the ear.
Her mother dropped to the ground, eyes wide open.
"Mamaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
-----
Akira's eyes popped open. Beads of perspiration rolled down her forehead.
She was lying on her bed; the bottom part of her sheets were once again drenched in urine. She'd had that dream for months now.
She still couldn't get over her mother's death; how the men could've been so cruel to her mother. What had her mother ever done to deserve this? And her father? What did he do to ever deserve such a cruel death?
It had been 5 months since her parents died and she had been whisked off to this orphanage for gifted children.
For children to become like L.
She still didn't really know who L was… All what Roger told her was that L was a famous detective who was currently trying to track down Kira.
Rubbing her temples, she stepped out of her bed and dragging her pillow down with her, she slept on the floor. It was dawn; morning should come soon.
----
Morning rose and the first rays of sun shone in through the windows of her bedroom.
It was peacefully quiet. All could be heard was the clack-clack-clack of someone putting the pieces of a puzzle correctly next door, which was the playroom.
She'd only visited the playroom a few times in those five months. The last time she'd visited it she'd seen toys strewn all over across the carpet floor, a white-haired boy building a city entirely out of dice (She had thought how could anyone get their hands on so much dice and how skilled Near must be) a play station was sitting on the carpet…
Akira sat on the floor, feet sore from walking around the orphanage last afternoon. She'd seen the games room, several classrooms, peeked inside bedrooms (most of the children told her to stop peeking), got told off by Roger's apprentice, Joshua for stepping into a bathroom that was currently been renovated and sent off back to her own bedroom.
Akira's bedroom wasn't like her old bedroom back in Japan. It was filthy, cheap old curtains that even had cobwebs stuck onto them.
She often wished she had a beautiful luxurious bedroom like her one back home. She had gotten so used to her mahogany furniture, servants serving her food as she watched TV…
A spider was dangling above her head, its silvery web hanging down from the ceiling.
She'd heard the final clacking noise of the puzzle and wondered who could put the pieces together so quickly.
Curiosity took over her and as she stood up, the spider dropped down onto her head.
-----
Near sat, one leg up as usual, doing one of his thousand piece puzzles. Since he was concentrating deeply on the puzzle, he let out a small yelp and fell over as he heard the ear-splitting scream coming from the room beside the playroom.
He sighed. No doubt that this was about the spiders and insects again. Girls were so frightened of them. Why? He did not know.
Last week, a girl had run screaming to the kitchen saying "A spider!! In my soup!!"
The poor chef had to put up with the girl's cries, trying unsuccessfully to calm her.
The girl had kept on screeching: "A SPIDER! Its hairy legs were right in front of my face!"
And then just yesterday, a boy hollered that a bee had gotten through his bedroom window and stung him.
Near sighed again, got up and walked out of the playroom.
He could hear the girl's screechy voice much clearer as he opened the door.
"My hair! My hair! A spider!!!!!"
Roger came rushing in the room holding a gun.
"Akira! What is it? Why are you making such a loud noise?"
Akira stared at Roger with wild eyes whilst holding a cloth to her head, making several unsuccessful attempts to brush the spider away.
"A spider! Can't you see it! It's enormous! Get it off me!!!!!"
Near stared silently as the spider crawled its way to Akira's forehead.
"Eeeeeeeeek!!!!!!!" screeched Akira.
Near reached out to Akira's forehead and picked the spider off from her forehead.
"Eh…?"Akira looked up to see a white-haired boy about the same age as her standing right in front of her.
"Hello," Near said, twirling his hair like nothing had ever happened.
"T-the spider! It's as big as my fist! I think it might be poisonous!!"
Near stared at the spider resting on his palm.
"You really think so?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes!!" Akira said, nodding her head.
Suddenly there was a loud noise coming from outside Akira's bedroom.
Akira could hear some shouting:
"Matt! I DO NOT want to play any video games! My god. You are so obsessed with video games!!!"
"Well, you're infatuated with chocolate!"
"So?!!"
"So, yeah!"
"Anyways. Where's that damn Near! I want to beat him to a pulp!"
There was sound of cracking knuckles and Akira heard them push open her bedroom door.
Akira scratched her head in confusion.
This person obviously wants to bully this white-haired boy who is supposedly called Near. Strange name…
She watched as Mello took out an expensive brand of chocolate from his pocket. She watched him bite it. He bit it ever so delicately but his eyes were full of menace.
His eyes were not like any other children's eyes.
Whenever he stared at anyone, his eyes seemed to pierce right into their eyes, as if daring the person to disobey him.
Yet he also had shoulder-length blond hair, which, in her opinion, made him look like a girl.
Matt was completely different from Mello.
His eyes were rarely seen because his sunglasses completely covered them.
Flaming red hair, striped clothes, obsessed with video games…
Video games were a vital part of Matt's life, it seemed.
Akira found them fascinating, strangely unique people.
"Uhm…you kinda like those video games, ne, Matt-kun?"
Matt turned towards her, eyebrows raised.
"Yeah, that's pretty obvious."
He dropped the video game on her bed and sat down, pushing his sunglasses up to his head.
"Ahh Matt-kun, you can't just sit anywhere you-"
"What the hell!!!" yelled Matt, leaping off her bed.
Roger went over.
He took one look at Akira's bed and started to strip the sheets off it.
Akira felt her face grow red. Ever since she'd stepped into this orphanage she'd started to wet her bed.
She had never done that before back in her own home.
She was already nine years old and the thought of wetting her bed at the age of nine made her want to crawl under her bed and stay there forever.
But Roger didn't seem to mind.
"Everything takes time, like getting used to in this orphanage." Roger smiled at her.
Akira smiled weakly back, face still flushed.
"That's the understatement of the year."
"Eh?" said Roger.
"It's not just that I'm not used to this orphanage yet; it's also because of my parents," she said in a quiet voice. A tear made its way down her cheek.
"My parents died when I was eight and a half. Almost every night, for five months, I've been dreaming about that one night...their last night..."
Roger felt a twinge at his heart.
Sometimes it was painful working here when smaller children already a much deeper story to tell than he ever had in all his 42 years.
"Your parents could be in heaven now. They could be wondering if you're safe, as they're watching down on you, Akira. They would want you to forget your grief over them and live happily here."
Smiling faintly she leaned over and hugged Roger gently.
Roger, a bit embarrassed at being hugged so tenderly patted her back.
"Would you like us to leave the room? So you guys can continue this fascinating conversation?" said Mello, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Roger shook his head on Mello's constant rudeness, stepped out of the bedroom.
Mello stuck his tongue out at Roger's back. He continued biting into the chocolate.
"Uh, Mello-kun, are you that fanatical over chocolate?"
Mello sighed, glaring at Matt who was still engrossed in his video games.
"Yes."
Clatter!
Akira whipped her head around for the source of the noise.
"Oh bloody hell! I should have swerved! Now I've lost!"
Dropping his video game, Matt slumped to the floor, grunting loudly in agony.
Near stared on, twirling his hair incessantly, intrigued by the sudden turn of conversation. Suddenly he said something that made Matt clench his fists with anger and embarrassment.
"Remarkable...how Matt could spend hours on the floor weeping as if he had lost everything in his life, when he had merely lost a game."