Chapter 4

“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 Kirisawa 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 Kirisawa. 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!”

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 Kirisawa.

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.”