Futatsu no Tsuki

Futatsu no Tsuki

Chapter 4

Sachiko hummed to herself as she hung the cleaned sheets to air dry on the house's small balcony, her eyes watered at the bright sun above her head. The scent of cherry blossoms filled the air and she gazed at the blossoming trees scattered on the block, gentle eyes holding a far away look. Today was Light's first day of university, her eldest child had grown up and she felt tears of joy well in the corners of her eyes.

With a small sigh she finished hanging the sheets and folding the dried clothes into piles. Her motions second nature after playing the role of mother and housekeeper for so long. It nagged at her, gnawed at her as she calmly brought Light's and Sayu's clothes to their rooms, the bliss in her heart pulling away. She swallowed and glanced long at the door after Sayu's room, her eyes glistened before she picked up a duster and broom. Her hand paused at the door, but she sighed lightly and opened it.

Yue's room remained the same as five years back, missing the lived in feeling though not lacking in cleanliness. Her weekly ritual of dusting and changing the sheets kept a fresh scent lingering in the lonely room.

"Yue…." She sighed, eyes riveted to the photograph of her youngest son on the desk. Gentle eyes that quickly filled with tears; she placed the duster and broom next to the bed and picked up the photograph. "You'd have gotten into college by now, maybe even have a girlfriend….Yue, I wish you'd come home or return to your aunt's….Yue….I don't even know if you're still alive…."

Sachiko sunk to the bed, tears sliding down her cheeks as she took her handkerchief from her pocket. 'God, please, bring back Yue….my boy, my sweet boy….'

Outside the room, Sayu having snuck back inside the house to retrieve a book she'd forgot, listened to her mother from the partly opened door. Her own eyes filled with tears as she listened to her mother's sobs, she lowered her head and clenched her bag unable to move from that spot.

0

Souichiro sat numbly in his chair as he glanced at the sheets of paper L had privately shown him before the detective had gone out to continue on the Kira investigation. He sat stiffly alone in the room, the papers arrayed so one could see the bold type titles on each sheet.

'"I apologize, I had Watari investigate about your second son, and I uncovered this information. Your second son Yue, after being expelled from junior high and failing high school entrance exams for nonattendance, tried to kill himself….first by cutting his wrist and then by jumping into traffic."

"Ryuzaki…" Souichiro's felt his skin grow hot, and his insides turn cold as he listened to the product of L's blatant disregard for his family life. "You had no right….."

"Furthermore, he did run away to relatives…ran to them from the hospital once his injuries were recovered, but went missing from there about half a year later. He's has been missing since then, for 4 and a half years." L intoned, his eyes on the papers rather than on Souichiro, his head tilted almost like a gesture of contrition. "I apologize again, Yagami-san, but I felt that if I had to bring your one son to justice, I should do something to bring your other one back."

Souichiro, having been a millimeter from exploding on L, fell back into his seat at the genuine regret hinted on the detective's face. He instead bowed his head, and rubbed his temples. "I should have figured you'd investigate it."

"One question though, did you inform your wife or other children about Yue being missing? I'm just curious…."

"It was Sachiko who found out first, she informed me….we never said anything to Light or Sayu about it, though Light probably figured it out himself. We also never told them that Yue had tried to commit suicide, but that he had an accident."

"I see." L turned to leave, nodding at Souichiro's unspoken request to keep the papers. The detective dismissing the rest of the Taskforce as he was going to investigate the suspect directly today.

"Ryuzaki….I can't choose between either son, even if Yue's found, if Light…." Souichiro scooped up the sheets of paper and placed them in the wastebasket. "All I want is for Yue to be happy wherever he may be."

0

Yue stretched as he waited for a taxi, the rest of his airplane ride and then the train ride into the city calm enough to provide him with time to sleep. The two bags, a large one and a small one, that he'd brought with him lay on the sidewalk beside his feet. The smaller held his composition notebooks and other non-clothes items he'd decided to be essential, the larger held his clothes - enough for two weeks in case his family had moved during the past five years.

'I need to get in contact with dad, knowing him he'll be part of the Kira investigation - working with L to catch Kira….if mom and dad moved…I'll ask around at police headquarters. Some of them probably will remember me….'

Yue smiled weakly at a memory from when he was 8 years old - he'd visited his dad's job and had gotten his hands on one of the officer's handguns. It was the day he learned that even if you take out all the bullets of a gun there could still be a bullet loaded in the barrel. It was also the day his father's fellow police decided he should be banned from the station until he learned not to fool around with guns, even if he was an incredible shot.

The bullet he'd accidentally fired hit the narrow pupil of a man's face on a poster down the hallway, earning him reproaches and exclamations of amazement from every officer there that day. He hadn't told them he was aiming for the air vent about a foot above the poster.

"I don't think anyone would have forgotten that….especially after they discovered the bullet by chance alone hit a mouse that was living within the police station's walls." Yue chuckled, eyes watering at the corners from the reminiscence. "Of course I couldn't sit comfortably for a week after that incident…."

He stretched again as a taxi pulled up and the driver got out to place his bags in the trunk. As he entered the backseat he told the driver his destination - mentioning the name Yagami along with the address. For a moment or two the driver studied him through the rearview mirror, face scrunched up in confusion - for a split second Yue thought he was going to say he knew the street well and that the Yagami family had moved.

"Are you…are you their son Yue?" The driver asked, face suddenly lit with recognition. "Yes, you are him! The one that shot the mouse at the station!"

"Ah…um…yeah, I…who…." Yue blinked, the driver's face was vaguely familiar and so was the voice. He struggled for a split-second longer to place it when it hit him. "You…you were the janitor at the police station at that time! The one who found the mouse!"

"Yep, I was. But as you can see I'm not anymore, decided there wasn't enough interesting things about being a janitor once the 8 year old mouse shooter stopped coming to the station."

"Well, I was banned…."

"…I heard you were missing, run away or something…."

Yue swallowed and averted his eyes, just feeling the vibrations of the taxi as the driver headed toward the destination. Listening to the sighs of the driver as the sudden silence persisted.

"I'm sorry, it's just that your mother was so distraught when I last saw her about 4 years back…but you're returning home now, right?"

Yue simply nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"They've never moved, so…." The driver fell silent, the atmosphere heavy as he drove onwards. The rest of the drive not taking long - within 5 more minutes the taxi stopped in front of Yue's childhood home. He gave the driver a polite, wistful half smile and held out the money to pay. "You keep it, it wasn't that long of a drive."

"…thank you…." Yue placed the money back in his pocket after the driver persistently refused it, and exited the taxi. The driver quietly got the two bags out of the trunk and placed them beside the black haired teen; he gave a friendly nod to Yue as he drove away. Yue breathed in deeply as he drunk in the familiar angles and siding and plants of his childhood home. A couple cherry blossoms fell onto his hair as he gripped the handles of his bags; his arms shook as he stepped towards the front door.

0

Sachiko gasped as she felt a hand touch her shoulder, then felt the warmth of her daughter's arms as Sayu embraced her. The words to scold her daughter for not being on her way to school died in her throat, replaced instead by a final sob as she held her daughter close.

"Mom, I want Yue-niichan to come back home too. You don't have to cry all alone…or clean his room by yourself. I'll help." Sayu nodded her head confirming the seriousness of her words, and hugged her mother tighter. In return she felt her mother's arms embrace her warmly.

"I know Sayu, I understand. I…." Sachiko stopped as the doorbell rang, drawing the tender moment to a close. "You need to get to school…I'll write you a note so you won't get in trouble, but you need to go."

"All right." Sayu pushed herself to her feet after her mom already headed for the door. She glanced at the photo of her missing brother, eyes watering once more - she barely remembered Yue, having been no older than 8 when he ran away. It took almost a year before she understood he wasn't going to come home anytime soon. She remembered going through a period where she hated him - seeing her mother crying and her father withdrawn sadness had pushed anger into her heart and reproach into her thoughts.

'Yue-niichan….'

She picked up the photo of her brother as she listened to her mother opening the front door, the corners of her gentle eyes tearing up.