Kawata listened to Rika's insincere words and couldn't help but sigh.
"I really envy Kai for having such a 'sensible' little sister."
Rika ignored his sarcasm and quickly glanced at the author's name on Death Note.
"Ryuji Kanzaki? That's not Brother's name." She looked up. "Kawata, is this one-shot manga really Brother's art style?"
She handed the Akamaru Jump to Kawata.
"Let me see." Kawata looked closely. "It is kind of similar, especially the way the character's eyes are drawn... but I can't say for sure."
Drawing manga with Kai during middle school and high school had been the most special time in Kawata's otherwise ordinary life. It was a past he would find himself missing again and again, even years down the line.
So even though it had been two or three years since he'd last seen Kai's drawings, the impression was still vivid.
"It's kind of similar, but kind of different too. That's weird," Kawata muttered.
Rika curled her lips. "Fine then."
She took back the Akamaru Jump. With the thought that Death Note might be her brother's work, she was no longer casual about it. She sat up straight and got serious.
"Write a name in the notebook and that person dies. What an interesting manga!" Before long, she was full of praise.
Even if Death Note wasn't Kai's work, Rika would have been completely hooked by it regardless.
An excellent premise, a genuinely exciting story, and a mystery section without a single hole. All of those things together made this one-shot the most brilliant manga Rika had read in a long time.
"Kagami Taro is so cool too. He looked like a total coward at the beginning, but he had the guts to write his own name in the Death Note to prove it was real. What a legend!"
"And at the end, he even hid part of the Death Note from the police. So devious. I love it."
It was only a one-shot, but she'd already fallen for Kagami Taro.
He was second only to her all-time favorite, Seto Kaiba.
The bad mood from accidentally buying Akamaru Jump earlier had completely vanished.
She flipped to the reader survey page, wondering whether to check Death Note in the favorite one-shot column.
But since she was finally about to see her brother, she didn't want to spend her remaining time mailing in a survey card.
"Oh?" Hearing Rika's reaction, Kawata became even more interested. "Let me see."
Rika handed the Akamaru Jump to Kawata. While he was absorbed in reading, she swung her legs in boredom, turning her head to people-watch and take in the rare sight of real crowds.
Suddenly, her gaze locked onto one direction. Her swaying body went still.
Not far away, someone was waving at her. It was...
"Brother!"
Without hesitation, she sprinted forward and threw herself into Kai's arms.
...
"Rika..."
Kai said it almost in a daze.
He had the little girl in his memory, but the current Rika was a hundred and fifty centimeters tall, reaching up to his chest. In his memories, she'd only come up to his waist.
"Long time no see," Kai said with a smile.
Rika looked up and studied his face closely. Something about her brother was different from before.
The boisterous energy was gone, replaced by a quiet, almost drowning tenderness.
Mature and steady. Like an actual adult.
But Rika didn't dislike this version of her brother.
"I missed you so much." She stayed in his arms, breathing in his scent. 'No cigarettes. No alcohol. Just ink... it's wonderful.'
"Sorry," Kai said quietly, patting her head.
He'd been too afraid to reach out. He hadn't dared to contact the original Kai's family until the excitement of winning the Tezuka Award finally gave him the push he needed to make that call.
"Brother's just been working really hard." Rika was far more understanding than any twelve-year-old had a right to be.
...
It was a full three minutes before Rika finally let go.
Kai was finally able to turn his attention to Kawata.
"So you're reading Death Note."
He glanced at the Akamaru Jump and saw that Kawata had reached the end of the manga. He spoke first.
"Huh?" Kawata flinched, snapping out of the manga world and reflexively looking up at the person standing beside him.
"You're... Kai!"
The moment he realized who it was, his face lit up.
"It's me." Kai nodded and gave Rika's head a grateful pat. "Thanks for looking after Rika on the way here, Kawata."
The moment those words left his mouth, Kawata's expression shifted. He stared at Kai in disbelief, as if sensing a thick wall between them. His shoulders slumped on their own.
"What did you... just call me?"
Have we really become that distant?
Kai could read the accusation written all over Kawata's trembling eyes.
Reaching into the original Kai's high school memories, he scratched the back of his head and grinned. "Ah, sorry. Yuta. I misspoke."
"That's more like it!" Yuta Kawata let out a breath of relief. "I thought you didn't see me as a friend anymore."
Kai answered without hesitation. "How could that ever happen?"
With that, he turned and looked toward the Tokyo Station exit.
"Let's head home first. You two should get some rest."
He grabbed the suitcase, nearly threw out his back, and only managed to lift it after putting some real effort into it.
Taking his friend and his sister, he hailed a taxi outside Tokyo Station. They could finally go home.
...
The whole ride there, Rika was pressed against the back seat window, staring out at the bustling city with wide eyes.
Buildings that towered into the clouds. Pedestrians dressed in sharp, fashionable clothes.
In just a few blocks, she counted more luxury stores than she'd seen in her entire life.
So much of it was stuff she'd only ever seen on television.
"It's exactly like Tokyo Love Story," she said with genuine wonder.
The driver couldn't help but chime in.
"In other words, six years have gone by and Tokyo hasn't changed one bit. How depressing."
The same scenery, but seen from completely different angles.
That was the gap between Tokyo and the rest of Japan.
There was a reason one-third of the country's population was crammed into this city.
Kawata's eyes flickered, his thoughts unreadable.
"It's already more than good enough," Rika muttered.
"Sounds like you really like Tokyo," Kai said.
"I love it." Rika nodded hard.
Kai thought back to the original Kai's elementary school. A school with only twelve students total across all six grades, split into just two classes: one for the younger kids and one for the older ones.
The educational environment had been terrible.
Anyone who came out of that was going to be at a disadvantage down the line.
The original Kai's failure to get into university was partly because of that.
From the front passenger seat, Kai glanced into the rearview mirror at his sister. A decision was beginning to take shape in his mind.
...
Yuta had been turning something over in his head the entire ride. It wasn't until they got out of the car and he watched Kai hand a ten-thousand-yen bill to the driver that he finally asked.
"Kai... are you the author of Death Note?"
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