Boss Sent Workers Back Into Quake-Damaged Mall for Cash; Both Died in Blast

After a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Kumamoto on 28 July, a Habita supervisor directed two employees back into Aeon Mall to move cash from registers into a safe. An explosion hit the south side roughly an hour later, killing both. One was 22-year-old Kurumi Otake. Habita's sales director told reporters at her wake, "Looking back now, it was not worth a life."