The Girl With No Name

Chapter Seventeen

Despite knowing full well it was a bluff, I still felt monstrous handing him over to Mr Yagami, seeing the outline of a *Nambu M60 weighing down his pocket. I took one last look at Light, hoping to whatever God was out there that what we were about to do wouldn't fracture that brilliant, untapped mind inside his head.

Mr Yagami and I wordlessly exchanged keys, finding each other's gaze as I recalled what we said earlier.

"He'll be fine, Mr Yagami," L said bluntly, an edge of irritation in his tone. "There are no real bullets inside the chamber, only a blank. There's no way you or Light could receive injury from this."

The man in question had his head between his knees, rubbing his cranium as he stared at the gun on the table.

"How am I supposed to hold a gun to my own son's head?"

"Because it's the right thing to do," I said, eyes hard and voice stern. "For the sake of countless more lives on the line and those who've already died."

"He'll never be able to trust me again."

I shrugged. "I can't argue with that. Chances are this will resonate with him pretty deeply for the rest of his life."

In a weird case of role reversal, L frowned at me, knowing I wasn't helping the situation. I held his gaze steely, wordlessly assuring him that I knew what I was doing.

"If we're lucky, he'll understand it was a necessary action for the case and be willing to forgive. If not, Light could develop a phobia of guns, of men, of enclosed spaces, he might never be able to sit comfortably in a car, etcetera. And he might never want to look you in the face again."

The Chief's despair morphed into rage and he opened his mouth to snap and I held up a hand to silence him.

"But," I said pointedly. "Light strikes me as the resilient type. He's selfless and forgiving and he wants so badly to bring Kira to justice, above all else. That's not due to any instinct or neurological trigger, that's due to good parenting. You're a good dad, Chief, and you're a good cop. This won't change that."

Soichiro narrowed his eyes at me, not due to anger but rather a questioning distrust.

"It's not my intention to sounds abrasive, Agent, but how would you know what makes a good parent?"

It was a valid question with an equally valid answer. I wasn't offended, yet I couldn't help but feel as though my credibility as a trained detective was being doubted once again. Funny, considering there were two orphans in the room, but I was the one always targeted. *Maybe it was sexism, who knows?

I swallowed my melancholy with a sigh.

"When you spend so much of your life on your own," I explained, "You start to fantasise about what real love looks like."

There was silence in the room. The two men looked at me with something akin to sympathy, masked by neutral expressions and averted eyes, but the blinding gleam of pity was all too easy to recognise. I chose to ignore it.

"I've wasted so much time daydreaming about the perfect parent, Mr Yagami, that I'd be shocked if I failed to recognise a good father standing before me."

After I finished speaking, the Chief stared at me for the longest time and it was hard to decipher his mood. Was he angry? Did he think I was mocking him?

I looked away, embarrassed by my childish reasoning before I realised that his arms were wrapped around me. Shaking, the man held onto me for dear life and sobbed words of thanks into my shoulder. Taken aback by the sudden display of warmth coming from a man who was usually so professional and reserved, I felt impelled to smile, my heart inexplicably touched by this father's undying love for his son.