爆発！« explosion »

XXII

Innovation and Exhaustion

"Yagami-san, please take a breather. In five minutes, walk out boldly through the main entrance," Es instructed.

Yagami was confused by the command.

It sounded risky to come out through the front without any protection. Even if he had the armoured police vehicle, he would still have hesitated to come out through the front where all attention was focused. As long as Kira caught but a glimpse of his face, he was dead. He was not yet sure if his mask was sufficient to block Kira's supernatural killing technique.

However...

"...I trust Suzuki."

Yagami Sōichirō believed in S with every fibre of his being.

Naturally, he had also placed his faith in L.

It just could not compare with how he knew he would dive into a rain of bullets if S had told him it was the best option.

Perhaps it was just blind faith bordering on fanaticism but something about S made him think that it would not be too bad even if those orders got him killed.

He just knew that S would not let his sacrifice be in vain.

It was strange. Yagami Sōichirō knew that he hardly knew anything about the young man who called himself Suzuki. The blond whose words seemed to lull one into obedience; whose appearance made him resemble those beings from myth. Perhaps he was an angel or a god who descended to Earth in the form of a human. That would hardly surprise him.

It was simply too hard to feel suspicious of Suzuki.

Sometimes, he found himself thinking of the boy hardly older than his own son as an old friend.

It was absurd, true, but he found himself so easily looking up to S despite him being so young.

Some may argue that he might simply be admiring S because he was so young, but Sōichirō knew that age had nothing to do with it.

Maybe it was something supernatural, like Kira's ability to kill people.

Yagami Sōichirō cared surprisingly little.

The man walked out confidently, holding his loot tightly in one hand as though he might lose it otherwise. He had to deliver the tapes and the envelope to the two detectives. The entire investigation team was counting on him. The tapes were crucial evidence that might very well point to the true identity of the one who had been aptly called Kira by the masses.

"Alright now!" shouted a voice through a loudspeaker. "Don't leave any gaps! Do not reveal yourselves! Kira is not inside the TV station! He is watching from the outside!"

Yagami Sōichirō felt stunned by the sight that greeted him.

The police force had been deployed to the scene and every member was fully outfitted, forming a human barricade to seal off the area.

It was a grand sight, a bold statement that proved that Japan's police force did not condone Kira's nefarious acts.

An officer stood beside a car waiting for him.