L00-2 Friend

Twenty days had passed since the Kira investigation had closed, and Soichiro Yagami had resumed his normal duties at the police force. Returning from a day on the job, Soichiro handed his wife Sachiko his jacket and bag, and went straight to the family altar to put his hands together before Light's funeral picture.

Friends from Light's high school and college days had visited daily to pay their respects following his death. Light's smiling face was surrounded by the flowers left around the altar.

"Light was murdered by Kira..." That was the sad lie Soichiro had told both Sachiko and his daughter Sayu. But at that moment, he believed it. That Light had truly been killed by Kira. Light had wanted to protect the happiness of his loved ones. That was why he had taken the Death Note in his hands and sought to right the world by cleansing it of evil people. Why he had succumbed to the temptation of the Kira in everyone's soul.

"A kind society; what Dad desired," Light used to say.

Only three weeks had passed since the killings had ceased, and crime rates had climbed back up to where they had been in the pre Kira era. The calls for Kira's resurrection accompanied every new bloody spectacle of murder and thievery.

Soichiro had been made to know how powerless "justice under law" was, how it existed only in principle. Even so, he had denied Kira—he had forsaken Light, his own son. As a detective, as Light's father, and as a human being.

"Did Light's friends visit again today?" he asked, noting the offerings left in front of Light's picture.

Sachiko stuck her head out from the kitchen and answered, "Yes, a friend from Light's university. He—what was his name, Sayu?"

"What was it? He was kind of a strange man. But maybe he's the type to get along with Light."

Sachiko and Sayu played at good cheer, which pained Soichiro all the more. "No, I think I know." Placed at Light's altar were five manju skewered on a stick.

"Sorry, Sachiko, Sayu. I'm going out again."

Soichiro put on the jacket he'd just take off and went out again.

"Ryuzaki...you're back."