leitmotif a melodic passage or phrase associated with a specific character, situation, or element
One day, over summer break, Sachiko decides Sayu should be watching less television. To encourage this, she buys a book of origami patterns and a thick stack of patterned square paper.
"Light, you should try it too," she says.
Light looks up from his encyclopedia. The paper is irritatingly colorful, and the patterns on the book's cover are simplistic.
"All right," he says.
Sayu doesn't like origami, it turns out. Her clumsy child fingers stutter over the paper, her impatient creases yielding lopsided shapes. Sachiko watches, and makes sure to compliment her, but Light can tell it's reflexive, a parent's praise. He wonders if Sayu knows as well.
From her pouty expression, he would guess so. "I don't want to do origami," she complains. "I want to watch TV."
"Try this one," Sachiko suggests, flipping the pages back to a simpler pattern, but Sayu shakes her head, stubborn. "TV!"
Sachiko sighs. "Why don't you play outside, dear?"
Sayu pauses to consider it. Then, with a brilliant smile, as though she'd not been on the verge of a tantrum a moment before, she jumps down from the kitchen table and runs to the front door.
"May I see that book?" Light asks his mother.
"Of course." Sachiko slides it along the table to him and follows Sayu outside. Left alone, Light he flips through the book until he finds a suitably challenging pattern. He picks up a piece of paper, biting his lip in concentration as he scans the instructions.
Sachiko returns an hour later to find him frowning at the last page of the book, surrounded by origami forms of increasing complexity. They are all perfect, or nearly so. "Light," she says, sounding startled. "These are very good."
He smiles up at her, all automatic charm. "Thanks, Mom." He doesn't say the things he thinks: that they were easy, or that it's just a matter of geometry and precision. He had hoped, perversely, that since origami requires manual dexterity, he might find it a challenge, but it seems that nothing is to be difficult for him.
He feels disappointed, and suspects that this is a peculiar reaction.
"Do you want me to get you more books?" Sachiko asks.
He shakes his head. "No, thank you."
He goes back to his encyclopedia, then, but Sachiko carefully gathers up the origami and displays them on a bookshelf for years, until Soichiro, putting a book back on the shelf, drops it on the best of the figures and flattens them.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Light is good at everything. It is his recurring theme. His leitmotif, if you will.