Witnessing the emotional distress Sato went through, Toji pocketed the revolver Sato brought to murder the suspect with.
A gibbering Sato cried on his shoulder. He whispered that everything was going to be alright.
Neither men spoke of what happened that day.
He slipped the revolver back into the armoury.
Morimura and Matsumoto took over the interrogation.
The standard protocol for kidnapped children was to take them to the hospital and to reunite them with their family.
Morimura signed off early to avoid this duty. Matsumoto accepted the task, and took the other child to the hospital. Sato cleaned himself up and walked the girl to his car.
She refused to sit in the back, and ran to the front demanding to sit shotgun. He relented to her request, and opened the door. As he shifted the car into drive, a small tug grasped at his arm when he went to grip the steering wheel.
She grabbed his arm and shifted herself to embrace it. Sato thought to himself what to do, and carefully drove with one hand on the wheel for the whole journey.
When Sato arrived at Haido Hospital, he walked with her in. She grasped his hand and finger tightly.
Dazzled by the hospital lights she covered her eyes and walked with him.
She was blissfully unaware of the turmoil brewing within her saviour. Sato's arms felt like iron, and his knees weak. His pacing and gait slowed. It was just like three years ago, he thought to himself. The veil of reality fell, and his creative imagination took over. Memories of him carrying little Miwako – then only five years old – into the hospital and through the wards not knowing what was going on at the time, panicked for his sickly daughter.
"Help me! Help me! You've gotta help me doc!" he screamed at the staff, "Where's a doctor? Please someone find me a doctor! Find me a nurse!"
He snapped out of his hallucination and got a hold of himself. He walked her to the reception and was quickly led away by the staff.
Sato sat down and waited with the girl. He remembered cradling a lethargic Miwako, who made faint movements and weak noises. He felt anguish then, and misery now. He closed his eyes and tries to block it out when she tugs at his hand.
He shakes himself out of his flashback, and smiles at her. After half an hour, the hospital is finally ready to bring her in. Two nurses lead her away, and Sato turns for the exit when he feels a squeeze on his leg.
The girl had broken free of her nurses and ran toward her hero, who looked down and saw her pulling him back in.
He thought about home, where his own child Miwako would be waiting for him with his wife and a hot meal.
He looked at her. She looked afraid and uncertain, her eyes were glassy and resigned to her fate. He looked at his own reflection in the window and saw a weary warrior tugged by an orphan of war, a ravenous beast confronted by a mouse, a plover bird in a crocodile's maw. This girl has pierced his heart.
Sato thought back to an old legend of a mythical hunter, whom a god sent down a tiny scorpion that killed him where no beast could. Could she shatter his warm heart and shrink it three times this day?
He looked at the girl again, and his heart surrendered. He called home to say he would be late, and followed her into the ward. They clothed her in a child's gown and fed her some therapeutic food. She rested on the hospital bed, with her bed draped by his police coat. She fell fast asleep to a bedtime story read by Sato, who sat next to her bed until he passed out worried and warning.
Toji – after slipping the revolver back into the armoury – signed off his shift and began his journey home. He stops on the way, parking discreetly in an area opposite the bank where he peered in. He watched from his seat and scanned for his daughter Yoshimi Samezaki. She was working a late shift as usual. He watched her every movement and tracked her through the bank as she closed up, casing out the exit and anyone who interacted with her.
The lights in the bank went out row by row, until the ground floor was flooded in darkness. Toji squinted his eyes until he saw Yoshimi – umbrella in hand – walk out, turn around and stare at his direction, before walking the other direction and disappearing over the horizon into the concrete jungle of Tokyo.
He turned on the car, reversed out, and drove home arriving before she did.
Toji made a beeline for the living room, turning on the TV and settling down. As anticipated, the door unlocked shortly after and Yoshimi arrived at home.
"Hey dad, I'm home" she greeted.
Toji muted the television "Hey 'Shimi. How was work?"
"It was work dad. You watch me from your car during your lunch break"
He smiled, slightly embarrassed "Yeah, just looking out for you"
"Dad… I'm 21. You don't need to watch me from the shadows like a stranger"
He closes his eyes and chuckles to himself "A stranger huh? Well how about next time I come in and visit…"
"Dad…" she groaned
"… then you call tell everyone …"
"Dad."
"… just how much your daddy loves you."
"Dad!" she yelled.
"What? I'm just teasing you"
"Okay dad. I'm going to help mom"
Toji unmutes the television, and settles down to his program.
At Sato's apartment, a disheveled Masayoshi Sato slumped up and unlocked the door. He pushes against it and trips the security chain.
Frustrated, he knocks at the door "Hey! I'm home, open the door!"
His wife unlatched the chain and opened the door. She looked disappointed
"What took you so long to get home? You look terrible! Why are bite marks on your tie? Why is your shirt so stained?"
Sato grumbled to himself, ignoring his wife's questions.
"… out of prefecture, forget it just give me dinner"
She slammed some bowls and plates in front of him on the table, and waltzed back to the bedroom.
He devoured his food. The rice still warm, but the soup and meat was cold. He worked through it, making some noise. In the corner of his eyes, little Miwako peered from a wall watching her ravenous father strip meat from bones.
After having his fill he got up, forcing Miwako to retreat back to her room. He undressed his outer layer and shambled to Miwako's room. He stopped at the door and leaned his forehead against her door deep in thought. He thought about the girl, he thought about Miwako. He thought about himself.
He collected himself, turned to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror and saw Miwako's door unlock, and the reflection of eyes peering out.
In his reflection, Sato saw the beast inside him unleashed. He looked hollow and eyes empty, back hunched over. The lighting of the bathroom shadowed his facial features. A monster attempting its best disguise, best impression of a human.
He turned to face Miwako and stared at her. Sato resembled a cat that ate the canary. Guilty as sin and caught in headlights.
She quickly and quietly shut the crack in the door.
Sato washed up and retired to bed.