Chapter 3: The brother and the niece

Wen Lin got to her job the next morning she was exhausted. She had not slept the night before, her mind still racing with the thoughts of the discovery of her father and her half brother.

She sat heavily on her desk, taking the reports that had been given to her about the criminal activity on the previous night. There was only two, nothing serious, one was about a missing child that was located hiding on his treehouse and the other about a noise complaint from a working class neighborhood. Lin signed the papers and proceed to put them in her archive.

She let out a sigh, her mind was still far from her work. The thing that keep her thoughts running was Hiroshi Sato, her half brother. It was so weird to think that they were related but it made so much sense, because she had been told she looked like him many times before. She remembered Katara saying they looked alike after seeing a picture of a young Hiroshi Sato on the cover of a mother was there that time, and if Lin remembered correctly Toph brushed it off making a sarcastic comment about being a blind. She probably understood exactly what was going on.

But that wasn't the only time she heard about their resemblance, it happened all the time during the holiday formal gatherings when they were young, and it even happened during the investigacion of Hiroshi's wife case when her officers wondered if they were cousins. Of course back then she thought it was just a huge coincidence that she happens to share some facial features with Hiroshi, but it all made sense now.

She wondered if she truly looked that much like him. After all, they must have looked very similar in their younger years if several people had pointed it out, including Katara. She opened her cabinet to find an old newspaper photo of herself. This one was special and she would always keep it in her office as a reminder on how much of a responsibility her job was. It was a newspaper entry that talked about the day she became chief of police. But the information on the article didn't mattered to Lin at the moment, all she cared about was the picture. It was in black and white but it was a headshot of herself where she could see her face features in detail. If she remembered correctly, she was 36 years old when it was taken. All she needed now was a picture of Hiroshi Sato in his 30's, and she knew exactly where to find it.

She placed her photo in a folder, took it with her and started walking out of her office, making sure to inform her officers that she would be out for a few hours. She made her way to the police headquarters archive library where she was greeted by the official in charge.

"Find me the file on the Yasuko Sato case" she demanded

"Yes Chief, we have a total of six books on the case, is there an specific one you are looking for?".

"Bring them all to me, I'll be waiting on the fourth cubicle"

"Yes Chief" he answered

She walked to the cubicle and sat on the desk, she didn't have to wait that long, the officer came with the books and left her to read alone.

She remembered that they had taken headshots of everyone involved in that case, including Hiroshi Sato, she just had to find it in one of the books. The task proved to be easier than she thought, as the third book was conveniently labeled "picture evidence".

She opened the file, she flipped through the pages, most of the pictures were of the damaged property, they were taken the morning after the incident.

All the images she saw brought back an old feeling feeling on Lin, she had forgotten how horrible the Sato case really was. She flipped the pages until she finally found what she was looking for.

The picture of Hiroshi Sato, under it there was a description that read:

"Name: Hiroshi Sato

Age: 38 years old

Relationship: Husband

Status: victim/ indirect witness"

She took out the newspaper article from her folder and placed the photos side by side. And immediately she could see the resemblance, they did looked like each other, it was the hair, the nose and the over all the shape of their face. They looked very alike.

Lin couldn't help but stare at the picture of her half brother. He looked tired, he had bags under his eyes, and his expression showed a mixture of sadness and anger. She remembered the day this picture was taken very vividly, it happened days before the court took place, when they were revisiting the statements of the witnesses.

This was Lin's first big case to investigate as chief of police, at that time she saw everything different and that included Hiroshi, back then she observed his every move, and how he behaved around the questions they threw at him. Before they knew Yasuko Sato was killed by the threats she had marked Hiroshi as the main suspect, but of course, his innocence had been proven.

In curiosity she continued flipping the pages, most of them were the headshots of some of the maids that were staying at the house the night of the incident, but the last photo was the one that really caught her attention.

Lin could only sigh as she looked at the picture of a little girl sitting in the courtroom. She was so small. she had tears coming down her eyes. The picture brought her back to that moment and made her blood boil just as it did that day, she could almost hear the girl's uncontrollable cry on the back on her mind. Under the picture the description said

"Name: Asami Sato

Age: 6 years old

Relationship: daughter

Status: Victim/ direct witness"

Direct witness. Asami had been a direct witness on the assassination of her mother. She was the only person that had seen the faces of the of the men who infiltrated the house and burned Yasuko Sato to death. Hiroshi had been asked if his daughter could testify in court and without a doubt he agreed.

Lin had been against, it at the time Asami was way to young, she was scared and traumatized after what happened. But the main reason why Lin didn't wanted her to testify was simple, this was the first time the republic city jury had a child as a witness, they didn't knew how to proceed, they had no protocol on the matter. But Hiroshi Sato insisted that Asami was key to sentence the suspect to a life in prison and as Chief of police she was in no position to stop a family decision. That day, Hiroshi forced his six year old daughter to testify.

Asami cried the whole time, her soft tears of sadness turned in to sobs when the judge started to ask the specific questions "Where did he hit your mother?", "What were her last words?" and "Was your mother crying?". Hiroshi Sato sat there in silence, he didn't cry, he did not lower his sight, he just sat there looking straight in to his daughter's eyes with what Lin could only describe as extricness.

Lin's hand tightened in to a fist. She traced Asami's face with her fingers, and the realisation washed over her body.

This was her niece.

That little girl that had to visit the police station psychologist everyday after witnessing the death of her mother, was her niece. The brave teenager that turned her back to her father to defend what she thought best, was her niece.

The woman that is now the head of Future Industries is her niece.

Things have changed, but back then Asami was so small, so fragile, and her father was a monster. Lin couldn't believe she had forgotten how she truly felt about Hiroshi, since that day in the courtroom she thought of him as a cruel father. A monster that made his daughter relive the memory of the assassination of her mother over and over again just to make sure that he won a case in court, a man so cruel that tried to kill his daughter to avenge the death of his wife. A monster that tried to reconnect with his daughter only to be killed right in front of her, reigniting traumas of the past on the girl.

Was that how Kanto was as a father? An strict cruel man? Was that what her mother was trying to shield her from? In his letters Kanto seemed like a loving father, but so did Hiroshi when he was with Asami, at least that how I seemed to be, but he proved to be the opposite on the hardest moments of their live. It could not be much of a coincidence, after all people say that when children grow up to be parents that make the sames mistakes as their own progenitors. Was this why her mother pushed her away from Kanto?

Lin pulled the photo of herself and placed it by Asami's. Once again she traced little Asami's face features with her fingers and for the first time she could see the resemblance. It was subtle, but it was there, on the shape of her face, on her nose. Maybe Lin was imagining it all, but there was no way to deny that she and Asami shared the same blood.

She closed the book and standed up from the desk. Her father Satoru, her half brother Hiroshi, both had passed away, but her niece Asami was still here and she was the last tie Lin had to the man that had been her father.

Lin was not gonna let herself ruin this. She already screw up once with her other niece Opal, she was not doing it a second time with Asami, especially not after knowing the fact that she was the last blood family member the girl had. It was time for Lin to return all the love her father tried to give her all through the years.

She had to find Asami and apologize.

Chapter 4: The niece and the aunt

Preview:

"Yeah, he was very strict, but he loved me Lin, I know he was not right all the time, but I accept that, he was still my father and without him I wouldn't be where I am today"

Lin stared down at the headstones. Satoru Sato, his wife Misato, Hiroshi Sato and his wife Yasuko, all buried here. Asami was looking at the headstones, the young girl wore a sad expression in her face but the girl was still strong. Lin on the other hand felt like crying. She couldn't help but feel angry, it was all really unfair, Asami was a sweet young woman, why have all this horrible things had to happen to her?

Autor's note:

Leave me a review if you liked it. I love to know if people are actualy reading this fic.