When Matsuda was little, he didn't really know what he wanted to be. All of his friends said they wanted to be a sushi chef, own a ramen shop, be a firefighter, a cop, a singer, an actress, a reporter. And Matsuda smiled as they talked eagerly about their hopes and dreams and how they planned to achieve them. Take certain classes, go to a college specializing in whatever they wanted to be. Do their best in school. Get good grades. It sounded so easy, but what if one didn't know what one wanted to be? Then what? Was it really that simple?

All Matsuda knew was that he wanted to help people. Become a positive person people looked up to. But someone like him, from a small town in Hokkaido, would never amount to anything. Not really. Not unless he had an amazing singing voice (which he didn't), could play an instrument extremely well (which he couldn't - he failed at music), or could act very well (all he could act was being happy when he wasn't). He couldn't paint and could barely think up what to write for his writing assignments, let alone think of some great invention.

So, naturally, Matsuda thought about who helped people the most. And he came up with the detectives who worked with the police. Police kept the cities safe from violence, yes, but it was the detectives who found out who had done what. Police just did the arresting. So Matsuda applied himself and studied hard to get into college to become a detective, and miraculously he landed himself a job in Tokyo. Toyko seemed as far away from Hokkaido as the United States did, and although he was sad to leave everything he knew, he packed up and left for Tokyo.

It was at Tokyo that he met the superintendent, Yagami Souchirou. Yagami acted like a father-type figure to Matsuda while still keeping a professional air about him, and were it not for Souchirou Matsuda was sure he would have went back to Hokkaido. Not wanting to let Souchirou down, Matsuda worked as hard as he could and eventually rose up enough in the ranks that Souchirou brought him along to the NPA, where representatives from all around the world gathered to discuss Kira.

And at first, Matsuda agreed to work with L because Souchirou was. Matsuda didn't want to lose everything he gained, and so he stuck with the older man. But then, as he got to know L more and more, Matsuda began working for L and the people instead of himself and Souchirou. He wanted to protect the people he was working for, and while he didn't totally disagree with what Kira was aiming for, he was strongly against the methods Kira used. Killing people to create a world without murder seemed rather hypocritical to Matsuda.

As he got to know L more, Matsuda began to get more and more jealous of L. L was a genius, widely recognized and working to protect the entire world from Kira. It was something Matsuda would never have the chance to do. Which was why when he found out L liked him in that special way, he was embarrassed, yes, but overall happy. And suddenly L became a Souchirou-figure, someone Matsuda didn't want to let down.

Someone Matsuda wouldn't let down.