20 Hellbent

Shawn POV

"Sir, are you sure you want my brother to do this job? I'm more qualified in this department."

Perseus is in charge of talking some sense into the distraught man, currently, he's by the car watching over the man and doing whatever as I helped Mr. Satou round everyone and assess the damages.

"I know." Mr. Satou replied "But when we accepted you to be deployed here, we read your reports, and it seems your brother lacks in the social skill department, and so this is good for him."

"Isn't that risky? What if he says something that pushes the man over the edge?"

"Don't worry, that's where we come in."

Perseus POV

As the other 2 made sure that the civilians were okay, I was by the car making sure that the distraught father didn't escape, the window was open for us to make conversations, and my job was to try to talk him out of digging himself deeper since I'm supposedly his daughter's age.

Shawn is better than this, why am I being put in this spot? But the response I received was that it was something about Shawn looking too foreign and the guy might be a bit weirded out.

"Look, sir, it's hard for me to say this, but I've lost someone too, and even though what I've done till now won't earn any-"

"There's a difference between you and I." he cut me off "You weren't the cause of our loved one's death. I assume you already heard about me on the way here, I was the fool that made my daughter scream in pain in her final moments, I...she didn't deserve that, she was crying for me to take away her pain, and even after she died, her screams replayed itself in my head, you have no idea how that feels."

Tears were flowing out of his eyes, and he can't stop it either, since he was cuffed, he can't wipe em away either, so I got in the front seat, close the window, and then sat next to him in the back.

I did a stupid move and uncuffed his hand, fortunately, he didn't try to fight it, I cuffed his right hand to the cage separating the back from the front seat, and gave him a handkerchief to wipe with his other hand.

'...This...isn't...your fault...'

"What would your daughter think if he sees you right now?" I asked

"You think you're the first to ask that?" he responded softly "And the answer to that...she'll be saddened, she was such a bright girl..."

"Your daughter wouldn't want you to become a criminal. Try to find another way to seek justice for her."

"I did, I asked you people for help, it's been weeks and you have no new information!" he retorted "You're only repeating the same thing over and over. And what's wrong with taking justice with my own hands?!"

"And so what will revenge do? What will you have left after killing the man?"

"I'll kill myself to atone for my sins."

"Sins? Look, I know it's hard, but holding onto your anger and pain will only make things worse. It's important to remember your daughter and honor her memory by living your life in a way that would make her proud. She wouldn't want you to continue down a path of anger and violence.

"And unfortunately, about the person I lost, like you, I was also the cause of his death, but you keep getting told the same thing over and over, 'I'm sorry for your loss', 'You did your best' or 'it's not your fault'. But all of it only have the opposite effect, you think that it was your fault, you didn't do enough.

"Like you, I also wanted justice, and instead of doing what you did, I became a wizard while walking on the path of delivering the justice that I so crave, of course, it makes me a hypocrite that the thought is still clouding my judgment, but it's still a step forward, why don't you instead study to become a police officer?

"You can be a part of the investigation, and heck, once you get promoted to detective, you can help ensure that no other parent would have to lose a child like you again by weeding out every fraudster in the country?"

"Are you stupid?" he responded weakly "Even if I tried, those with a criminal record will find it almost impossible to get in the police academy."

"There can be exceptions depending on the nature and severity of the offense, as well as the length of time that has passed since the conviction. Maybe if the offense was relatively minor and occurred after many years, it may be possible for you to become a police officer after demonstrating good behavior and rehabilitation. No one was hurt, I'm sure it can still be possible if you get some recommendation letter."

"I attacked a wizard, I shot a spell at you, that's not a minor crime."

"I don't remember any spell being shot at me."

"The fireball-"

"I told you, there wasn't any. Know that it's common that you can see things in the time of grief. Everyone deserves a second chance, think about your life and your daughter a bit more, you have plenty of time to make up for everything you did, as for the man who tricked you, leave him to the police."

*****

After our job was done, we head home, have dinner and everything went smoothly for the night, Shawn is a quick sleeper, so he was pretty much out as soon as his head hit the pillow, we gotta wake up early for tomorrow for some training, but...I'll just go for my walk.

It's a bit hard now since the captain's room is next to ours, and I now share a room with Shawn, hard to go out without waking any of them up. I opened the window and jumped out of there, I already made sure that there were no cameras nearby, I then head to the side of the house where the shadows loom over so no one can see me.

"Nice talking there." Ezra commented

"Would be nice if I wasn't a hypocrite."

"Yeah, a bit hellbent on revenge. So why do you need me?"

"Well, I checked the documents and I now know where the girl died and where the hospital is, we're gonna need to find the souls of the victims, they can probably identify the man we're looking for."

"You seriously can't just summon me for things other than work, can you?" Ezra sighs "Come on, let's go get this over with."