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Francis adored his son, don't get it wrong.
Maybe his relationship hadn't been what he expected in the start but, well what could he expect if at first all Fitzgerald wanted was to sacrifice the boy to bring his dead daughter to life?
It was a bittersweet surprise that the tiger man of which the legends told was just a malnourished and fearful orphan of the people who, in his short 11 years, had only brought him abuse and pain.
But the capitalist world was like that, to be used and discarded, so Fitzgerald wasn't a man without realism. He was going to do a good deal adopting that boy.
Only dor that he gave him his last name, fed him well, taught him the language and in no way did he cry when that trembling little boy called him "Daddy."
As the last nail to the coffin, Zelda improved almost instantly upon the arrival of the youngest.
That mother who lost her daughter found comfort in that son who never knew what a mother's love was. Seeing them was a painful and cruel scene for those who knew their stories.
He couldn't take from his wife that son of anything but blood. That sweet woman would not bear another loss again, no matter what the prize was.
With his son asleep on her lap and his wife playing that empty piano that had been filled with dust since Frances's death, there was neither reason nor motive to sacrifice the new happiness that the Fitzgerald family possessed.
It is important to mark all this. Because, you will see ...
Everything was going very well the first few years. Atsushi was nothing more than a charming boy eager to learn. He had the best tutors who had nothing but words of encouragement and compliments on his progress.
The former Nakajima was ashamed of it, but he was pleased to be appreciated for once in his short childhood. He wanted to do his best so that his parents wouldn't think he was ungrateful.
He had learned the language quickly but expressed himself in a serious and polite manner like the Japanese. It cost him so much to open up to his family and just shaking hands was a big step where his parents almost threw a party.
He was a very loved child and he returned that love fiercely. He knew his parents weren't the best people in the universe and Francis's businesses weren't exactly the cleanest, but he loved them just the same way.
Then the greatest fear of a parent occurred.
Atsushi entered in the terrible adolescence.
And everything fell apart like a house of cards.
...
What happened was the next.
The younger Fitzgerald was not a rebellious teen at all.
As in his childhood he was very quiet and polite, developing as a more introverted person with strangers and a little open with his inner circle.
He loved music as his mother and literature. Francis was very supportive of his passion and could see in the future that young man establishing himself as a famous writer.
He was charming, cheerful and humble despite how much pampered he was by his adoptive family, he did not forget his cruel childhood that marked his skin and his mind forever.
His parents couldn't be happier with how the little son of his heart was already almost a wonderful man.
Then the catastrophe happened.
It was on the former Nakajima's 18th birthday that Francis was late. Now that he was the head of the Guild, he had more to do on a loose schedule. And that was his biggest mistake.
In one of his comings and goings from his little house (Atsushi called it a mansion, as if they didn't have a bigger and more luxurious house) he forgot some documents of little importance to the organization.
But not for his son.
Because 7 years ago his initial plan was carefully planned by Louisa, about how that tiger man resided in Japan and would be used as a sacrifice to bring his little girl back.
And that paper with that information was misplaced with his most recent work. That he asked his son to take him to work so he could go earlier to celebrate his birthday.
Murphy said "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." And everything turned out worse than bad.
Not only Atsushi find out the hard way the reason because he was adopted, but he also thought those papers were new, and that his father planned to use him now to get his daughter back.
So then he did what every rebellious adolescent would do in his situation. He fled to Yokohama and joined a detective agency with supernatural abilities.
He also married a mafioso, but details.
(Which was Francis's fault in the first place. He paid a large sum to the mafia to bring his son back home. This is how his son-in-law and his little boy met.
"It was love at the first leg cut." Said his baby and Fitzgerald wanted to die.)
Considering everything that happened, the blonde reached the most logical conclusion.
He was going to burn the city and take his son as far as possible.
You will imagine how it result.
Not only did he make his son and the one who would be his husband even closer, he also proved firsthand how strong his little tiger was and how much that caged child had grown. He couldn't be prouder.
If he just wasn't falling from a flying whale into an ocean that would be his death ...
In the end his soft-hearted son saved him despite the protests of the asthmatic man and he half heard something about a young woman who was going to die for them but in the end it was just a test and she did not die, and everything turned out well in the end.
Except, well, nothing had really been resolved. Absolutely.
There was still that man with whom the Guild had made a deal, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who now wanted to kill his son and Francis would not be the best man but he would not leave his son alone with that crazy circus.
And he couldn't say no to his little puppy's eyes. Especially now that he knew how to change them for the eyes of the tiger and Francis was always a cat person.
Of course, he was going to have a friendly chat with his precious son-in-law about what it was about a severed leg and when he got married without having invited the groom's parents.
But that would be later.
Now, in the present, with his son sleeping on a cheap couch in that crazy agency, Francis couldn't regret having adopted that scared and lonely little tiger cub.
After all, there is nothing stronger in this world than the love of a father for his son.