Our first lead

Roland was in the living room when Eve opened the door, making her stand at the opened door way, exchanging eye contact with her brother from the distance.

"Hello, Eve." Roland took a newspaper to read, escaping from Eve's eye contact.

"Hello, Nii-san." Eve also averted her eyes, as Taylor stopped behind her with a confused expression.

"Why are you two silent with each other?" Taylor had no idea what was going on.

"I'm going to go for a walk outside," Eve walked to the front door nearby to put on her shoes.

"Take your brother with you," Taylor told her.

"I'm fine going alone," Eve forced a smile to convince her father, then rushing out the door.

"Did you do something to your sister?" Taylor gave Roland a sharp gaze.

"As if, she's just that dramatic, Dad." Roland rolled his eyes in annoyance, continuing to read the newspaper in his hands.

"Why come back with that attitude, humph!" Eve pouted, stumping her steps with her eyes focused to the road, then bumped her forehead followed by her body into a warm surface.

"Look forward when you're walking, Miss Evening." Chifuyu lifted up her chin as he lightly puffed his right cheek, their eyes met.

"Chifuyu-kun..."

"You're not paying attention to your surroundings and you're walking alone, you're asking to get kidnapped at this point." Chifuyu moved his hand up to pinch her cheek.

"Sorry..." Eve sighed heavily.

"What's with the pouty face? Did you argue with your old man or something?" Chifuyu asked her, gently poking her cheek with his finger.

"Um..." Eve threw her face into Chifuyu's chest, making him confused. "Please hide me..." Eve sounded genuinely troubled.

"From your old man?" meanwhile Chifuyu was genuinely confused, patting her head.

"No... from my brother, he's at my house right now." Eve lifted up her head with pursed lips, "He's not someone I want to be around right now, please take me somewhere." She begged.

"Are you scared of heights?" Chifuyu asked her.

"No," Eve shook her head, and Chifuyu smiled before picking her up to carry her in his arms.

"Then hold on," he gave her a wink, then jumped up to a roof to start sprinting towards a 300 feet tall building, stopping on the top. "Don't go too far to the edge, okay?" Chifuyu placed her on her feet, allowing her to explore the flat roof and seeing the view from the high ground.

"You love heights, do you?" Eve asked him, knowing how often he travels and stops on high platforms.

"It's much cooler up high," Chifuyu was enjoying the breeze as he sat down next to Eve, his silver earring swaying with the wind as he turned to Eve. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked her, and Eve hugged her knees as the wind blew her hair and her purple ribbon on the left side of her head.

"My brother used to be really nice to me and I was really happy to see him, but he started giving me verbal insults that always makes me uncomfortable since he came back a few days ago." Eve began to explain in a rather gloomy tone of her usual graceful voice, "He always does that when we're alone, where Dad isn't around. I don't know why he he's like this now; I don't know what I did wrong to him... I hate him..." she buried her face to her knees, while Chifuyu was silent.

"Don't say that, Eve." Chifuyu's calm and cold voice made Eve lift her head, turning her attention to him to see his straight but upset face, feeling his disagreement despite his eyes were averted away. "I'm sure your brother has his reasons, there's no way he does that for no reason." He told her.

"What do you mean?" Eve was confused.

"Saying that you hate your sibling, it's hurtful." Chifuyu laid down with his hands as a pillow, traveling through his past memories.

"Chiyaki hates you, Onii-chan! You jerk!" Chifuyu recalled his little sister shouting those words to his face when they were young, when he ruined her drawing by accidentally spilling a cup of water to her paper. Chifuyu remembered those words hurt him more than he expected, leaving him scared to approach his sister for a while, "C-Chiyaki's sorry, Onii-chan... Chiyaki doesn't hate you, Chiyaki loves you... please forgive Chiyaki..." his sister ended up tugging on his shirt at the end of the day, giving him a big relieve and they shared a hug.

"Hurtful...? Really?" Eve noticed Chifuyu was silent in a gloom, she gripped her dress. "S-Sorry..." Eve felt guilt and regret from her words.

"It's normal, no need to apologize." Chifuyu sighed, "As for your brother, I don't know anything about him, so I couldn't give you an idea why he's acting like that." He sat back down.

"R-Right..." Eve stayed quiet afterwards, while Chifuyu replayed his childhood with his little sister in his head as he dazed to the morning sky.

He found it hard to understand himself now, but he didn't want a sibling when he was two years old, getting upset when his sister was born at that time. He always watched her laying on her mattress with disgust in his eyes, pulling his hand away whenever she reached to touch it, and leaving the room whenever she started to crawl towards him. Chifuyu would play by himself at the yard of his house while his mother was watching him, holding his sister in her arms at the same time.

"Chifuyu, do you want to try and hold your sister?" his mother spoke with her mild voice, giving her son a warm smile.

"No, thanks." Chifuyu refused quicker than she thought, watching him continue his solitary game with confusion in her eyes.

It was like that until Chiyaki turned three years old, Chifuyu just absolutely refuses to be near his sister and would roll his eyes and walk away whenever she approaches him. Chifuyu was five years old when the memorable new year's night took place, the night that changed his relationship with his sister. Chiyaki didn't get him a gift, expressing her affection and her wish to be close to her brother was what she gave him instead, speaking simply but meaningfully with her 3-year-old voice. Chifuyu didn't expect such a gift from her and he decided to stay on his seat when she toddled to him, she plopped into his arms and nuzzled her face in his chest with a big smile on her face, her cuteness and sincerity reached Chifuyu enough to make him smile and wrap his arms around her.

"Maybe having a sibling is not so bad after all," was the thought in his head at that time, and from then on, he grew his love for his sister and decided to protect her, creating memorable moments together. One of the most memorable ones was when Chifuyu was six years old and Chiyaki came crying to him, holding her stuffed bear in her hands.

"Onii-chan...!" her sobs as she approached him, getting her brother's attention from the book he was reading. "Kuma-san, h-his arm came off..." Chiyaki showed Chifuyu her stuffed bear, holding the bear in her left hand and the bear's detached arm in her other hand.

"D-Don't cry, Chiyaki. We can find a way to fix him," Chifuyu puts away his book and hugged his sister, before taking the bear and its arm from her hands. Their parents weren't home at the time, and Chifuyu was deep in his mind when he got an idea. "I can sew it for you, I can use Mom's sewing kit. I know where it is, I can fix Kuma-san for you." Chifuyu told his sister as she stopped crying.

"Onii-chan, you know how to sew?" Chiyaki asked him.

"O-Of course, Mom taught me how to sew just yesterday." Chifuyu blabbered out a lie, but Chiyaki was innocent enough to believe him. "Stay here, you can draw while you wait for me. I'll come back with Kuma-san already fixed for you," Chifuyu pushed a box of crayons and paper to his sister before he stood up and gave his sister a wink.

"Okay!" Chiyaki agreed, then distracted by drawing on the paper with crayons.

"Look, Chiyaki. He's all fixed now," Chifuyu returned a few hours later, hours that Chiyaki didn't notice passed and showed her his work. The stuffed bear's arm was attached back to its body by not-matching yellow threads, but Chiyaki gleamed to express her joy.

"Thank you so much, Onii-chan." Chiyaki took the bear from her brother's hand, but she paused when she noticed Chifuyu's left index finger, middle finger, and thumb were covered in plasters.

"You're welcome, Chiyaki." Chifuyu was quick enough to discern that his sister noticed his injuries, and patted her head with a smile on his face to distract her and he hid his left hand behind his back.

"Mommy, Mommy, look!" Chiyaki ran to her mother when she returned home with her father.

"What is it, sweety?" her graceful mother kneeled down to her daughter's level.

"Look! Onii-chan fixed Kuma-san for me~!" Chiyaki showed her mother her stuffed bear, and her mother looked at the bear to notice the yellow threads that stood out.

"Really?" her mother seemed pleased in the face of her daughter, but her smile turned into concern when Chiyaki ran to her father. "Chifuyu?!" her mother called out for her son.

"Yes?" Chifuyu appeared at the doorway near her, his left hand holding the casing of the doorway. His mother noticed his injuries almost immediately, before Chifuyu hid it behind his back and looked away shamefully. His mother smiled and approached him while her husband was carrying Chiyaki in his arms, then kneeling down in front of her son.

"Let me see your hand," his mother placed her palm in front of him, and Chifuyu placed his left hand on her palm in surrender. "You're the sweetest brother, aren't you, Chifuyu?" his mother gave him a smile, her smile giving Chifuyu relieve and he chuckled shyly.

***

"You're back," Taylor greeted Chifuyu and Eve when they entered the Anderson residence.

"Hey, old man. You got anything for me?" Chifuyu's smug rose on his face.

"There's a bunch that you have to read, so much that you might have to stay over tonight." Taylor told him, knowing the 17-year-old came late.

"Alright, I don't mind." Chifuyu shrugged, entering the office to start his work.

"Hello, Tsuguha-san." Roland greeted Chifuyu when he opened the door to the office, "I will be staying tonight as well, isn't that fun?" Roland gave Chifuyu a fake smile, a smile that silenced Chifuyu in marvelment.

"I suppose..." he wasn't sure of what to reply, taking a folder to start reading it on the couch.

Chifuyu was asleep laying on the couch, with folders of documents he just studied on the floor next to the couch near his dangling arm. It was in the middle of the night when the office door creaked open and Roland stopped next to the couch after shutting the door quietly with a knife in his grip, he glared at Chifuyu before raising the knife above his shoulder. Feeling discomfort, Chifuyu opened his eyes to see the armed man very close to him. He was awake immediately and he caught Roland's wrists before the knife made contact with Chifuyu's chest, abruptly jumping towards Roland to secure him down to the floor and threw the knife aside.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Chifuyu was calm, yet his heart was beating fast since he was caught off guard.

"I have to kill you! I must!!" Roland's shouts woke up both Eve and her father, they rushed down stairs to the office. "You're Japanese! I have to kill you! I was commanded to kill you!" Roland was moving around to break free, but he was unable to fight Chifuyu's strength.

"Commanded?" Chifuyu paused, raising his right palm to Taylor and Eve, telling them to stay where they are without turning his head or using his words. "Were you sent by The Reaper?" his question surprised Taylor, but he remained silent to let Chifuyu continue.

"He threatened me! He said he would ruin my life if I don't kill you!" Roland admitted, "I have no choice! Being in jail is better than The Reaper's punishment! And I acted mean to Eve because I didn't want her to be devastated or disappointed if I go to jail." He sustained his confession.

"What were your conversations with The Reaper? Where did it happen?" Chifuyu continued to question Roland.

"I... I can't tell you that!!" Roland refused, "Just bring me to jail already! Please seal me away! I didn't kill you... He will come for me!! He will come for me!!" he was shouting and hysterical, leaving the other three in marvelment.

Jeffrey had arrived to the house with a prisoner vehicle, Taylor handcuffed his own son and allowed Jeffrey to put Roland in the back of the vehicle with two police officers.

"Luckily it's my late shift, detective." Jeffrey said to Taylor, "What do you want me to do with him?" he asked his senior.

"Secure him in a cell with security, he's one of The Reaper's hired murderers. I will come to question him tomorrow," Taylor replied, "Thanks again, Jeffrey." He thanked the junior detective.

"Anytime, sir." Jeffrey waved as he walked to the car, leaving the house and towards the police office.

"I never expect for Roland to return as The Reaper's hired hitman, and you were his target, a Japanese." Taylor approached Chifuyu, who was standing at the opened doorway with Eve behind him.

"He's the first hitman hired by The Reaper secured, he definitely knows more. The Reaper must've traumatized and threatened the heck out of him, judging from his hysterical behaviour when he failed to do what he was ordered to and how he refused to disclose further information of his experience with The Reaper." Chifuyu was in deep thought, "The Reaper must be a really manipulative and cruel mastermind, to be able to force someone into murder and cause them to have a reaction to that extent." He continued.

"It's similar to Ian Heir how he refused to disclose information, but Ian Heir was not hysterical at all." Taylor added.

"That's because Ian Heir is more of a man who willingly worked for The Reaper, like an acquaintance or a follower." Chifuyu corrected Taylor, "Can you make sure Roland-san is secured in a suit and in a soft cell?" he asked Taylor.

"Why?" Taylor didn't catch his intentions.

"I'm sure he's mentally unstable right now, and I doubt that he won't do anything crazy. I can assume he would make attempts of suicide from the trauma and overwhelming fear, we can't afford to lose our first lead so soon." Chifuyu explained his reasons.

"You're right, I'll give Jeffrey a call." Taylor nodded and entered the house to go to his office.

"He was mean to me because he doesn't want me to be sad when he ends up in prison..." Eve mumbled, "You were right after all, Chifuyu-kun. I'm a horrible sister..." she sighed heavily.

"I don't blame you; his act was out of the ordinary for you." Chifuyu shrugged.

"Will he be okay...?" Eve lifted up her head to meet with Chifuyu's blue eyes.

"I'm sure he will," Chifuyu smiled, patting her head to comfort her. "I just hope his mental health recovers soon, I'm sure we can't question him about The Reaper now because of his current state, I can be sure that would just push him into madness even more." He also sighed.

***