The masked man

Chifuyu and Taylor arrived at another crime scene, where Taylor was somewhat out of breath because he had to force the 17-year-old to come with him earlier that day. It was a murder scene, where the victim was laid down on the floor with stab wounds that showed that he had bled to death and the knife still stabbed into one of the wounds.

"Hey, investigate or something!" Taylor yelled when he noticed his assistant was not doing anything other than leaning against the wall watching him.

"Is my help really necessary...?" Chifuyu rolled his eyes, "Didn't I say I wanted to see you depend on me more less?" he folded his arms as he stopped leaning against the wall.

"Then may I ask why exactly Detective Anderson hired you?" a young woman's voice from behind Chifuyu made him flinch a little, then turning his head to see a young woman with her dark brown hair tied into a high pony tail and she appeared to be around the same age as Jeffrey.

"You are...?" Chifuyu raised a brow, not intimidated by her sharp gaze in the slightest.

"Emma Chase, Senior Officer of Crime Department, Paris Police." The woman introduced herself, showing her badge and ID. Chifuyu just dazed at her badge for a few seconds with a straight face before looking back up to her with a raised brow, his expression saying 'So?'. "You are as arrogant as Detective Anderson said, huh... I just hope you are as intelligent as he said," Emma puts her badge and ID back in her coat as she walked pass Chifuyu.

"You're early as usual, Emma." Taylor welcomed her.

"It's my job to secure a crime scene, sir." Emma nodded her head, "What have you discovered so far?" she asked Taylor as Chifuyu approached the corpse and squatted to look closer. Emma and Taylor dazed at him for a few seconds, his sudden change of state from laziness and arrogance to focused and professional gave them confusion.

"Something finally tickled your interest?" Taylor asked him curiously.

"Can you give me a short summary of this case if you have any, old man?" Chifuyu asked without turning his head.

"'Old man'?" Emma finds his way to address Taylor unacceptable.

"David Adams, 48 years old and was found deceased by his wife 10 hours ago. His wife, Nancy Adams is in the police custody for questioning and treatment for trauma, no suspects so far." Taylor responded, while Emma turned to him with a somewhat shocked-confused expression because the detective seemed to be unbothered by what she found unacceptable.

"Was his wife the one who made the call?" Chifuyu kept his eyes scanning the lifeless man, as he made a gesture asking for rubber gloves.

"Exactly, she called in hysterics in fact." Taylor replied as Chifuyu took the pack of rubber gloves from Taylor's hand.

"This scene is untouched, right?" Chifuyu asked as he puts on the gloves.

"It is, we left it untouched purposefully for investigators to operate easier." Emma responded.

"Cool, it's always great to be the first one to tamper with the scene." Chifuyu gave Emma a smirk, finally turning his head but looked back to the corpse a moment later.

"How could you bear with him...?" Emma asked Taylor in a whisper.

"He might be a little annoying to work with, but he gets the job done quicker and overall better than anyone else I know." Taylor whispered back, his statement somewhat surprised Emma and made her hushed. She watched Chifuyu took the knife out of the wound and examined it in his hand, then he turned his attention to the blood-soaked towel sitting near the sink nearby.

"Is this the murder weapon?" Chifuyu stood up and turned to Taylor, his earring swaying slightly with every movement he makes.

"Yes, it is." Taylor replied as he took a plastic zip-lock bag from his coat, and Chifuyu placed the knife in the evidence bag before taking off his gloves as he walked towards the towel to observe it after bending down. "Have your own suspicions?" Taylor asked Chifuyu as he handed the evidence bag for Emma to hold.

"Yeah," Chifuyu's short calm response made Emma curious as he walked back to Taylor, "Do you have another pair?" he extended his hand.

"Alright, just report to me when you're done." Taylor handed him another pack of rubber gloves, letting him run off to the backyard of the house through the back door nearby.

"Do you ever have any idea what he's up to during investigations?" Emma asked Taylor.

"No," Taylor's response was short, but very clear and genuine. "He's the most silent investigator I ever worked with, but you can tell how focused he is during situations like this, he's the no-nonsense and straight to the point type. I let him do his own thing and stay out of his way, that's just how he investigates. He would find something that interests him, investigate on his own and assure himself beforehand, then report to me the results of his investigation. I always let him finish before questioning him," he explained his experience working with Chifuyu.

"Nice try, murderer." Chifuyu mumbled when he squatted down to the dirt ground of the backyard, a confident smile was on his face when he gazed at a patch of the ground that appeared to have been tampered with.

"He seems to prefer working on his own..." Emma mumbled.

"True," Taylor shrugged, but the two of them paused for a few seconds when they heard digging noises from the backyard through the back door Chifuyu had left opened. Taylor and Emma went to the doorway of the back door to see Chifuyu digging at a part of the backyard, then he put on his gloves and took out a kitchen knife stained with blood and dirt, surprising both Emma and Taylor.

"This is the murder weapon," Chifuyu stood up as he gave the two a smug smile, then approached Taylor as the senior detective took out another zip-lock bag. "Just test DNA samples taken from the knife handle and you'll have the murderer. You can thank me later, old man." Chifuyu placed the knife in the bag as he smirked, then walking pass the officer and the detective as he took off his gloves.

"How did you come to that conclusion?" Taylor asked him.

"First of all, the fabric left on the knife assumed to be the murder weapon didn't match the victim's clothes. But it matched the towel near the sink, as if the murderer wiped blood on the 'murder weapon' purposefully to make it seem like the murder weapon." Chifuyu began to explain, "It was an action to hide DNA evidence on the real murder weapon, including how the murderer buried the real weapon to hide it. Simply put, they're trying to get rid of the traces the murderer left behind to decrease the chances of them getting caught. But as you can see, their efforts aren't enough to pass untraced in my scrutiny." He continued, a small smile appearing on his face at the end of his explanation.

"He noticed that small detail and immediately came to that conclusion...? He's much more conscientious and smarter than I expected..." Emma thought, she was speechless in astonishment.

"Make sense, I'll note that." Taylor accepted the results of his study as Chifuyu turned to walk away.

"Tsuguha," Emma stopped him, "Who is your suspect?" she asked him when he turned his head.

"My suspect?" Chifuyu repeated her question before smirking once again, "Nancy Adams, she would be a fine actress, don't you think?" the confident smirk on his face showed his mysterious nature.

"Are you saying she's the murderer and was acting all this time?" Taylor asked him.

"It was just a wild guess, no need to take it too seriously." Chifuyu lightly sighed as he averted his eyes, "I saw the news on television broadcasting the crime scene when it was found and Nancy Adams was being escorted to a police car that time, of course I fully scanned the woman before she entered the car, and the dirt stain on her elbow gave it away." Chifuyu recalled the footage shown on television, clearly and especially the small dirt stain on the woman's elbow. The confidence in his blue eyes made his statement much more assuring to Taylor, because he knew Chifuyu wouldn't be so confident if he wasn't sure himself.

"Alright, I will set Nancy Adams as a suspect." Taylor nodded, while Emma was still speechless.

"The answer lies in the DNA on the handle of that knife, don't believe me too easily now... She might be just an accomplist," Chifuyu averted his eyes, "Good luck with that, old man, my job's done here." He continued to walk out of the house, leaving Taylor and Emma in the house hushed.

"I've never met such an enigmatic person before," Emma shook her head, breaking the silence. "Allow me to send the DNA evidence to be looked into," she said to Taylor.

"Alright, I'll leave this to you, Emma." Taylor handed the second zip-lock bag to Emma.

"I'm impressed by your subordinate, Detective Anderson, now I understand how the number of solved cases spiked since he began providing his assistance." Emma admitted.

"He never failed to impress me each time as well, Emma." Taylor chuckled.

Chifuyu nearly arrived to the Anderson residence's front door when someone abruptly jumped towards him, hugging him from behind as he heard a little chuckle.

"Hey, Brother Chifuyu~" Eric gave Chifuyu a grin when the 17-year-old turned his head.

"Eric, I didn't expect you here." Chifuyu smiled and ruffled Eric's hair, but Chifuyu quickly grabbed Eric's arm to place him behind his back and he took a few steps backwards.

"Brother Chifuyu?" Eric was confused of Chifuyu's sudden high defensive action, that was when he saw Chifuyu was backing away into the alley next to the Anderson residence building, away from a man across the street. The fully masked man had a pistol aimed at Chifuyu, while Chifuyu had his arms slightly spread to shield Eric behind him. "W-Who is that?" Eric clenched onto Chifuyu's brown jacket, terrified.

"Don't panic," Chifuyu told him calmly with his eyes still focused on the armed man across the street, "Is he another hitman sent to kill me? What is that mask...?" Chifuyu thought, observing the full-face mask the man dressed in all black was wearing from a distance. It was an all-black mask with white scar-like lines on the cheek parts and the number 4 written big and messily in a blood-red colour on the mask.

"W-What do we do?" Eric's voice was trembling, showing his fear while Chifuyu glanced up to see Eve's bedroom window was opened and an idea immediately sparked in his head.

"Tell the girl in the room to hide and lock the window, understand?" Chifuyu grabbed Eric's arm and threw the 15-year-old boy into the bedroom through the opened window, landing on the carpet and shocking Eve in the room.

"W-Who?!" Eve jumped away as Eric lifted his body with his four limbs, the next thing was they heard gunshots from out the window that made the two of them turn their heads.

"No!" Eric stopped Eve from approaching the window, "We have to close it and lock it, that's what Brother Chifuyu told me!" he told Eve quickly.

"Chifuyu-kun?" Eve was surprised he mentioned the boy she is really familiar with.

"We have to hide!" Eric shut and locked the window, then dragging Eve into the other side of the room to stay away from the window.

Chifuyu was dodging bullets as the masked man continued firing, who was crossing the street and towards him at the same time. Chifuyu was unscathed until his breathing abruptly stopped, as if his throat was sealed shut in a split second.

"Shit! Not now!!" Chifuyu cursed in his head as he let out silent wheezes, reaching into his pocket for a small inhaler but it was quickly thrown far out of his hand when the masked man kicked his abdomen. Chifuyu coughed out a small amount of fluid when the masked man threw his pistol aside and took out a pocket knife from his coat, then he kicked Chifuyu against the wall to immobilize him.

"No wonder I'm sent to take care of you, you're such a pain to kill." The masked man spoke with a deep and cold voice while Chifuyu crawled to reach for his inhaler, gasping for air at the same time.

"We have to call the police, Chifuyu-kun might be in danger." Eve told Eric, who had been holding her at the corner of the room.

"O-Okay, where's the telephone?" Eric was hesitant.

"There's one just outside my room, let's go." Eve stood up to run out of her room, followed by Eric.

"You can dodge bullets, you're obviously not a normal Japanese bastard." The masked man was taunting Chifuyu, slowly approaching him with the knife in his hand. Chifuyu's hand was inches away from his inhaler, but the masked man grabbed his leg and pulled him against the other wall in the alley. The hit caused a small cut on the edge of Chifuyu's forehead and blood dripped onto the ground as the masked man launched the knife towards Chifuyu's chest, but Chifuyu fortunately caught the man's arms and kicked the man's stomach to throw him far away from him. "Tsk, this asshole." The man was in pain as he tried to get up, while Chifuyu quickly took his meter dosed inhaler from the ground and quickly inhaled a dose of the medicine to relieve himself.

"It's like fighting while holding my breath..." Chifuyu was panting, as he slowly gained back his strength and turned to face the man as he placed his inhaler back in his trouser pocket. "You're a hitman from The Reaper, aren't you?" Chifuyu clenched his fists and took a stance, ready for combat if the man decided to pounce once more.

"I'll kill you before you can tell anyone, Mister Prodigy Investigator." The masked man responded as he gripped the knife, but police sirens quickly made the two of them pause. "Shit," the masked man cursed as he puts his knife away, then jumped to the roof of the building next to them.

"Wait!!" Chifuyu jumped up after the man, but the masked man had completely vanished and was nowhere to be seen. "He got away..." he clenched his teeth together in annoyance, then jumped down back to the alley to meet with Taylor.

"Tsuguha-kun! Were you attacked again?!" Taylor appeared to be in disbelieve.

"Yeah, another one of The Reaper's hitmen. He dressed kind of weird, and he was very different from the other hitmen hired." Chifuyu wiped the blood from the side of his face, staining the sleeve of his white dress shirt. "He's more aware of his actions and he didn't show any sign of trauma or adrenalin rushed at all, he behaves like Ian Heir." He reported to Taylor.

"I see, it seems The Reaper has more followers that we initially thought." Taylor nodded, "Let's get you patched up first, we can continue this discussion later." He patted Chifuyu's shoulder.

"Alright," Chifuyu agreed and followed the detective into the Anderson residence.

"Brother Chifuyu!" Eric ran to Chifuyu, "Y-You're hurt, are you okay?" he appeared genuinely concerned.

"I'm fine, Eric." Chifuyu sniggered as he ruffled the boy's hair.

"Eric?" Emma rushed when she heard Eric's voice.

"Oh, hi, Sis." Eric waved to his sister, but he was quickly pulled away from Chifuyu by Emma.

"What are you doing here? Do you know him?" she questioned her little brother, giving Chifuyu a sharp look, which the 17-year-old Japanese responded with a smirk that made her grunt in annoyance.

"Come on, why do you not like him? Brother Chifuyu is a nice person," Eric pouted.

"Still, I refuse to let his arrogance and inconsideration of others' feelings contaminate you." Emma hugged her brother.

"I heard you loud and clear, Miss Chase." Chifuyu shrugged as Taylor approached him to treat his wounded arm.

***

Chifuyu stopped on the rooftop of a house to look around, dressed in his Alabaster getup in the late night. He fixed his mask as he smiled, a residence has caught his interest and he excitedly leaped to the window of the house. He fluently pried it open and noiselessly entered a small office that appeared to belong to an officer, which he sneered as he began silently taking the valuables displayed in the dark room into a sack. When he had tied his bag, he took out a small spray can of white paint with the evilest playful smile on his face as he shook the can excitedly.

Eric was awakened by the screams of his sister in the early morning, he quickly jumped up from his bed to run towards the direction the scream came from.

"WHAT THE HECK??!!" was the screams Eric heard as he ran.

"Sis, what's wrong?" Eric arrived within a few seconds, and his jaw opened together with his eyes widening when he saw the big calligraphy of 'So long, sucker!' written big on the red-patterned wall, in the Alabaster's signature white colour with a tongue-out masked face next to it, as if drawing himself.

"Whoa..." Eric was genuinely amazed.

"When I finally catch that bastard one day, I'll teach him a lesson for ruining my wall." Emma was clenching her fists in anger.

"The map! Did he leave a map?!" Eric had something else in his interest, and grabbed the sheet of paper left on the desk in the room. "Sis, can I look for your items for you~?" he turned his sparkling eyes to his sister.

"Eric, is that seriously what you're thinking about right now?" Emma groaned.

"Please! Pretty please~?!" Eric begged in excitement, "It's only 10 items that he took, it won't take long." He told her.

"Did you say 'only'??!!"

"Earlier this morning, was discovered than the Alabaster has taken action again and the Chase residence was where he stole possessions from and hid it somewhere in Paris." The news playing on the television made Taylor nearly choke on his tea, while Eve's mouth opened slightly in surprise.

"Oh, my..." Victor chuckled, enjoying tea and breakfast with Taylor and Eve in front of the television.

"Again...?" Taylor grunted in his head and continued to sip his tea.

"Additionally, the Alabaster appeared to take a 'liking' to this residence since he also left a calligraphy painted with white spray paint in the office of Miss Emma Chase," the image taken of the calligraphy was shown on the news, making Taylor spray out his tea from his mouth.

"D-Dad?!" Eve was surprised of her father's reaction.

"Bonjour~!" Chifuyu opened the living room door with a big smile on his face.

"Tsuguha-kun..." Taylor turned his head to Chifuyu with threatening eyes as his hand gripping his cup trembled in irritation.

"What's with the ogre mode, old man? Is my creation on the news already?" Chifuyu sneered wider and looked to the television.

"Is this revenge or something...?" Eve shook her head.

"Miss Chase is really fun to mess with," Chifuyu responded.

"What about the map? You haven't done that in a while," Victor smiled, "What make you leave one this time?" curiosity was in his voice.

"That was just for Eric to have fun," the 17-year-old shrugged, then Taylor smacked a folder against his chest.

"You're going to work on this today," the detective was still in ogre mode, since he believed Chifuyu had quit causing trouble as such.

"Okay, calm down. You're scaring me, old man..." Chifuyu's tone of voice says otherwise, but he took the folder and opened it for him to read. "A murder two weeks ago with no suspects? You really are mad at me, huh, le vieillard?" he grunted lightly at Taylor.

"Shut up and read it already, I had already intended to give you that case in the first place." Taylor snarled slightly, and Chifuyu just rolled his eyes before continuing his read.

"Is the crime scene still available? I want to go take a look myself," Chifuyu broke the silence a few moments later as he closes the folder, while Taylor finished his tea and food.

"Of course, let's get moving then." Taylor stood up, followed by Chifuyu. "See you later, Eve, Victor." He waved to Eve and Victor, then left the house with Chifuyu.

"I'm wondering, why not give in more effort to solve these crimes? Or look for other intelligent youngsters to help you?" Chifuyu asked Taylor as they rode a carriage pulled by a horse.

"It's not part of my job to hire, you're not even an official member of the Paris Police Investigation Department, you're someone I hired personally." Taylor responded, "Besides, having you is already more than enough for me." he added.

"Will I ever be freed from this 'job'?" Chifuyu looked out the window, leaning the side of his head as he dazed.

"Are you telling me you hated helping me this whole time?" Taylor slightly grunted.

"Don't jump into conclusions, old man." Chifuyu somehow stopped himself from rolling his eyes, "I honestly enjoyed working with you, but like I said before; I want to see you raise the number of solved cases without my help." He said without changing the focus of his daze.

"Having your keen eyes and incredible observation skills are really nice to have when solving crimes, especially murder cases. Added with your intelligence and knowledge about places in Paris, you can easily explore and it ends the case much quicker." Taylor explained, "You can let me know when you're tired of it, then I will go look for another assistant. But for now, stay a little longer, okay?" he added, but Chifuyu was unfazed and kept his eyes staring out of the window.

"Fine..." was the response he uttered a few silent moments later.

"Here we are," Taylor said when they jumped out of the carriage, arriving in front of a police taped house.

"This house is smaller than I thought," Chifuyu muttered as the carriage left the area, and he entered the house with Taylor as his guide. He started his observation by kneeling down on the big blood-stain left by the recovered body, it was almost instantly when he saw some strands of hair soaked and completely covered in dried blood, nearly impossible to see. He puts on a pair of gloves to take the strands from the floor, putting it close to his face for him to see. "Cat hair...?" he thought with a raised brow.

"Are you okay?" Taylor noticed Chifuyu appeared to be confused.

"Does Vera Stevens have pets?" Chifuyu asked the detective back, he was rubbing the stain off of the cat hair to reveal the fur's ginger colour.

"Yeah, she has a pet turtle." Taylor responded, slightly confused.

"Welp, that's not what I expected..." Chifuyu had a small smile on his face, then he puts the strands of cat hair into a small zip-lock bag to put in his pocket. "J'ai fini ici, I want to check outside." Chifuyu stood up and gave Taylor a grin.

"A-Already??" Taylor was not expecting him to be done so quick, but followed him outside anyways without asking him.

"Detective Anderson!" a man was waving from the porch of his house.

"Hello, Mr. Kimberly." Taylor approached the man, stopping at the porch.

"Still investigating Miss Stevens's murder, huh?" the man sighed, "Who is this young Japanese kid?" he asked when Chifuyu stopped behind Taylor.

"He's my subordinate," Taylor responded, "This is Ted Kimberly, a neighbour of Vera Stevens." He introduced the man to Chifuyu.

"A pleasure to meet you, sir." Chifuyu puts up a friendly smile.

"I think I've heard about you before; I've heard about your intelligence and excellency in crime solving. Maybe the Japanese are smarter than we think, no?" Ted chuckled at the end.

"I don't think I believe so, it's just that wits such as mine are rare to come by." Chifuyu smirked.

"Maybe your level of over-confidence is rare to come by, Tsuguha-kun..." Taylor rolled his eyes as he grunted, then they heard a meow from a ginger cat that walked out of the opened door to the house and rubbed against Ted's leg.

"Adorable, what's his name?" Chifuyu kneeled down to pet the cat.

"Thumper, because he likes to thump at his toys since he was a kitten." Ted chuckled.

"I see," Chifuyu had a sly smirk on his face, quietly glancing to the man's pants to see cat hair stuck on it. Chifuyu played with Thumper's fur that had shed to his hand, his smirk widened a moment later without Taylor or Ted noticing. "Hey, old man, when will Jeffrey come?" he stood up with a smile, his hands in the pocket of his jacket as he showed a relaxed body language.

"Jeffrey? What are you talking about?" Taylor raised a brow; he doesn't remember planning to have Jeffrey come to the scene.

"Doesn't Jeffrey always come to arrest a suspect?" Chifuyu's smile turned into a smirk, that made Taylor quickly understand his intentions. Ted also was quick enough to understand Chifuyu's intentions, immediately attempting to flee by running towards the street, but Chifuyu stopped him with a kick and held him down against the ground by locking his arm behind the man's back. "Since you've heard of my excellence, you should've known you'll be caught as soon as I step foot into the crime scene, don't you think?" Chifuyu whispered to Ted's ear coldly, his deep blue eyes were no exception.

"Putain, I... underestimated you..." Ted was irritated, then Chifuyu saw tension and movement in his mouth.

"Jeffrey's on his way-" Taylor just finished making a call when Chifuyu abruptly lifted Ted to punch his abdomen, knocking him out when Taylor was approaching them.

"J'ai dû, he was biting his own tongue." Chifuyu quickly said to Taylor as he handcuffed the man.

"Hm, you seem to enjoy taunting your suspects. Knowing they couldn't escape from you in any way," Taylor had a small smile on his face, knowing how confident Chifuyu is in his speed and abilities, not that he could deny it himself. "What made you sure that Ted was the murderer?" Taylor was curious, and Chifuyu handed him the zip-lock containing the strands of blood-stained cat hair from the crime scene.

"It's all thanks to this little fellow," Chifuyu picked up friendly Thumper when the cat rubbed against his leg, petting him in his arms.

"Cat hair..." Taylor was astonished.

"It was the same length and colour as Thumper's fur, I'm able to confirm it since Mr. Kimberly made a mistake of allowing me to pet his cat." Chifuyu had a smug smile on his face.

"Just how sharp are your eyes, Tsuguha-kun...?" Taylor sighed in amazement, as the sounds of police cars was heard coming from a distance.

***