The secret admirer

"The second semester is starting..." Eve sighed as she was tidying her books in her room, while Chifuyu was sitting on the stool of her opened bedroom window with his back leaning against the window's casing and Maru in his lap.

"Of school?" Chifuyu asked her as she puts a few books into her bag, "Oh, right. Last few months was mid-year holidays," Chifuyu remembered, as his ferret climbed to sit on his shoulder.

"Yeah, don't you go to school?" Eve asked him curiously.

"Nope, it's too primitive for me." Chifuyu smirked.

"Alright, alright, Mister Crime Investigator." Eve rolled her eyes, "Well, I'm going to start the first day of the second semester tomorrow." She said as she placed her bag in front of the footboard of her bed.

"Which school do you attend?" Chifuyu asked her, as Maru let out a small squeak.

"Ly Condorcet," Eve replied.

"I see..." Chifuyu mumbled as he stepped his feet to the stool of the window he was sitting on, "Well, got to go now, au revoir." Chifuyu raised his two fingers.

"Au revoir, Chifuyu-kun." Eve waved back to him before he left the window, then sprinting out of sight.

***

Chifuyu stepped into Taylor's office, yawning and threw himself onto the sofa to let out a sigh, ignoring the senior investigator and his junior in the room.

"What's up with you?" Jeffrey had a slight annoyance in his voice.

"A neighbour's baby kept me up all night..." Chifuyu had his face buried in a pillow on the sofa, making his voice slightly difficult to hear.

"Tsuguha-kun, did you hear about the murder that happened last night?" Taylor stood up from his chair to approach Chifuyu, and Chifuyu turned his body around to face upwards.

"Yeah, I'm speculating it's The Reaper's doing." Chifuyu said, before sitting down and leaning his back on the backrest of the sofa.

"I think so too," Jeffrey agreed by nodding his head.

"The victims are Japanese immigrants, Toyoharu Mitsuba and his wife, Toyoharu Ranko." Taylor began to repeat the key information broadcasted on the radio, "Jeffrey and I already investigated the crime scene, the murder weapon was a knife and we already taken the DNA in for testing. We might need to wait for the results to find who did this, who was hired by The Reaper to murder the couple." He added.

"The crime took place around the train station, right?" Chifuyu's fatigue seemed to have faded away.

"That's right," Taylor nodded and Chifuyu stood up to stretch his arms above his head.

"Alright then, I shall perform my own investigation." Chifuyu said, and left the room.

"He's really invested in The Reaper, is he?" Jeffrey was marvelled.

"I'm not surprised, he is a victim of The Reaper after all." Taylor sighed, while Chifuyu made his way to the train station by his high-platform route.

"Eve~!" Charlotte waved her hand high above her head, waving to Eve who just jumped out of a carriage in front of the high school.

"Good morning, Charlotte." Eve approached her friend.

"Charlotte just read the board... We're in different classes..." Charlotte suddenly sobbed.

"Wait, really?" Eve was surprised and sad herself, "Aww, that's too bad..." she sighed heavily, when she noticed a boy walking pass her with anxiety and restlessness written all over his face.

"Excuse me, do you perchance witnessed the murder that occurred here last night?" Chifuyu was busy asking the homeless people around the station.

"No, I didn't..." the old man Chifuyu questioned shook his head, "But Madame Juno told me she did, you can try asking her." The old man pointed to a woman across the street, who seemed to be in discomfort.

"Thank you, sir." Chifuyu thanked the old man with a bow, "Oh, right. Here, why not get yourself some new clothes and something to eat?" he took a few hundred euros from his pocket and handed it to the old man with a smile.

"Oh, my goodness, thank you very much, lad." The old man was touched, accepting Chifuyu's gift with a smile. "You're a Japanese, be careful and take care of yourself, lad." The old man patted Chifuyu's shoulder.

"You too, sir." Chifuyu nodded, before leaving to approach the woman the old man pointed to. "Excuse me, do you perchance witnessed the murder that occurred here last night?" he asked the woman politely.

"A Japanese...?" the woman seemed slightly surprised, "Are you the victims' family member?" she asked him.

"No, madame. I am an investigator consultant working for Senior Investigator Taylor Anderson of Paris Police, I was informed you are a witness and I wanted to ask you a few simple questions." Chifuyu shook his head with a smile and introduced himself politely.

"They better be, the officers that questioned me last night said the same thing but their questions gave me a headache." Madame Juno sighed, "Alright, what would you like to know, young man?" she sat down on the bench near her.

"My questions aim to identify the murderer, are you able to give me a description of the murderer if you saw them?" Chifuyu was straight to the point, no-nonsense with his eyes focused on the woman's face.

"I did indeed see the murderer; he was a young lad around your age, he had blonde hair and brown eyes. He was wearing all black from top to bottom and he was wearing a face mask," Madame Juno began to describe the killer to Chifuyu, "I don't really see his face clearly, but I remember had a scar on his left palm and he had a scar right here too." She continued and drew a line with her index finger on her left eyebrow.

"A young man, blonde hair, brown eyes, and a scar on his left eyebrow." Chifuyu repeated the woman's description before smiling, "Thank you very much for your cooperation, Madame Juno. Please take this and take care of yourself," he thanked the woman and handed her a few hundred euros that he took from his pocket.

"Goodness, you really don't need to, monsieur." Madame Juno was hesitant but accepted his gift, "Please be careful, there's danger to the Japanese here." She reminded him.

"I'm aware, madame. Thank you," Chifuyu bowed, before he left the area.

"At least that young investigator is a man of his words..." Madame Juno smiled as he watched him run out of sight.

"Hello, this is Taylor Anderson, Senior Investigator of Paris Police Investigation Department." Taylor answered a call as he remained sitting on his desk.

"Hey, old man, can you give me a ride?" a familiar mischievous voice made Taylor began mentally complaining.

"I'm an investigator, not a driver for hire!" Taylor grumbled, and Jeffrey turned to him in curiosity.

"Don't you get it? I want you to be at the location of my investigation, in case I found the murderer and needed them to be arrested immediately." Chifuyu's voice somewhat begging, but the mockery in his voice was more powerful.

"Then why didn't you say so in the beginning?" Taylor sighed in protest.

"Oh, I should've said that first, huh?" Taylor could feel Chifuyu's smirk just from his voice, making him clench his fist and his lower right eyelid twitched in frustration.

"Whatever, tell me where you are and I'll pick you up." Taylor asked him reluctantly, with his teeth sealed shut. "Alright, stay where you are, I'll be there soon." Taylor grunted after Chifuyu told him his location, and the senior investigator lightly slammed the phone back on its box.

"Is it Tsuguha?" Jeffrey could distinguish who the caller was just from Taylor's reaction and attitude.

"Who else makes stupid phone calls than that runt himself?" Taylor stood up from his chair and took his coat, "Let's go, we have an acquaintance to assist." Taylor said to Jeffrey sarcastically, and Jeffrey just sighed as he followed Taylor to the police car outside the house.

The fidgeting and anxious boy ended up in the same class as Eve, she doesn't know him but was curious why he was behaving like that. She just watched him from her table that is not far behind him, but her daze broke when she saw Chifuyu stopping in the hallway through the classroom's see-through glass barrier.

"Chifuyu-kun??!!!" Eve froze and screamed in her head in shock when she saw him, their eyes met and Chifuyu simply gave her a smirk. "What is he doing here???" Eve mumbled, deep in her bewilderment before Chifuyu slid open the door.

"Please pardon my interruption," Chifuyu smiled to the teacher as the students turned their attention to him.

"A Japanese?"

"Who is he?"

"I think I've seen him before," the students were whispering to each other as Chifuyu walked and stopped next to the teacher.

"I am an investigator working for Senior Investigator Taylor Anderson of Paris Police," Chifuyu introduced himself without giving his name, "I'm here to perform a small investigation, I am expecting your cooperation, students." He smiled, his statements making the anxious boy flinch and began to panic inside.

"How long will your investigation take?" the teacher asked Chifuyu.

"I already have descriptions of my target in mind, this won't take long." Chifuyu smiled confidently to the teacher, before stepping to a young blonde boy. "Can you give me your left hand?" he asked with a smile.

"O-Oh, okay." The boy just does what he asked, giving him his left hand for Chifuyu to inspect the palm.

"W-What should I do...? He knows for sure!" the anxious boy was deep in his own fearful thoughts, watching Chifuyu do the exact same inspection to other blonde boys in the room, increasingly anxious each time.

"Hello there, can you give me your hand?" Chifuyu broke the anxious boy's daze with his smirk.

"S-Sure," the boy had cold sweat running down the side of his face, he glanced out the opened window next to him to see a police car with Taylor and Jeffrey standing in front of, making him the more in silent panic as Chifuyu grabbed his left hand to inspect his palm. There was definitely a scar on the boy's left palm and Chifuyu stole a glance to see that the boy did in fact have a scar on his left eyebrow, Chifuyu could feel the boy's immense anxiety and guilt, assuring him that he is the culprit before Chifuyu moved away with a smile on his face.

"Thank you for your cooperation," Chifuyu thanked him with a smile, in hopes to not panic the boy further. "My investigation is done," he turned around to the teacher.

"Already?" Eve mumbled in confusion, she had been watching him walk around the classroom and had noticed he had a distinct interest towards the anxious boy.

"Alright, is there anything else?" the teacher asked Chifuyu as he started walking to the front.

"No, there's nothing else." The anxious boy turned to the opened window as Chifuyu responded, then stepping to the window and moved his body outside, and Chifuyu immediately noticed his abrupt action. "Hey!!" Chifuyu ran back to the boy, but the boy had leaped and Chifuyu didn't make it in time to secure him, resulting in the boy falling to his death from 100 feet.

"What the-?!" Eve was shocked, along with the other students and the teacher while Chifuyu was looking down from the window to see the pool of blood where the boy was laid lifelessly on.

"Tch!" Chifuyu ran out of the classroom to go to the lifeless body, the boy's suicide was unexpected.

"He killed himself?!" Jeffrey followed Taylor to the body, and Taylor checked for the boy's pulse when Chifuyu arrived.

"He's gone," Taylor shook his head as he stood up, "He's definitely someone hired by The Reaper for the Toyoharu couple's murder, his behaviour definitely showed mental instability and trauma, not far different from Roland." He turned to Chifuyu and Jeffrey.

"He must've known Roland was caught and The Reaper must've told something about it to him, maybe also manipulating him and traumatizing him to an extent where he could commit suicide. Knowing he's cornered, he decided to end his own life than having to go through whatever consequence The Reaper had told he would have to go through if he was ever caught. Just like Roland, the thought of The Reaper coming for him wherever he would end up being must've haunted him." Chifuyu spoke out his thoughts on the situation.

"This just reminds me how crazy of a mastermind The Reaper is," Jeffrey folded his arms, shaking his head.

"Luckily we had secured Roland in a soft cell and away from possibilities of suicide..." Taylor sighed.

"I'll call a team to clear the scene..." Jeffrey ruffled his own hair as he walked back to the car, that's when Taylor noticed Chifuyu was intently staring at the dead body.

"What's wrong, Tsuguha-kun?" Taylor asked Chifuyu as the teenager bent down to move closer to the corpse's arm, touching a small part of the skin to make what he saw clearer.

"A needle mark," Chifuyu said when he had assured himself.

"There's a needle mark?!" Taylor expressed his surprise as Chifuyu lift his upper body back up.

"He could've used some sort of adrenalin drug to make himself so crazy, added with his trauma, it led him to kill himself." Chifuyu spoke his thoughts aloud.

"I've been thinking about this since we secured my son, Roland; from the behaviour the hitmen are showing, it's pretty much like they're victims as well, no?" Taylor sighed heavily.

"I agree," Chifuyu nodded, "Now that I think about it, the man who was sent to kill my family also behaved unusually crazy, similar to this boy's craze that's caused by immense adrenalin." He was recalling how maniac the murderer of his family was, then Chifuyu shook his head to get the bad memories away.

"I got his name, Stephon Jacob; 17 years old and is living in a small residence with his grandparents. Known to be outgoing and kind by his friends before this event, pretty much likeable and a normal high schooler, until he was hired by The Reaper that is." Jeffrey returned to Chifuyu and Taylor as he stated the information he just received, "I will be adding him to the list of known hitmen hired by The Reaper, updating the case files to be exact." Jeffrey was writing down on his memo pad.

"Let me do that," Taylor told Jeffrey.

"As you wish, sir. Here's the information I received from speaking with his teacher and friends," Jeffrey nodded and ripped the paper from his memo pad, handing it to Taylor for the senior detective to keep in his pocket.

"That was quick, Jeffrey." Chifuyu slightly lowered his eyelids.

"I don't like standing around doing nothing, Tsuguha, so I went to gather the necessary information." Jeffrey gave him a sharp look, "I hope you are not doing nothing yourself, Mister Personality." He squinted his eyes further.

"Think all you want, Jerry." Chifuyu rolled his eyes.

"Stop calling me that! You just spoke my name right a second ago!" Jeffrey clenched his fists in annoyance as he grumbled, holding his urge to punch the Japanese teenager.

"Now, now, you two..." Taylor was starting to get tired of the young ones' arguments, as more police cars and ambulances arrived at the school gate.

Eve was dragging her feet home, using so little strength to each step until she made it back to the Anderson residence. Then repeating the same steps up the stairs to her bedroom, where she found Chifuyu sitting on the carpet with his back leaning against the footboard of her bed and a file in his hand, turning his attention to her when she opened the door.

"You're back earlier than I thought," Chifuyu welcomed her as she placed her bag next to her bed.

"Because of what happened, all of us were sent home early." Eve responded before throwing herself onto her bed face down, Chifuyu dazed at her with curiosity in his blue eyes before he placed down the folder in his hand and crawling onto her bed to sit next to her head.

"Was the walk back that tiring? Is that why you're acting like this?" Chifuyu asked her as he played with her hair.

"No..." Eve finally rested her head on its side, watching Chifuyu play with her hair with fatigue in her emerald eyes. "I'll just say that... curiosity killed the cat..." she let out a heavy sigh, and Chifuyu immediately understood what she meant.

"Of course, you're not used to seeing corpses. Your curiosity is overwhelming, and I could see that it is to you too." Chifuyu sighed, "Why not sleep?" he asked her as she pushed her body up to sit down.

"I have homework to do, and it's mathematics also…" Eve pursed her lips, "I'll finish it, then maybe I could take a nap after." She reached to her bag.

Eve was sitting on the carpet with Chifuyu, the Japanese teenager always rested his back against the footboard of Eve's bed, while Eve was sitting beside him busy with her notebook. She would scribble and make paper balls in frustration, sometimes throwing them at Chifuyu, but Eve thinks Chifuyu was patient enough to remain quiet with attention still focused on the file he was reading, while in reality, Chifuyu was getting sleepy as the night approaches.

"Chifuyu-kun, help me..." Eve whined as she tugged on Chifuyu's sleeve, waking him up slightly.

"Hm? Which one?" Chifuyu leans closer to look into her notebook with tired eyes.

"It's this one..." Eve pointed her pencil to a question, Chifuyu took the pencil out of her hand to start scribbling on her paper, half-awake but finished the question in just two minutes.

"There you go," Chifuyu placed down his folder.

"You're amazing, Chifuyu-kun..." Eve sighed heavily as she admitted.

"How come...?" Chifuyu asked with a drowsy voice before yawning.

"You're one of those extraordinary people called 'prodigies'..." Eve responded, "School is useless for you, huh... You're already solving cases like a professional in a just few months since starting, while I'm here struggling with a math homework..." she added before burying her face onto the surface of her notebook, while Chifuyu laid down on the carpet.

"I'm going to sleep for a bit, just wake me up if you need anything." His increasing drowsiness was shown in his voice.

"Go rest up on my bed, don't sleep on the carpet; it's cold." Eve shook his waist.

"Okay..." Chifuyu climbed onto the bed and laid down to sleep as soon as she finished her suggestion.

"He's obedient like a dog when he's sleepy..." Eve thought as she dazed at him sleep for a few moments, "His weakness perhaps? I don't know..." she shrugged and continued her work.

"Eve," Taylor knocked and opened the door.

"Dad?" Eve lifted up her head from her notebook.

"I was wondering where these are, this kid..." Her father sighed and took the folders from the floor, "Why won't you tell me if you're taking some to read, I'll end up looking for them." He said as he glanced to Chifuyu sleeping on the bed, then opening the folders with slight surprise each time he opened one to read quickly.

"What's wrong?" Eve tilted her head, and her father smiled in pleasure.

"The notes he left never failed to amaze me, his way of thinking is always so interesting." Taylor had a proud smile on his face as he took a small piece of ripped paper from an opened folder in his hand, before putting it back in and closed the folders shut. "Don't push yourself to an unnecessary time, Eve, good night." Taylor smiled to his daughter.

"You too, Dad." Eve smiled back before her father shut the door, and she turned back to her notebook to continue her work.

"Damn it, I overslept..." A few hours have passed and Chifuyu's half-awake voice broke the silence in the room, he sat down to rub his eyes and noticed Eve was asleep on the sofa in the room. He took a few deep breaths to wake himself up and rose from the bed to squat down at the carpet, then rolling his eyes as he made a complaint-filled noise when he noticed somethings were missing. "That old man..." Chifuyu sighed and left the room to walk down the stairs towards Taylor's office, opening the door and turned on the lights to instantly freeze along with the figure before him in the office.

"Ah-" the figure remained still facing Chifuyu, it was a boy younger than Chifuyu, dressed in a white Victorian cloak and his face disguised by a mask similar to the Alabaster's.

"Huh...?" Chifuyu slightly tilted his head, filled with confusion when the boy suddenly decided to kick open the window.

"So long, sucker!" the boy's voice filled the silence of the room as he lifted his two fingers, making the same gesture as the Alabaster before jumping out the window. But he was unable to jump up to the roof, smacking his front body against the wall of the building instead.

"Ee...?" Chifuyu's shock was replaced by genuine disappointment, sighing in hopeless Japanese as he watched the little boy repeatedly trying to jump but failing each time. "At least there should be one capable knock-off version of me, right...?" Chifuyu mumbled as he walked towards the boy, leaning sideways against the opened window casing as the boy stopped surrendered by stopping his attempts.

"Um..." the boy didn't have the guts to turn his head.

"You didn't take anything important from here, did you?" Chifuyu made him flinch.

"Huh?" the boy slowly turned his head, showing his hesitation.

"This is a senior investigator's office; many files of unsolved cases are in here." Chifuyu told him calmly, "Better break in somewhere else, kid. Avoid any properties owned by the police, especially because of your lacking in abilities to escape as effortlessly as the Alabaster himself." He lectured the young boy with a straight face.

"I-I just got here a minute ago... I didn't take anything, I'm sorry for bothering you." The boy bowed, "Wait, aren't you the young prodigy investigator working for Taylor Anderson?" he just realized, remembering that the investigator was rumoured to be Japanese.

"You should've known from the start, kid, this the Anderson residence. And yes, I am the one working for the old man." Chifuyu shook his head before smiling when he nodded his head in agreement, "Hey, what's your name?" he asked the boy, actually amazed he had people that admired him enough to do what he does.

"Y-You're not going to send me to jail, are you?" the boy was hesitant.

"That's not part of my job, don't worry about it." Chifuyu smiled, assuring the boy.

"My name is Eric, Eric Chase." The boy removed his mask, showing Chifuyu his youthful face.

"Eric, huh? How old are you?" Chifuyu sat down on the stool of the opened window.

"I'm 15," Eric responded, holding his mask in his hands.

"Well, the Alabaster did start doing his mischief around your age, how long have you been doing this?" Chifuyu had taken interest in the kid.

"Only for a month,"

"Any successful break-ins so far?"

"No..." Eric shook his head in disappointment.

"Do you admire the Alabaster that much?" Chifuyu raised a brow to show his curiosity.

"Of course! The Alabaster is amazing and he's super cool~!" Eric suddenly gleamed, showing his genuine admiration. "He robs houses and spread their possessions around Paris, and he donated the money he robbed to orphanages if he broke into an unkind person's house. It always amazes me that the police never caught him, even my sister couldn't." he continued passionately.

"Your sister?" Chifuyu tilted his head.

"Yeah, Emma Chase is my older sister. She told me about how she always lost the Alabaster whenever she was chasing him, and she would always roll her eyes whenever I say 'of course you can't catch him, he's the Alabaster!' he-he..." Eric scratched his hair in the end.

"She chased me before? I couldn't tell which, many female police officers have hurtled me in the past 2 years..." Chifuyu thought but shook his head eventually, "Hm, never heard of her." Chifuyu shrugged.

"Never? But she's always at a crime scene,"

"I don't really to go the scene myself too often, I usually finish cold cases or come a few days after when it's a lot quitter to concentrate better. Getting the opportunity to work with me is really scarce, you know? I've only worked with Jeffrey and the old man so far," Chifuyu responded, giving Eric a smug at the end. "Why don't you go home, Eric? It's getting late, even the Alabaster goes to bed at this time." He added, patting the boy's shoulder.

"I guess you're right..." Eric sighed, but he froze a second later. "Wait! That earring!" Eric pointed his finger at Chifuyu's silver chain earring.

"W-What about it?" Chifuyu reached to cover his earring with his left hand.

"I remember that earring, only owned by one person in Paris! You're the Alabaster, aren't you?!" Eric gleamed in excitement, but Chifuyu quickly covered his mouth.

"Cool it... You're going to wake up the whole neighbourhood," he gave Eric a sharp gaze before pulling his hand back, "Keep it a secret, okay? Only very few people know I'm the Alabaster," Chifuyu sighed.

"Yes, sir!" Eric saluted.

"Once again... my earring gave it away... Maybe it's noticeable by hardcore fans like him," Chifuyu thought as he averted his eyes, "This earring is special to me, can't really take it off just to not blow my cover..." he rubbed his earring with his index and thumb.

"No wonder you were so relaxed about the issue just now, the Alabaster wouldn't mind his fans, wouldn't he?" Eric was ecstatic, "I promise I won't tell anyone about this, as a fan of the most awesome person ever!" Eric clenched his right fist in front of his chest, with his sparkling eyes making Chifuyu smile.

"Thanks, Eric." Chifuyu chuckled as Eric sat down next to him.

"Who would've guessed the Alabaster is a Japanese prodigy investigator at the same time, that just makes you much more awesome." Eric smiled as he looked down to his swaying legs.

"You like the Japanese?" Chifuyu was curious.

"Yep, I've read about samurais and they're so cool. They're definitely not someone you can mess with," Eric grinned.

"Well, what do you know? My father was a professional samurai," Chifuyu had a confident smile on his face.

"No way! Does that mean you're a samurai too?" Eric gleamed once again.

"Technically; yes, but I was never officially crowned as one since my father was my teacher." Chifuyu tilted his head, ending his statement with a small shrug.

"Now you're 10 times more awesome, wow..." Eric sighed in marvelment, "Hey, can I know your name? Do you mind?" he turned back to Chifuyu with hopeful eyes.

"Just call me Chifuyu," Chifuyu smiled, feeling Eric's genuine admiration for him.

"Master Chifuyu it is~" Eric nodded his head with a big smile on his face.

"What...?" Chifuyu was caught off guard by his decision on his nickname, just like how he did with Lucas.

"Hehe, just kidding. Won't want to blow your cover, right?" Eric jumped down to land on the ground as he chuckled, "Can I call you Brother Chifuyu?" he asked again.

"Fine with me," Chifuyu smiled again.

"Well, nice meeting you, Brother Chifuyu~ I'll head home now," Eric waved as he began to walk out of the alley.

"Feel free to come again, Eric. Properly though," Chifuyu gave Eric a smirk.

"He-he, got it. Au revoir, Brother Chifuyu~!" Eric chuckled and waved again, then sprinting away joyfully after Chifuyu waved back.

"What a good kid..." was the words he mumbled before shutting the windows, then continuing doing his job as Taylor's assistant.

***