"Fuyuchi~!" Lucas's energetic voice made Chifuyu flinch on his walk, "Do you want to accompany me to the bar?" he stopped Chifuyu from walking home in the evening by throwing his arm around his neck.
"What for?" Chifuyu showed reluctance in his voice.
"I just want to try talking to my mom," Lucas made him pause, "Please, can you be there with me...?" his tone was somewhat begging.
"Alright, but don't take too long." Chifuyu surrendered, and he entered the bar with Lucas when they arrived. The woman was sitting at the same place, but was hanging out with different men when Lucas approached her and Chifuyu sat down at on the seat furthest away from them but closest to the door.
"H-Hey," Lucas waved doubtfully to get the woman's attention.
"Ugh, you again." The woman rolled her eyes, "Listen up, brat. I don't want you in my sight anymore, you make me sick. Stop thinking I'm your mother, because I'm not. Why would I be a mother to a disgrace like you?" her words were loud enough for Chifuyu to hear.
"Who is this brat?" a drunk man asked the woman.
"Just someone claiming I am their mother, but you know I abort every child I was pregnant with." The woman folded her arms.
"Please... I just want to talk," Lucas was trying his best, "I'm not mad that you abandoned me, I never once did. Please, I just wanted to ask you about-"
"Get lost, right now! Don't ever come again!" the woman screamed, as Lucas felt a hand gently grabbing his shoulder.
"Fuyuchi...?" Lucas was confused of the cold expression on Chifuyu's face, he pushed Lucas behind and stepped forward to slap the woman, leaving a red mark on her cheek that is now slightly bruised.
"W-What the hell?!" the woman stepped back.
"What are you doing, bastard?!"
"Who do you think you are, you piece of shit?!" the men with her stood up from their chairs, but Chifuyu silenced them and made them freeze by launching his pocket knife in a speed that made his action hardly seen, leaving a small cut on the cheek of the man closest to him.
"Who do you think I am?" Chifuyu's cold voice scared Lucas and everyone in the bar, leaving them holding their breath and still as stone as Chifuyu lowered his knife.
"W-What is a Japanese doing here?"
"Are Japanese people this scary?"
"Isn't he the prodigy investigator working for Detective Anderson?" were the thoughts of the people in the bar.
"Nobody talks about my friend like that, you can't talk crap about him when you're shit yourself." Chifuyu was death staring the woman, "You're far out of his league, it's already stupid of him to go begging to a whore like you. You're disgusting and despicable, good bye." He grabbed Lucas's arm when he finished, walking out of the bar in heavy-irritated steps with Lucas dragged behind him.
"F-Fuyuchi...?" Lucas was bewildered, and Chifuyu stopped soon after.
"You're seriously an idiot," Chifuyu sniggered to his friend, giving him the biggest relieve. "It's nice to curse once in a while, I finally poured out my contained anger." He stretched his arms above his head as he chuckled.
"Thanks, Fuyuchi, I'm happy to have a friend that will stand up and get angry for me." Lucas smiled, touched by Chifuyu's action once again.
"Seriously, you got to stop going back to her, she's disgusting." Chifuyu pouted.
"I would stop if I can, but I really need answers from her, I've been trying for a long time now." Lucas scratched his hair.
"Are you looking for something?" Chifuyu tilted his head, his silver earring swayed.
"It's someone, a twin sibling." Lucas responded and Chifuyu raised his brows in curiosity, "I was told by Madame Lucy that my mother came to the orphanage with twin babies, only leaving me at the orphanage and left with the other. There's no clue what she did with my twin, either she kept them or dumped them somewhere else. I just want to find them and meet them, they're my other half, you know?" Lucas admitted, genuinely sad.
"Lucas, you don't even know if they're alive or not. That woman could've thrown your twin into a dumpster and they could've died of asphyxiation," Chifuyu told him.
"That's why I want answers from her, Fuyuchi!" Lucas clenched his fists, "I know my mother is evil, but I don't think she's that heartless..." he said.
"Fine, I'll give you a hand." Chifuyu sighed.
"Huh?" Lucas lifted his head in surprise.
"Leave it to me and stay out of it, I don't want you anywhere near that woman." Chifuyu told him, Lucas was dumbfounded for a few seconds before smiling under the streetlights.
"D'accord," he grinned wider.
"You better," Chifuyu grunted with his upper lip lifted, just a moment before a bullet shot through Lucas's shoulder. Lucas fell unconscious onto the ground and Chifuyu saw a tranquilizer injected to Lucas's back, "A tranquilizer?" he muttered, before dodging bullets and grabbed Lucas to drag him into an alley to hide.
"Come out, Tsuguha Chifuyu!" a man's voice called out to him.
"Who the hell?!" Chifuyu was holding Lucas tightly in his arms, deep in focus as he stopped his bleeding by tying his handkerchief.
"If you come out, I will leave your friend alone!" the strong voice shouted, then Chifuyu after placing Lucas properly in the alley before he stepped out of the alley rapidly to see a familiar appearing figure gripping pistols from a distance. The stranger was dressed in black from head to toe, with an all-black mask and a massive number 4 painted messily on the mask in crimson paint. His appearance and figure were different than the previous one that attacked Chifuyu, his observations tell him that this assassin is naiver than the previous one.
"You're a hitman hired by The Reaper, aren't you?" Chifuyu decided to attempt mild questioning.
"I am no hitman, those who are dressed like me are The Reaper's faithful followers, we are known as The Reaper's Harvesters." The masked man responded, "We Harvesters are considered more as assassins, we satisfy our lord's hunger, which is his hunger for the annihilation of the Japanese." He added.
"Harvesters?" Chifuyu found it an interesting title, "I was right, they are followers like Ian Heir. The Reaper's assassins, huh? Does he know hitmen doesn't work to kill me anymore?" he clenched his fists.
"I have arrived to assassinate you; your friend will remain unharmed as long as you stay away from him." The Harvester told him.
"The issue is, I can't die just yet... I have a case I have to finish." Chifuyu said strongly, then he jumped up to a roof to start running.
"Stop! You can't run away!!" the Harvester chased Chifuyu by jumping on the same roof, running after him on the same level of ground.
"He is naïve like I expected, I guess my plan can play after all." Chifuyu glanced back to see the masked assassin chasing him, dodging bullets at the same time.
"Tch, I can see how 02 was struggling with Tsuguha Chifuyu. He did tell me Tsuguha Chifuyu is no ordinary Japanese person, 'He could be equally skilled as us or more skilled than us' he said." The Harvester thought as he continued to fire at Chifuyu, "I have to upper hand him somehow, I won't want to let down 02." He was starting to think of a plan.
"Alright, time to start phase 1." Chifuyu readied himself when they reached a specific location, and he jumped down from the building abrupt enough to catch the Harvester off guard.
"What the-?! Where did he go?" the masked man noticed Chifuyu has vanished when he looked down, but the 17-year-old abruptly appeared again from the side and launched a kick to disarm the Harvester from his pistols. Chifuyu performed kick play with his arms as support, and he managed to launch one of his rapid kicks to throw the Harvester back.
"He's slower than the previous one, his figure is less built as well." Chifuyu was observing as he continues, and he managed to kick the Harvester off the roof.
"Shit, why is guy so difficult to kill?!" the Harvester was getting frustrated as he landed on his feet on the road, Chifuyu rapidly inhaled a dose from his inhaler and put it back in his jacket pocket before he jumped down with his pocket knife out in a flick of his wrist.
"Phase 2, start." Chifuyu thought as he took a stance.
"You want a blade fight? I'll do that," the Harvester thought that was the reason why Chifuyu disarmed his pistols, and the Harvester took out a dagger.
"I can't kill him because he's another lead to The Reaper, he's able to match that level of my speed and I need to paralyse him somehow." Chifuyu thought as he glanced around the area, "Looks like plan C will work the best," then he puts his knife back in his jacket pocket before backing away rapidly to kick a massive glass window of a jewellery shop, breaking it off into a million pieces and sets off the loud alarms of the store.
"What-?!" the Harvester was caught off guard by Chifuyu's action, "Shit!" he cursed in a mutter when he saw that the lights of the houses on the street lit up along with voices of people waking up. The Harvester turned back to Chifuyu, too late to notice that the 17-year-old was only inches away in front of him and in a striking stance. Chifuyu launched a punch to the Harvester's abdomen and continued with a round-house kick to knock the Harvester unconscious to the ground, Chifuyu let out a sigh of relieve as he relaxed his figure.
"Just as I thought, these Harvesters are ordered to proceed out of public sight. The way they ambush and the way they are dressed explains it, the previous one also fled when old man came with his men. Alerting the people here really did distract this one, the idea to remain undiscovered broke his train of thoughts." Chifuyu's current thoughts were the results of his observation, reviewing the results as he swayed his hand that seemed to be slightly bruised.
"Hey! What the hell happened?!" the jewellery shop owner rushed out to see the broken window after turning off the alarms, "You! Explain to me!!" he pointed to Chifuyu.
"Calm down, monsieur. Please stay back, it is currently a dangerous situation." Chifuyu responded to the mad calmly but strongly, "Also, can you call Detective Jeffrey Neilson for me, please? I need to secure this gentleman in the meantime," he added with a smile.
"You're Japanese, why should I listen to you? You're all arrogant people," the man clenched his fist, while the other was pointed at Chifuyu again.
"If I am arrogant, then I will leave this dangerous gentleman here to call for Detective Jeffrey Neilson by myself, leaving you defenceless with this criminal here." Chifuyu rolled his eyes, "Or, would you rather have this man out of my range, who knows when he'll wake up and kill all of you?" a dark smirk rose on his face a moment later.
"Tsk, fine!" the man turned to walk back into the shop to make a call.
"Geez, why are Parisians such a pain... I wonder if there's a possibility I can go back to Japan," Chifuyu muttered to himself as he took a pair of handcuffs and secured the Harvester's limbs.
"I wouldn't've come out from my office at this hour if I'm not in a good mood, Tsuguha." Jeffrey arrived not long after accompanied by an armour vehicle, giving Chifuyu a bitter look with his arms folded.
"I can hardly tell if you're in a good mood or not, Jeffrey, all you do is have the same 'this is a pain' look on your face." Chifuyu furrowed a brow as he placed his left hand on his waist and spoke with an arrogant tone that just made Jeffrey even further more grumpy.
"That's because you're the most annoying person in the world!!" Jeffrey unleashed annoyance together with a stomp of his feet and his arms opening with clenched fists, "You make me age 10 years each time I meet you!" he growled.
"How old are you again?" Chifuyu was curious.
"20," Jeffrey responded.
"Oh~? Does that mean you're around 220 years old now? I'm not surprised at all~" Chifuyu's mischievous smirk painted on his striking face, showing his playful side and how he enjoys aggravating people at the same time.
"What did you say?" Jeffrey was holding in from exploding a second time, trying to keep his professionalism.
"We have secured him in the armour vehicle," an officer saluted to Jeffrey.
"Good, let's head back to headquarter to proceed interrogation." Jeffrey nodded calmly, "You! You're coming with me, Tsuguha." He turned back to Chifuyu with a fierce tone.
"Why?" Chifuyu seemed reluctant, deliberately imitating Jeffrey's 'this is a pain' expression and managed to annoy him again.
"You understand the situation more and you know better about these masked assassins than I do, so you're going to help with interrogation and other minor investigations of this assassin." Jeffrey was containing his will to punch the 17-year-old by clenching his teeth.
"I don't work for Paris Police; I don't even work for you. Why would I come along?" Chifuyu rolled his eyes.
"Do... Do I really have to call up Detective Anderson to deal with you...?!" Jeffrey's clenched fists were trembling with frustration, and Chifuyu gave him a second round of his mischievous smirk. "Come already! Detective Anderson will be there at headquarter soon after we get there!!" Jeffrey finally exploded and grabbed Chifuyu's arm, dragging him and threw him to the front passenger seat of Jeffrey's car.
"You're so gullible, Jeffrey, I really like you." Chifuyu smirked as Jeffrey entered the driver seat.
"Shut up already," Jeffrey started the car and started driving away, with the armour vehicle following behind the car. "Is that masked assassin the one who attacked you last time?" Jeffrey asked Chifuyu as he continued to drive, his eyes focused on the road while Chifuyu's were dazed out the window on his side.
"Apparently, The Reaper sent a different one this time. Even though they dressed the exact same, I can tell by his figure and overall movements that he's not the previous one." Chifuyu responded in a laid-back tone, and the junior detective remained silent for a few seconds.
"You're unfazed, are you? You're so calm for someone who's targeted to be killed," Jeffrey shrugged with his mouth and eyebrows as he glanced to Chifuyu.
"It's no use making a fuss about it, better to safe that energy for more important things." Chifuyu responded calmly, "Also, I was trained by a professional samurai since I was little, why panic when I can easily handle combat, am I right?" his calm and serious state took a turn to his big-headed state when his haughty smirk rose on his face abruptly.
"Ugh, I should've known that you're just too arrogant to panic." Jeffrey rolled his eyes, just a second before the silence was shattered by the unexpected explosion of the armour vehicle not far behind them. "What the-?!" Jeffrey stomped on the breaks to stop the car while Chifuyu turned his head around, then running out of the car when it stopped to rush to the armour vehicle.
"Fire distinguisher-" Chifuyu was rapidly looking around, and quickly stole a fire distinguisher from a car with an unlocked trunk to distinguish the fire at the back of the armour vehicle. He quickly noticed the door was busted open when he had distinguished the fire at the back-half of the vehicle and no officer survived the explosion, "The Harvester got away," Chifuyu slightly clenched his teeth, upset the Harvester had managed to flee by exploding the vehicle.
"He got away?!" Jeffrey ran to Chifuyu as he placed his phone in his coat pocket, after calling the fire department. "He caused, survived this explosion and fled through the fire? How is that possible?!" Jeffrey asked Chifuyu.
"He had a layer of armour or special suit under his black clothing, I felt it when I tried to knock him out." Chifuyu responded as his bruised fist clenched, remembering that was the reason he quickly followed his attack with a round-house kick to finish the Harvester.
"It seems like these assassins are experts at fleeing as well, and I'm suspecting there are more than two of these assassins." Chifuyu returned to the Anderson residence to speak with Taylor in his office, accompanied by Jeffrey. "And I have a suspicion there's 4 of them, 4 Harvesters in total." Chifuyu added.
"Are you sure?" Taylor was curious.
"I've been thinking about it since my first encounter with a Harvester, there's a meaning to their mask." Chifuyu began to explain, "The number 4 painted in red paint on their mask is possibly referenced from a Japanese superstition, the number 4 is considered a bad number since it's sometimes pronounced 'shi' which is the word for 'death' in Japanese, of course that ties in since their lord is designated as The Reaper. Also, the number 4 on their masks is not numbering the assassin since the previous one and the second one had the exact same masks on; I was able to confirm that today. Because of that, I'm quite sure that there's four of them. Their title 'Harvesters' are also implying that their job is to harvest souls of the people their lord wanted dead, which in this case are Japanese people." Chifuyu explained.
"I understand your logic, Tsuguha-kun." Taylor nodded, "Great work, I'll makes notes of that. You both can head home now," he added.
"Thank you for your dismissal, sir." Jeffrey bowed slightly.
"Can I borrow your telephone before I go?" Chifuyu pointed out to the living room through the opened office door.
"Sure," Taylor nodded and allowed Chifuyu to leave the room, letting himself to start working on the notes.
"Hello?" a familiar voice picked up Chifuyu's call, and Chifuyu sighed in relieve.
"I'm glad you went straight home like I told you to, Lucas." Chifuyu remembered leaving a note for Lucas before leaving him in the alley, "Sorry I couldn't carry you home," he apologized.
"Hey, I'm the one who should be apologizing. I passed out when you probably are dealing with a dangerous criminal," Lucas sounded guilty.
"No, Lucas. Like I said before; helping me at that sort of situation is not part of your job, I'd rather have you away and safe." Chifuyu told him.
"No, no! It doesn't matter if it's part of my job or not, you're my friend, I am supposed to help you in any troubles!" Lucas corrected him, "I couldn't this time since I didn't know where you were, and I decided to head home like you said because I know you want me out of the way." He admitted.
"I did lure the criminal away from there on purpose, I guess I was right to do that." Chifuyu smiled slightly.
"But still, if you're in trouble next time, I'll lend you a hand! I'm your friend, Fuyuchi." Chifuyu could hear sincerity from Lucas's voice, "I want to pay my debts to you, okay?! I owe you a lot already, why won't you let me do that?" Lucas's earnest statements made Chifuyu smile.
"Alright, I'll let you. But remember, there are times where the only way to pay me back by running away." Chifuyu smiled with a light huff of his nose, "If that time comes, you have to listen to me, okay? Do I have your oath?" he added.
"You do, Fuyuchi. I promise I'll listen," Lucas agreed.
"Thanks, see you tomorrow, then."
"See you, Fuyuchi, thanks for today." Lucas responded before Chifuyu ended the call, and Chifuyu sighed as he deflates before throwing his body onto the couch in the living room to lie down.
"Chifuyu-kun...?" Chifuyu opened his eyes because of a familiar gentle voice.
"D-Did I fall asleep?" Chifuyu rubbed his eyes as he realized he had fallen asleep unintentionally.
"It's okay, Dad said you can stay overnight because you seem so tired." Eve smiled and placed her hand on his head to start patting his head.
"Why are you up at this hour? Don't you have school tomorrow?" Chifuyu's feeble voice tells Eve he is indeed very exhausted.
"I just wanted a glass of water, that's all." She replied, "Good night, Chifuyu-kun." She stood up to leave him to rest.
"Bonne nuit, Eve." Chifuyu responded with his drowsy voice before Eve left the room, the moonlight shining into the room through the curtains of the windows as Chifuyu slowly falls back asleep.
***
Chifuyu was standing outside the door to the bar, reluctant and averting his eyes in annoyance of thoughts that he had to encounter the woman again after traumatizing her in when he roared out his anger. But he eventually entered the bar and stopped next to the woman, which she reacted with a fearful jump.
"W-What do you want?" the woman took a few steps backwards, but Chifuyu puts up a laidback smile as he placed his left hand on his waist.
"You know who I am, right?" he asked with a smile, his striking appearance made the woman somewhat blush.
"A-A horrifying and life-threatening Japanese immigrant?" the woman raised a brow as she looked away.
"Nice try, but I'm just your average investigator." Chifuyu chuckled, "And by that, I wish for you to answer a few questions from me." He widened his shut-mouth smile.
"Am I suspected of a crime or something?" the woman decided to cooperate, hesitantly sitting back down on her seat.
"Obviously not, if you are, you would've been caught from the start." Chifuyu shrugged and sat down on the chair next to the woman, "Now, I shall start with this question; is that boy who came here last time with me truthfully your son?" his eyes turned sharp, abruptly in interrogation mode.
"Y-Yes, he is my son that I abandoned at an orphanage." The woman gave a shameful response.
"Understood," Chifuyu was internally annoyed but kept a calm appearance, "Lucas insisted that you gave birth to twins, which means he has a twin sibling. Where did you take them?" he continued his questioning, and his question made the woman freeze.
"H-He... He passed away just a day later from natural causes, before I could send him to a different orphanage." The woman responded.
"Question; why didn't you drop his twin at the same orphanage? What made you decide to separate them?" Chifuyu continued, remaining unfazed with a poker face.
"Because I didn't want them to gang up and search for me, I want them to stay away from me." The woman responded with a hoarse voice, and Chifuyu rolled his eyes when he knew there's no point of asking her further since he already got his answer.
"Very well, I appreciate your cooperation. I'll be going now," he stood up and walked towards the exit, but stopped when he was a few steps away from the door. "Make sure to take surgical sterilization, I don't want to hear anymore child neglecting from a prostitute like you." He gave the woman a cold glare from the edge of his eyes, then turned his head back to walk out of the bar.
"Hey, Fuyuchi~!" Lucas welcomed him when Chifuyu arrived at the Anderson residence, "Where did you go off to? Were you out investigating?" he asked curiously.
"You can say that," Chifuyu shrugged slightly, "Sorry, Lucas. I ended up finding out that your twin brother is dead, he died from natural causes before that woman could take him to a different orphanage." He told Lucas in a dull voice.
"O-Oh, I see..." Lucas was shocked but accepting, "I had a twin brother, huh... that's cool..." he smiled.
"Anyway, it's supposed to be my day off today, so I'm going out." Chifuyu turned around.
"Oh, Mister Anderson told me to ask you to take this book that Miss Evening left behind to her school, her break is in 20 minutes." Lucas took a book from a small cupboard in the hallway and handed it to Chifuyu, "Somehow he knew you're going to visit, huh?" he sniggered when Chifuyu rolled his eyes.
"Darn that old man," he mumbled, "Fine, I'll see you tomorrow, Lucas." He waved as he held the book in his other hand.
"See you, Fuyuchi~!" Lucas waved him good-bye before Chifuyu jumped onto a roof, to start sprinting.
"Eve~, let's have a walk at the garden." Charlotte suggested after they finished having lunch at the cafeteria.
"Okay, let's go." Eve agreed with a smile, and the two of them sat under the shade of a big tree, on the grass at the park to chat in the remaining break period.
"Eve, Charlotte is going to the restroom, wait here, okay?" Charlotte patted her dress after standing up, Eve nodded as Charlotte walked to the restrooms not far from where they are, and Eve felt a pebble hitting the back of her head a second later.
"Ow..." she turned her head with her hand rubbing the spot where the pebble hit, and it didn't take long for her to see Chifuyu waving to her from the other side of the gate behind her. "Chifuyu-kun? What are you doing here?" she walked over to him in bewilderment.
"Because I'm your old man's errand runner," Chifuyu lifted one side of his lips as he extended a book between the bars.
"My chemistry notes! Thank you so much," Eve thanked him with a big smile.
"Check you books before you go, will you? You'll end up panicking if your father didn't notice you left one behind," Chifuyu advised her.
"I will, thanks." Eve chuckled in embarrassment, just before Chifuyu slipped his hand through the bars to reach for a leaf on Eve's hair, making her blush.
"It'll be embarrassing to walk back to class with this in your hair, wouldn't it?" Chifuyu gave her his insolent smirk, that somehow is always dazzling in her eyes because of his fetching appearance.
"W-Why does his smile always make my heart race? And how could he be so casually close to my face??!!" Eve's head was filled with her own thoughts as her face was decorated with shy-red.
"Oi~, Earth to Evening~" Chifuyu waved his hand in front of Eve's face to break her daze.
"A-Ack, sorry!" Eve finally was back to reality.
"Go back to class already, we can talk more later if you want to." Chifuyu sighed as he threw the leaf away with a flick of his finger.
"Isn't it your day off today?"
"It just means your old man won't be giving me any work to do," Chifuyu averted his eyes, "I'll be back when your school is over, see you then." He turned around to walk away.
"Oh, okay! Au revoir!" Eve waved to him as he continued to walk away.
When school had ended, Eve packed her bags in doubt, she doesn't know to believe he will be at the gate or not as she walked out of the building. She paused when the gate was in her sight, Chifuyu was definitely there, standing by the opened gate while playing with his pocket knife with his back leaning against the wall as other students pass by him.
"Hey, isn't that the young investigator who was here last time?"
"He's playing with a knife; I don't know if I should be scared or impressed by his knife skills..." Eve heard boys near her talking to each other.
"I can't really do anything about it, he stands out so much because he's Japanese already..." Eve sighed.
"He's a Japanese, isn't he?"
"He's surprisingly good-looking, don't you think?" two girls not far from Eve was eyeing Chifuyu as they chatted in whispers.
"Hello, monsieur." Other two girls approached Chifuyu and greeted him.
"Hello," He puts his pocket knife away as he stopped leaning against the wall and responded with a friendly smile, that was dazzling without him being aware of it.
"A-Aren't you the prodigy investigator who made the number of solved cases raise? You're amazing," one of the girls asked him excitedly.
"You flatter me," Chifuyu kept his friendly smile.
"I heard there are criminals out there hunting for Japanese people, please be careful." The other girl told him.
"I am well aware of that, but thank you for your reminder." Chifuyu nodded.
"Don't come here to spread your charisma, Chifuyu-kun..." Eve muttered in a light grunt.
"What brings you here, um...?"
"Eve, there you are!" Chifuyu raised his hand to dodge the girl's wish for his name, breaking her daze as he approached her. "I've been waiting for 20 minutes already, what took you so long?" he asked her as all of the students around them turned to them.
"Is he Anderson's boyfriend?"
"Why her, geez...?" students around them were whispering as they began to walk away.
"I-I needed to put a few books at the library," Eve made up an excuse with a meek before Chifuyu moved his face closer to her.
"Let's get out of here, before my odium towards Parisians explodes just to keep a friendly face for your old man." Chifuyu whispered to her ear before grabbing her wrist, "Let's go already, your father's going to nag if you're home late." He forced a smile on his face as he dragged her out of the school environment.
"You're popular, aren't you?" Eve asked to him.
"Oh, please. Parisians just judge from appearances, and who knows if they're pretending to like me?" Chifuyu rolled his eyes, "Parisians are basically rot-hearted, there's just so many bad things about them that even I need to be reminded of sometimes." His voice suddenly turned cold.
"There he goes again..." Eve pursed her lips as they continued to walk together.
"Hey, Eve." Chifuyu's voice broke her daze, "Are you always free on Sunday?" he asked her.
"Y-Yeah, why?" Eve was confused of his random question.
"I'll start teaching you what I know, I want to be sure you can protect yourself." Chifuyu's tone was none-nonsense, "You know you can't defend yourself, and you'll just get your old man worried sick about you all the time if you keep getting kidnapped." His voice turned into his condescending tone.
"W-Why all of a sudden??" Eve's confusion increased, slightly annoyed by the fact he's pessimist of her.
"I've said this to your old man a few times, but... A time will come where I won't be here anymore, when I won't be here to help him or protect you." Chifuyu told her, his voice swung into a gloomy tone. "At least, I want to see you able to defend yourself before I go." He added, his eyes aimlessly dazed to his front, Eve doesn't know whether he's spacing out or not.
"Are you planning on going somewhere?" Eve was curious.
"It can't be helped, Parisians are rot-hearted after all." His eyes were cold despite the warm afternoon sunlight, he avoided to give her a specific response, yet he didn't blabber out a lie.
Lucas was coming in from the backyard in the late afternoon in preparation to head home for the day, when Eve walked down the stairs from her bedroom.
"Miss Evening, I'll be going home now." Lucas gave her a smile.
"Right," Eve nodded, "Wait, there's something I want to ask you." She stopped Lucas from leaving.
"Mm? What is it?" Lucas turned around bewilderedly.
"I was doubtful to ask Dad about it, and I'm sure you know Chifuyu-kun better than anyone else I know..." Eve was hesitant, fidgeting her fingers.
"Did something happen with Fuyuchi today?" Lucas tilted his head to one direction, his amber eyes showing genuine confusion and curiosity.
"N-No, nothing happened..." Eve shook her head, "I was just wondering, did Chifuyu-kun wanted you to achieve something? Did he say something like, he wanted you to be able to do something before he goes or roughly like that?" she asked him.
"Um, I don't think so... Why?" Lucas raised a brow.
"N-No...?" Eve looked down, "I-Isn't he a little cold lately? His mood swings are getting more often and more unexpected..." she asked again, but Lucas smiled this time.
"Come on, Miss Evening... You know Fuyuchi isn't like that, if it's his mood swings that you're concerned about, that's not him being cold at all." Lucas snickered lightly, "When he is cold or even angry, he's a totally different person... I've seen it myself; he becomes really terrifying and freezing cold, as if all his warmth and outgoingness vanished, and that happens almost in a split second, then it would be over as soon as it started." He explained with a smile on his face, as if reminiscing of old memories.
"A-Are you sure?" Eve asked him.
"Of course! Even though Fuyuchi is hard to read, it's really obvious when it does happen." Lucas assured her with a big smile, "He's not cold, he's just rational and straight-forward. And he's not arrogant, he's just putting up a show." His smile softened.
"Putting up a show?" the way Lucas said it caught her interest.
"I can't really explain it myself... But I'm sure you know he just likes to entertain himself by annoying others, Miss Evening." Lucas scratched his hair at the end, "He has his own ways to enjoy his life, being the Alabaster, solving crimes, and annoying others, don't you think so?" he smiled again.
"He does have interesting hobbies, doesn't he?" Eve agreed with a chuckle, "Thanks, Lucas, you made me feel at ease." She smiled to him.
"No problem, Miss Evening. That's why I was hired in the first place, no?" Lucas grinned, "Au revoir, Miss Evening." He waved as he opened the door.
"Au revoir, Lucas." Eve waved back before he shut the door, "Lucas does know Chifuyu-kun really well already..." her mutter was barely heard in the silent house, that was lit by manmade glows instead of the moonlight.
***