°
°
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Their watchful eyes are all but invisible
3 days later...
"Aahh...It's so hard..." Ina whimpered.
"Just a little longer, look I'll start moving faster now." Cyrus answered.
"Nooo! I'll go numb...!"
"It won't hurt once you get used to the movement."
"This is my first time though...-"
Suddenly the door to the room was slammed open and Calli came in.
"W-what the hell are you guys doing?!"
Her blushing face was met with surprise when she saw Cyrus and Ina kneading dough side by side at the kitchen counter.
"We're just helping the maids with lunch." Ina answered obliviously.
...
...
...
"Oh."
The reaper turned and left the room immediately, cursing herself for imagining strange things only based on the noise.
"What was that about?" Cyrus asked as he dusted the flour off his hands.
"No clue."
"Anyway, you really got to work on your biceps and... everything." He glared at the girls skinny arms.
"That's not how that works with me, I've been like this for....so many years I've lost count. My body stopped changing." She rolled up her side of the dough and then took his side, finally dropping it in a bowl. "And I'm an artist, not a weight lifting murder machine."
She poked his arm over and over, bluntly noticing the hardness and overall scale of his physique. A far cry from the girl's build.
It didn't help the fact that for today, he was finally out of his usual suit and wearing a skin tight black t-shirt. His toned muscles were on display like an art piece for anyone to see whenever they went by.
And among them, Gura walked by more than five times without reason.
Though Ina helping with food was a new change, she was glad to contribute in any way. Especially since they had taken a notice to how different Cyrus had been acting ever sincs that incident with him and Gura's trip.
Gura had already took note and told the others of how alert he had been acting ever since they got home but his behavior remained the same from that point on.
"I guess the incident made him take his job more seriously now. He is head security after all."
"Yeah but would it be fine to just let him be on edge like this?."
"Just let him be, you know he always wants to act like he knows what he's doing so why not just believe it?"
Ina recalled Ame, Kiara and Calli's comments on the matter respectively and it was always stuck in her thoughts on what approach to take. So when she saw the man today in the kitchen, finally doing something other than stay in his room or patrol the house, she was put at ease and ready to help him out.
"Ina?"
Cyrus's voice startled the girl and brought her to his attention.
"H-Huh?! Oh..!" The girl pulled her hands away from the sink, noticing that she had been simply standing there in a daze and letting the water run over her hands.
"You okay, Tako?"
"Yeah, yeah! I'm alright. I guess yesterday's streams getting to me now."
She dried her hands and smiled at him, trying to reassure him that she's fine, despite the bags under her eyes.
"I'll never understand you guys and your 24 hour marathons."
"Hey, if you actually sit and watch our streams like a good fan, you'd see why it's a fun thing." She huffed.
"Infact," Kiara came into the kitchen after overhearing their talk. "Why don't you just join us whenever there's a collab? You don't have to be on stream but just being around for the fun is nice to ya know!"
"That goes way beyond my paycheck and boundaries." Cyrus laughed.
"Oh come on. Stop being such an office man."
"You guys are literally my bosses."
Before the girls could make any other comeback in trying to convince them, the maids returned and told the others to leave the cooking now that they're back and thanked the two for their help.
Cyrus managed to slip away and return to his room. In the recent days, his room has been a mess due to him building a PC of his own for quite some time now. Unlike what the girls are used to, it has extremely higher processing but none of it is used for games or complex body tracking.
He'd switch between working on the PC and surfing through his laptop. One side of the situation was already agitating him and the other was just an annoying chore. Ever since he's been met with the strange discovery in the garden, to him it's felt like he's been seeing things.
Not finding a trace of someone has never happened to him before and the garden incident has been messing with his head as of late. All he could think of was the potential dangers it poses to the house or the girls. It was as if his surroundings were mocking him by making him see things that weren't there.
Then there was the other matter of the cult. The worst hasn't happened but they now know that Myth is the current state. He needs to find them before they find him. Every call he made, every deep website he dug through, one dead end after another.
It was getting to him deeply to the point that he'd have random out bursts between his work like punching his table or simply dropping everything he's doing and stop.
Just outside his room, the reaper was standing near his door and listening to the constant rummaging going on, she had come out to complain about the noise but after hearing the frustrations simply beaming from within she stopped herself.
In his frustrations he stumbled back and nudged a shelf. A book had fallen to the floor because of it and once Cyrus saw it, he was about to snap but at that very moment, the sensibility of his thoughts caught up with him and made him think. The sight of the book made him think and now he was in the midst of making a big decision.
...
Calli had noticed the sudden silence, and so she turned to leave. Only a few steps down the hall, she ran into Kiara who smiled at the sight of the reaper, it seemed like she was looking for her.
"Hey hey!"
"Sup' Kustori?" She smiles.
"I wanted to ask if you wanna tag along with me into town."
"Oh?"
"Yeah! Yesterday I saw some people in Ina's chat talking about alot of cool records stores around the US. I did some research and a good one happens to be in the city nearby!"
"Are they still called record stores?"
"If they have recorded music and instruments then the name still implies."
"Huh." Calli shrugged. "Sure, your boys up for some classics hunting."
When she agreed, only after that did Calli realize the implications of them going then looked at Kiara dead in the eyes.
"Oh..."
"Hehe...okay before you say anything. Yeah, I want to take this time to give Cyrus some fresh air too. He needs to get out of the house or at least out of his room."
"Pretty sure 'getting out of the house' is what's made him act like a wet diaper in the first place. Not that I care, but this won't make things better."
"It'll be different because we're going too! We're still checking out those stores but we can also have him give us a tour of the city around!"
The reaper only crossed her arms and blew her hair out of her face.
"Plus, you can also take this time to talk to him-"
"That's not happening."
"Calli." Kiara tried but was met with a raised hand to her face.
"Kiara, I've already been roped into going out with you and him, don't ask for more out of me."
"...fine."
Calli understands. Of course she understands her friend, it's really just in Kiara's nature to be the good witted person who tries to make sure everyone around her is having a nice time and be happy. But there are many instances in life that can't be as simple as a pat on the back and say things are okay. The reaper knows that even she's beginning to struggle with this cold shoulder treatment she and Cyrus have been giving each other.
It's a conflicting feeling when you see your best friends having an overall positive attitude with the person who you can't see eye to eye with. She still can't see what good the others find in him but even she's aware of the stress he's going through for their sake right now. The least she can do is simply aid Kiara in her attempt.
"We can head out after lunch, if that's okay."
"Works for me."
Later that day...
"You're having a karaoke stream tonight?" Cyrus asked Gura over lunch
"Uh huh! I'm gonna be rocking one of the outfits I got with you. Wanna help me pick?"
"...No thanks." He completely brushed off how easily she could as such a question. "I'll be taking Kiara and Calli down town today."
"You think you'll be okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, you haven't been since last time."
Her words made Cyrus lightly slam the talent and lean back in his chair with a wide shrug. "Why do you guys keep bringing that up? Nothing's wrong with me."
"Well, we obviously noticed a difference." The shark girl retorted.
"You didn't. You're just seeing me actually do my job for the first time, there's nothing wrong with that."
"Not to us, boss. Some would classify your behavior as paranoia." The maid walked over and took their empty plates.
"When I need your opinion Runa, I will ask."
"Whatever you say~!"
Still ending on a baseless note, Gura watched the man tidy up then leave. Ina on the other hand was quiet through the entire time they were here and she could only sit and watch Gura's emotions falter.
On the other hand Kiara and Calli were already out and ready to go. They were outside looking around unexplored areas like the front courtyard and the dazzling shrubbery that was decorated all around.
"I know this place rocks and I've been enjoying our time here but everything still feels really over the top." Calli poked her sunglasses down onto her eyes then slipped on her cap.
"I guess we're too humble when it comes to receiving things. You still make a fuss over a $100 donation." Kiara giggled.
"Hey, those super chats have no business spending that much just to say hi."
As the two bicker about, the house car rolled up next to them down the path. Cyrus peeked through the rolled down the window.
"Shall we?"
Out of instinct, both girls sat in the back seats which Cyrus didn't really mind and was slightly thankful of.
"So!" Kiara hummed. "Do we get any disguises? I hope it's nothing like the emo fit Gura had."
Cyrus chuckled. "I did have some stuff for you guys too but now that I look at it..." He adjusted the rearview mirror and look a look at the girls. "At best, you'd need to tie up your hair to hide the gradient and just look like a ginger. Calli always looked pretty normal, the pink hair and the cap only makes her look like a Korean tourist."
"....gee, thanks..."
"The last point would just be to hide your faces, if not by some secret organization trying to kidnap you, your fans might just be your biggest problem."
Calli rummaged through her pocket and pulled out a black face mask while Kiara dawned a sun hat.
"Works." Cyrus nodded.
With preparations out of the way, they finally take their leave. Cyrus was more than eager to comply to their request to head out, much to Calli's surprised. They simply didn't realize how well this played into what the man himself wanted.
The ride there consisted of Kiara and Cyrus going back and forth with their interests. On the topic of music, they even started playing some in the car which was a more lively approach to the trip. Cyrus was enjoying their taste in genres and somehow they hadn't even noticed they had reached the city.
"You guys wanna explore or do you want to hit the records store first?"
"We might as well check out the albums we're aiming for so that we don't have any timings to worry about."
"Sure that's...."
His eyes drift out to the side.
"CYRUS!"
A scream made him look back ahead and slam the breaks. Narrowly, he missed rear ending a large truck. A loud and annoying wave of car horns came after.
"Dude!" Calli yelled.
"Sorry..! Sorry..."
Cyrus quietly brought the car to a stop at a good parking spot, as good as it could get. Calli and Kiara quietly step out and only stare at the car before them. The man inside can feel their deep gaze through the open window.
"Cyrus, do you..."
"You guys can go on ahead. I'll be running some errands down the block. It's close so just give me a call if you need something." He spoke hastely.
"Sure but-"
"The store is just two shops down. You'll know it when you see it.
Calli placed a hand on Kiara's shoulder and made her look back at her. Her eyes beaming the words 'just let him be.'
The phoenix pulled away from the window and watched the car drive off into the distance. They were out in public so they had to just move on and try not to make a scene and so they followed his directions and found the store.
Meanwhile...
"This is such a horrible idea..." Gura mumbled.
"If you're going to come ask me for help, don't complain about my methods." Ame answered as she clicked open the lock of a bedroom door.
The door to Cyrus's room. The two streamers snuck in even when they knew no one should be inside.
"How is snooping around his room supposed to help him?"
"We help him by finding out what's been bothering him- ow!" Amelia hit her knee on a metal object.
She looked down to find an open laid out CPU. They knelt down and began rummaging through the contents and then looked at each other.
"Was he...building a PC?" Gura said, dumbfounded.
"No way we inspired this guy to sit on his ass, drink bang and scream at Genji mains."
"We could...probably do this for him." Gura shrugged.
"What? Build it?"
"Yeah! Even if this isn't what's causing him to be such a grump we can still give him one less thing to worry about."
"You do realize this is pretty much telling him that we broke into his room, right?" Still, Amelia picked up where Cyrus had left off and began working on his computer. Indirectly agreeing with Gura.
As they started, only a few minutes passed until Gura realized that this entire process is a lot more complicated than she remembers for her set up.
"I've never seen equipment like this...what graphics is he using?" She asked.
"I don't think he is." Ame took a peek inside the CPU itself. "Everything inside this processor is worth millions beyond our own stuff and it's not for games or streaming. Jeez, guess it's another one of his super spy things."
"He's not a spy."
"Right right, assassin." Amelia glanced at her. "Why do you care about his title?"
"I-I don't! I'm just saying there's a huge difference."
"Sure. Anyway, this whole thing is way beyond your Goomba brain, best not to touch anything."
"And it is for you?" Gura huffed.
"Absolutely. I've messed around with this sorta stuff before, I've seen even more advanced examples."
"But I wanna do something for him tooooo!"
"Just hang out with him when they're back. I know he'll like that."
After a bit of convincing, Amelia got Gura to leave the room and began working on the set up. It took an hour's worth of effort still, despite her confidence in knowing the nuts and bolts but she was finally done and put everything in place.
Her eyes wander to his bed where his laptop beeped on. The blue screen and flashing text tingled the mind of the already curious girl as she stepped closer and brushed her finger over the mouse pad.
"...spam mails....fake CVs...boring pictures..."
Her eyes widen at the sight of the folder that received the previous update, the bold title of "fresh cases" sparkled in her eyes as she smirked widely.
"Well helllloooo friday night binging."
Meanwhile....
Calli was once again caught by Kiara peeking through old classic records and teased for the sixth time.
"Come on. I was there when these were made. Of course I'd wanna check them out." Calli protested.
"Hey, I just think it's awesome that you have an interest in those ones!"
The two girls carried whole baskets of albums and looked around the place.
"I mean, yeah. Back then I was still active in reaping but I'd always stop by to just listen to the things the people could create. Whether it be a tune on the radio or a little band on the streets, it really amazed me how some people's creations could make others move and string their emotions was just...a new light to me. Back then, everything was so gray and damp, I didn't think there was anything more in my life than to just aimlessly work but then music made it more bearable and even often distracting from all the moody feelings. It's what got me into music as I am now, I even remember singing along to shanties with fishermen but they couldn't really hear...me."
Calli stopped and looked at the smiling Phoenix and quickly got nervous.
"W-what? Was I rambling again...?"
"Yeah. And you look really cute when you're geeking out." Kiara nudged her.
The reaper felt a hint of warmth on her face which she tried to cover but she couldn't hide the color of her cheeks that matched her tied up hair.
"Can we just check out already?" She pulled her hat down and walked over to the cashier.
"Ah..! Calli!"
Not seeing where she was going, the reaper ran into another person which resulted in both of them dropping their items.
"Ah! Sorry sorry sorry...! I wasn't looking. Oh my God that was an open record." Calli panicked and knelt down to pick everything up, praying to her master that nothing was broken.
"Hey, hey it's okay...I'm fine." The woman knelt down as well and helped her. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm okay. Again, I'm really sorry."
"Don't worry, I was actually just wandering in a daze too, if you were paying attention, I still would have ran into you...hahah!" They stood back up again after looking through their items and making sure nothing got mixed up.
"Actually...I think I dropped my necklace."
"I got it!" Kiara announced as she caught up to the two and picked up said necklace from under Calli's shoe, nudging her out of the way first.
"Thanks." The woman looks down at the basket in Calli's hands. "Seems like you know your instruments, are you practicing?"
She refered to the flute that Calli had picked up and that earned a wide evil smirk from Kiara, who inched closer to her face.
"Yeah Calli, I wonder what the story there is, huh?"
She was pushed away by the reaper's hand smooshed against her face.
"Uhhh...yeah! I just thought it was neat and wanted to give it a go."
"Oh one of those beginners are we? Hmhmhm~" The woman laughed. "Well, I used to play myself a long time ago; I could probably give you some pointers."
"Umm.."
"Sure!" Kiara hugged Calli's arm. "How about we talk it over a drink. I saw a nice place just across the road."
"You saw correct, are you guys new in town?"
And thus the sudden prolonged conversation took off from the cashier to the exit where the trio headed over to their next destination.
...
It had been a while since they had left and an even longer while since Cyrus had taken his leave. The evening sky alerted the world of how late it has gotten and soon the bustling of the population shifted.
In this shift, Cyrus stepped out of a building, tired, sweating and bloodshot eyes. He turned around to bear witness to the board of the location. 'Library.' the word alone was already making him regret his curiosity.
He tired to calm down and not attract any attention to himself, then he went to check his phone as he began walking. No texts or calls from the girls so he tried shooting one himself. He asked Kiara where they were when he saw that they weren't in the records store.
To his relief, he got an immediate response and quickly used the given directions to catch up with the girls. She said that they were done and already stepping out so he should see them, and he did.
He walked up to Kiara first who had a red slushy in hand. "Cyrus!" She waved at him.
"Hey, how'd it go? Where's Calli?" He asked as he looked around.
"Are you alright? You seem a little fidgety." Kiara asked.
"Yeah yeah! I'm fine, hey it's getting kinda late. If you're still up for that tour..."
"Oh no we can scratch that for now." As Kiara said this, the bell to the shop door rang as Calli walked out with the other woman. "We got a little carried away with talking to our new friend here."
As the two walked up next to Calli, Cyrus's face dropped.
"Cyrus, this is...."
"Claire." He answered for her.
"Uhh...yeah! How did you..." Kiara stopped once she noticed how intently the two were staring at each other.
The slightly shorter woman walked up to Cyrus, dragging her feet as she did. Both looked at each other with the same hollow eyes, though different in color, they had the same aura glaring out.
"Claire...I.." He was met with a splash of liquid on his face.
She dumped her juice over him then dropped the cup. The flood gates were open and she now showed the dreaded anger seeping out of her.
"The three whole years you finally left me alone....I hoped that you were dead Cyrus...But no." She gritter her teeth. "You just had to show up and haunt me again...remind me of the things you've done."
"You know that's not what happened, I've told you time and time again."
"And you think I'll believe a word out of a monster like you...? The police may not have been convinced but you can't hide the truth from someone who was there..." She pushed him aside and was ready to just walk away. But she stopped shoulder to shoulder with the man, tears dripping to the ground.
"I can't handle it.... please....please just get out of my life..."
"I can't do that." Cyrus's response only fueled the fire but in the end, they were in public. With a burning tolerance, she walked away.
The two streamers just stood there, completely speechless from what they had just seen. Boiling questions, worried emotions, all were ready to burst but the man that they wanted to direct it all to quietly walked past them. They turned to see him unlock and sit in the car.
Later...
The ride back was nothing but suffocating silence. It didn't help the fact that it was a long drive either. The girls knew that Cyrus would be stubborn enough to not say alot but they at least deserved some context.
"At least tell us who that was." It was Calli who had done it.
After so long, she spoke to him directly, uncaring for what had previously gone down with them and only needing answers. She's seen the things this man has gone through the entire day and it's starting to annoy her.
"That was my sister. That's all you need to know."
Truly they knew that this was all they would get out of him for the day and decided not to pester him any more as to not making it a bigger problem.
They finally reached home. Cyrus dropped the girls off at the front door then left to park up in the garage. There was no need to press the door bell, Kiara typed out the unlock passcode on a keypad just below the bell and let themselves in.
"Birdieeeee!" Gura welcomed the two.
"Welcome back."
"Welcome back."
The two maids bowed then offered to take the girl's belongings off their hands. They moved their talks over to the living room where they found In and Ame watching TV, the former having a warm bowl of ramen.
"Soooo? How'd it go?"
"Well, we had fun." Kiara answered.
"Hohoo...I don't like the sound of that." Ame chuckled, now her attention taken away from the TV.
"Why? Something happen to Cyrus?" Gura asked.
"Let's just say, today really wasn't his day." Calli rubbed the back of her head.
"Where's he now?"
"He's out parking the car. He'll be inside in a-"
The front door was ripped open with Cyrus walking in and displaying his 'down in the dumps' presence as he completely ignored the girls and walked off. His clothes were a mess.
"What the heck happened to him?!" Ina remarked.
"And why does he smell like blueberries?" Ame tilted her head.
Gura scurried over to the man, trying to catch up to him.
"Hey Cyrus!"
"No."
"Okay."
Well that's the end of that plan.
Defeated and disheartened, the short girl regrouped with her friends. She plopped down next to Ame and Ina now thinking about what's there to do.
"You guys wanna fill us in?" Ame crossed her arms.
"I don't know if it's our place to really say but...we had a run in with his sister."
"He has a sister?"
"Yup, and said sister dumped her slushie on the guy that I paid for fyi." Calli groaned.
"It doesn't take rocket science to figure out there's some bad blood between them and given how he's been acting today, that reunion did not help him one bit." Kiara sighed.
"I don't think we have a place to ask about it." Ina added.
"But we can at least try to cheer him up." Gura retorted.
"I don't think he'd want that."
"No duh! Why'd anyone in a bad mood be that easy? We just need him to come around."
"Oh I think he'll come around alright...~" Ame smirked as she looked through her phone.
"What did you do?"
...
...
It had gotten dark out by the time Cyrus was done with his shower. He retired to his room and the moment he entered, he noticed that something was wrong.
He looked around the place and noticed tampering in every corner of the room. He obviously noticed his computer, completely built and ready to run. He was confused at first, booting up the PC he was surprised by the sight of it's proper functionality.
He quickly went over to his shelves and rummaged through the top shelf. He picked a small camera and quickly took out it's card. Plugging into the laptop, he checked the recording and discovered the culprit and slightly soothed his worries.
The video showed Amelia and Gura tinkering away with the CPU until Gura left after a short while. He then sped up the clip until Ame was done with his computer but something caught his eye when she was finished.
She was seen surfing through his laptop of all things, the very item he's using and then saw her plug in a USB. A few minutes of typing were spent until she unplugged the device and left the room.
He quickly dropped the laptop onto the bed and left the room. 'What did she take?! My case folder was updated, there's no way she took some files..!'
He raced down the stairs and swung into the living room to confront the girl but he was met with a completely different sight.
"Cyrus!" Gura yelled aggressively.
All of them were huddled up on the couch, somehow, and deadly focused on the TV screen. They were playing a game each turn that was a simple cube game jumping over spikes.
"What the hell are you-"
"Shut up! You're on my team!!" She screamed and pointed at him.
He was so surprised by the burning competitive fire in her eye that he was completely thrown off of what he had come down here to do. He stepped closer to the couch and was immediately grabbed by Gura, forcing him to sit on the arm of the couch.
"We're doing the whole 'take a shot after every death' game with a game that requires you to die over and over to succeed." Ina explained.
"Should....should I be condoning this?" He asked worriedly.
"It doesn't really matter anymore, they're already 4 shots in."
"THAT'S 6 NOW!" Calli yelled after she snatched the controller from Gura.
They were playing in teams which excluded Ina who didn't want to be a part of this so it was Kiara and Calli vs Amelia and Gura with Cyrus as the handicap bonus since the two gremlins were losing.
The night went on but it only got louder as the time passed. One loss after another, it didn't help the fact that the game itself was already rage inducing and it was getting the better of their already loose skill.
Still, the scene got a good laugh out of Cyrus, let it be out of slight disappointment or the humiliation his teammates were facing, it was something good and he wanted it to last as long as it could.
Eventually, in the deepest ends of the night, things finally quieted down. Ina had already taken her leave and went to bed in her room. Kiara and Gura had very little alcohol tolerance so they passed out after the twelfth shot. Calli on the other hand was the last one standing but even she tapped out and blacked out through pure exhausting which left a groggy Amelia and a perfectly sane Cyrus watching the others snore.
"...duuuuuddee...how are you not throwing up right now..?" The drunk detective asked. "You took as much as me-e.."
"I've been in enough situations that force fed me these drinks to play along."
Ame giggled and swayed in her seat before trying to get up. He helped her then turned to the couch.
"Go get to bed if you can." He told Amelia before clapping his hands.
The two maids rushed into the room. "Get them some blankets."
"Yes sir!"
"Yes sir!"
Cyrus then took what was left of the drinks and exited the room. He was wandering the mansion for the longest time before he found himself roaming the gardens again.
He sat by the fountain and sighed before taking a long swig of the drink.
"...weeks...and you're the one case I couldn't crack..." He mumbled to himself as he stared at the grass beneath his feet. "You could have been nice and just left me some clues..."
"I did. You just kept looking the wrong way~"
Cyrus lifted his head.
"I thought I was supposed to see weird shit after I was wasted out of my mind..." Cyrus chuckled.
"You can try drinking something lighter then."
To Be Continued