Rewind | Genshin Impact

Chapter 42

CW: Graphic description of murder (again)

20th April 2020:

The next four days was spent with a bunch of takeout, notepads and pens. Venti, reluctantly, invited Xiao over to their apartment. Despite the anger being around Xiao arose in him, he came to the realisation that he just had to put up with him until they figured out who the murderer was, stopped them, and saved Kaeya. Then they could get out of this awful time loop and Venti could go back to his old life. He could forget Xiao ever existed and go to bars and dance on tables every free second he got.

It would go back to normal, it would go back to the way it should be.

So, Xiao spent every minute of the last few days locked in Venti's room. They replayed the recording over and over again, taking notes anywhere that seemed relevant. They drew a mind map on Venti's wall, of all the possibilities, motives.

When they were listening to the recording, most of the information shared was simply irrelevant. The majority of it was just Kaeya talking to people about irrelevant information about his trip, people he met, places he visited. It really did seem like he had a fun time before he returned and was fucking murdered.

In fact, nothing suspicious at all was said at the party. It was all pretty tame, innocent, sweet conversations. Although then.. There was a change in atmosphere when he entered Diluc's car.

Now, Venti didn't think Diluc was guilty, and Xiao shared his thoughts on the matter as well. But you could never be too sure. So they listened carefully as soon as the brothers left the party and it was just the two of them.

Most of the conversation was about his trip, and what it's been like whilst Kaeya was gone. However, eventually, it went into something more serious, more somber, when Kaeya brought up Albedo, and his voice broke.

He began to pour his heart out to Diluc about all their relationship issues and his fear that their relationship is soon going to come to an end due to how much Albedo is pulling away from him. It was obvious Diluc was at a very evident loss on what to say, just awkwardly humming along to indicate he was listening when Kaeya said something. It would have been comedic under any other circumstances.

Then, eventually, they arrived at Diluc's home and the red haired man appeared to have shown Kaeya the guest bedroom, telling him to make himself at home and bidding him farewell. 

Then it went quiet, not a word was said for another two hours, (Xiao insisted they listened to every second and not skip ahead in case they missed anything, it was extremely boring.) Although, at 1:27am there was rustling, then the sound of a door opening.

When it got to this part of the recording, Venti felt his heart speed up anxiously as he leaned forward a bit, listening more attentively to the audio. 

Then there was muttering, too soft for the words to be heard however loud enough to know someone else was there. Venti subconsciously grabbed onto Xiao's arm, the other didn't pull away or say anything on it.

Suddenly, there was gasping, Kaeya's gasping. The struggle was evident without even seeing it with a camera and it was heart-breaking, Venti squeezed his eyes shut and it took all his willpower to not slam the laptop shut.

He could faintly hear Kaeya's croaked voice begging for mercy, which came out kind of static as the microphone was losing connection and the battery was running out. However, instead of a reply there was a soft, dry, chuckle.

Xiao and Venti played that part over and over again, trying to place the sound to a person. It was hard to hear, as the microphone kept cutting out, however they ended up concluding that it wasn't low enough to be Diluc, it had to be someone with a higher pitched voice. Although that still didn't say much, the tone could fit with Amber but also someone like Bennett. Venti wanted to slam his head into a brick wall.

The more the recording went on, the more depressing it got. Until it reached the end and Kaeya took his final breath. Then footsteps were heard as someone left the room and softly closed the door behind them.

Xiao insisted they listened to the audio until the morning, or at least until it cut out. The microphone ran out of battery at 4:38am, and as soon as it did Venti slammed his laptop shut and rested his head in his hands. He could feel the ghost of Xiao's fingertips on his back and decided not to comment, he was still pissed, definitely, but he wasn't going to throw away comfort when he desperately needed it.

At the end of the four days, though, they narrowed down the main area of people they wanted to investigate.

That was the 'Albedo' aspect of his life.

They weren't sure if Albedo did it or not, but everything seemed to come back to the blonde haired alchemist. They suspected if this murder had to do with something, it was probably their relationship. Or ever if it didn't it was still an important area to investigate.

So it was settled, they were going to go and talk to Albedo, and the main people in his life. One being his assistant, Sucrose, and his friend, Amber.

With this knowledge, they still both went to the meeting at the police station. Bennett shot Venti a curious look when Xiao and him arrived together, especially after being aware that Xiao had been in his room for the past few days, who knew what Bennett was thinking. However, luckily, he didn't comment on it at all.

They were informed that Kaeya was strangled, which what seemed like a cord or something of the sort. Then, Diluc was arrested due to Kaeya staying at his place for the night, despite his protests that it wasn't him.

Venti watched with sadness as the innocent man was dragged out of the room, and felt determination rise within him.

They will find out who did it, they will save Kaeya.