Nanotechnology
Chapter
One
"Tyson, the package arrived!" Grandpa Granger yelled to his grandson as the blue-haired boy's beyblade team came inside after practice.
"Finally!" Tyson cheered, racing across the dojo's practice room to see several large boxes lying in the corner.
"What are those for, Tyson?" the blonde boy, Max Tate, asked his best friend.
Tyson simply smiled sadly, "Follow me." He then walked over to the inside wall to the left and pressed onto a section of the wall. A hidden door slid open.
"Whoa! That's amazing!" Daichi chirped in awe as they followed Tyson into the hidden room, each carrying one of the heavy boxes with the word fragile written on them in big and bold red letters.
Tyson turned on the lights carefully with one finger, and the other boys, plus Hilary but minus Kai, gasped in awe. In rows were dragon statues on podiums with names engraved on a plaque on the black wooden base.
"What is this?" Ray asked curiously.
"Hall of the Dead," Tyson said. "On the fifth anniversary of their death, a statue for the deceased family member is placed in here to respect the dead, and to show that they are still remembered.
Looking at the numerous boxes, Kenny's eyes widened. "Then, a lot of people must have died five years ago, then," Kenny said somberly, "who were they?"
"There were ten of them, and as for whom they were…my mom and siblings," Tyson informed his friends quietly.
Kai's POV
I had no idea his family was so large, Kai thought to himself, how is he able to smile every day? He is always so cheerful, and he never shows his pain!
"What were their names?"
"What?" Tyson asked in shock.
"What were your sibling's name?" Kai repeated himself.
"Heather was thirteen, and Hiro's twin sister. Zebidiah was eleven, and my twin brother. Sara was nine, and her twin sister was Kairi. Jessi was seven, and his twin brother was Nichol. Maliah was five, and her twin brother was Emy. Sincerity was a month old."
"Twins seem to run in the family," Ray said quietly.
Tyson closed his eyes. "Yes, they do. In fact, single children are only born one out of five times."
"But…your mom wasn't a Granger, so how does that work?" Kenny asked, confused.
"She was a Granger, it's Dad who wasn't. He took her name."
"Why is that?" Max questioned.
"It's common with old families when a female is heir. The husband takes the wives name so the family line continues," Kai spoke up.
"That's weird," said Daichi, tipping his head to the side.
"Not really, it's tradition. It's to preserve the family name," shrugged Tyson.
Max raised his eyebrows. "that sounds old fashioned."
"It is, but we have a tradition that we don't want to die."
"Ooh, what is it, Tyson? What is it? What is it? What is it?" Daichi asked impatiently, jumping up and down with an excited air in his voice.
"It's a se-cr-et!" Tyson sang, teasingly.
"Tyson!" Daichi and Max screamed.
"What?"
"Don't be mean, Tyson," Ray frowned at his friend.
"I wasn't being mean, I was teasing," Tyson informed Ray as he began to open the boxes and place the deep blue dragon statues on empty podiums and screwing the plaques in place.
"Still, Tyson, you know what I mean."
"Yeah, yeah, Ray, I get it," Tyson rolled his eyes.
"So, what's the tradition?" Daichi asked once again.
"I can't tell."
"Why not?"
"It's forbidden."
