Disclaimer: The original "Shin Megami Tensei: Persona" series as well as any other mentions of copyrighted material is not ours, and is copyrighted and owned by Atlus and/or their rightful owners. All material in this work that is not our own is borrowed for fair use and entertainment purposes.

Persona X
Chapter 10: Danger Rising

October 1 - 2, 2016
The Johnson Residence

In a state of complete bewilderment, Hiro began read the letter not once but twice to make sure he read every word and every character correctly. Granted, yes, there were some typos and writing errors, katakana mixed with hiragana when there wasn't supposed to be, spacing when it wasn't necessary, English grammar periods, her kanji use wasn't very good and was based on sound and not meaning, and he didn't like seeing his name written in hiragana, but...the main point of the message seemed to be clear enough...

But was he really reading this right?

Did Kyoko just practically force him to go against Mr. Mackenzie's command?

Hiro just stared at this message as he began to read it a third time over. His absorption in the whole thing was so great that Hiro did not realize Marcus was standing right behind him, looking over his shoulder. "Man, I don't know how you can learn to read that stuff," the taller male marvelled.

Hiro almost jumped out of his seat when Marcus did that, realizing that Marcus had stayed behind in his room. Lily walked back inside. "God, Marcus, you nearly made me trip down the stairs when – " she started, before noticing Hiro's panicked expression. "What's up?"

Hiro just noticed Lily came back to his room, and quickly regaining his normal composure quickly minimized the letter from Kyoko with a keyboard shortcut. Even if none of them could read it, it was better to be safe than sorry. "It's just some stuff," he replied a bit too abruptly as he waved his hand. "Yeah, stuff."

Marcus raised an eyebrow as he smirked. "Oooh, what kind of stuff?" he drawled.

Lily smacked Marcus across the head without any hesitation. "Some private stuff," Hiro responded as he began to shift his eyes.

Marcus rubbed the back of his head as his smirk deepened. "Oh, what kind of private stuff? Is it a love letter from back in Japan or here at school?"

Lily smacked his head again. "OW!" Marcus whined as he clutched both sides of his head. He glared at her. "You know, you're gonna give me brain damage one day, Lily!"

"I think you already had it a long time ago," Lily muttered.

Wow, harsh, Hiro thought with a nervous sweatdrop.

Marcus walked back toward the door, muttering, "Crazy woman..." He stopped to look back at her. "Go try and get some sleep, see if it helps your beauty."

The girl shrugged and walked out, deliberately stepping on his toe before she did. "Alright then. Night, Hiro!"

"Umm, night, Nguyen-chan..." Hiro said back, blinking in complete disbelief at this situation.

He turned to look at Marcus, who was seething as he jumped on one foot back to the bathroom. "Pain..." the boy could be heard hissing.

As soon as Marcus left the room, Hiro re-opened the letter again, just to re-read it once again carefully, this time with no interruptions. Finally, after the seventh time, Hiro stopped, leaning back in his chair and staring off at the e-mail. It appeared Hiro was reading everything correctly – Kyoko really wanted him involved, against Mr. Mackenzie's will.

But why? Didn't she seem against him getting involved? Maybe he should reply to the message...but then again, Kyoko said to delete it right away when he was done reading...

Hiro made his decision and was about to delete it until another e-mail popped up. His eyes immediately widened at the e-mail alert's title.

Our First Winner!

Hiro frowned. It could be one of those stupid ads that have some virus into, but he was still curious. He tried to ignore any paranoia he had as he moved his cursor to the alert and clicked on it.

Such a pain is it to have someone come out the winner of The Wake of Dawn.

Ignoring his paranoia immediately fell apart as his eyes grew wider. At that moment, he wanted to know exactly who this person was and how they knew he was the winner – better yet, his e-mail. Where were people getting this information? He continued to read, biting his lower lip in apprehension, not liking the sound of this at all.

You've proven much potential. It's been awhile since I have seen someone like you. We look forward to seeing you again...and I am sure that will be very soon.

The message was not signed, and the e-mail address looked very unfamiliar. Hiro was about to close this nightmare of a message, until his eyes almost bulged out of his sockets as he glimpsed only something he knew...

P.S. Are you feeling okay? Feeling any headaches, or are all your dreams becoming nightmares that you wish you would never see?

The message instantly vanished as Hiro quickly hit Delete. He placed a hand on his head, not wanting to remember any of this as his breath became ragged. This wasn't an after-effect then...but what did that mean? What am I supposed to do now?! he thought, trying hard to keep himself calm.

At that moment, a hand slipped itself on his shoulder. The black-haired male gasped and turned around, only to see the culprit was none other than Marcus. The other male raised an eyebrow. "Jeez, Super-Hiro, why so paranoid right now?" he asked.

"...n-no reason." Hiro sighed. "Just a bad day..."

Marcus blinked, before his face softened. "Dude...what'd Mackenzie even tell you today?" he murmured, taking off his glasses and putting them back in a maroon case. "You sure you don't want me to bust his car tires?"

Hiro shook his head. "No Marcus," he replied reassuringly. "That will be a bad idea."

Marcus gave a disappointed pout. "Aw, fine." He plopped himself down on the sleeping bag next to Hiro's bed and tucked himself in with a yawn. "Alright, night, Hiro. Don't let the bedbugs bite."

There was a sudden pause.

"There are bugs in your beds?!" Hiro exclaimed, feeling deceived by his knowledge of North America as he glared back at his bed in horror. "Do you clean them properly?!"

"...don't worry about it, man, it's just an expression."

"Oh. Uh...sorry about that."

Hiro gave a sheepish look as he turned back to his monitor, feeling very disheartened. He pushed the Sleep button on his computer and pushed the chair away from him with another sigh. He himself needed sleep, and there was no point in staying up anymore anyway.

He slipped into his bed, staring off at the ceiling, out the window, attempting to lose his thoughts and drown in peace and silence. He gritted his teeth and growled softly. Come on, he thought. He buried his head into his pillow. Sleep. I need to go to sleep...I need to forget about everything until tomorrow...

He thought it was working. He could feel his mind wander as he finally felt comfortable and drowsy enough to slip off, until he realized that he could hear something, very faintly. He sat up, wondering what was happening now, and looked to Marcus.

Marcus, however, was simply snoring and appeared to be a very heavy sleeper. Hiro shifted his eyes over to look at his clock. It was 11:59 PM. Where was the sound coming from? Maybe he was just going crazy...

He placed his head down and was about to close his eyes again, until he heard a far too familiar voice he never wanted to hear again.

"Jeez, jeez, jeez, there is no showing for today because I'm in an emotional mood and even us hosts gotta take their breaks when they're down and out."

A crowd of people can be heard booing as light suddenly emitted from Hiro's computer. Hiro blinked and sat up right away, staring at his monitor. A browser window blinked on the desktop's toolbar. Hiro raised an eyebrow curiously. When did he turn on his computer again and when did he open up a browser...?

"Sorry, folks, if I'm upset, then there's no show for you," the familiar voice from earlier continued. "That's just how it works."

The sound of the crowd roared angrily. Hiro began to get off his bed and walked toward his monitor, now being able to hear properly as the voice spoke again. "I know that you people wanted to see the pleasure of a person's blood or an instant replay over and over again of it, but it was all ruined when someone won this game."

Hiro's blood turned cold.

He opened up the browser instantly. At that moment, he realized it was the The Wake of Dawn website - and it appeared that there was Blitzkrieg on the video stream, not looking very happy, and neither was the audience as they still bellowed with anger of having their entertainment denied of them.

The camera suddenly panned right as Shadow jumped onstage. "You better give us what we want right now, Blitzkrieg, or else!" it hissed, pointing a hand to the black-haired host who the camera panned back to.

Hiro watched intently, wondering where this was going. Blitzkrieg sighed and shook his head, reaching behind his blazer. "Why, what are you gonna do about it? Eat me?" The masked man scoffed. "Try it, I dare you."

The dark figure's yellowish eyes flashed. "Gladly."

At that moment, the Shadow's form expanded in a burst of flames, and the crowd gave astonished, exclamations as the Shadow shifted into the shape of a lion. Before Blitzkrieg could react, the Shadow gave a fierce, feral roar, and tossed him up, proceeding to swallow him down whole.

The crowd rumbled and erupted with cheers to see blood. This was exactly the show that they wanted!

"Show him whose boss!"

"Tear him apart!"

"Make him pay!"

At that moment, though, there was a gong sound.

The sound of a pool ball being hit became faintly heard, and an 8-ball slowly rolled onstage. Everyone suddenly became silent as they watched it continue to roll and roll, until it stopped at the feet of the lion-like Shadow. The Shadow paused and looked down at it right away.

Suddenly, chuckling could be heard. The Shadow looked around warily, trying to find where the chuckling was coming from, until he realized just as suddenly as Hiro did...

It was coming from inside his throat.

The ball exploded, sending the Shadow flying off his feet, and before the lion-like Shadow could react, three gunshots fired off from the inside of his head. As the Shadow gave a bloodcurdling shriek, Blitzkrieg tore himself out, his revolver in hand as he stepped out curtly, blowing the smoke off the gun and dusting his shoulders off irritably.

When he was finally out and the residue of the Shadow was no longer on him, Blitzkrieg flourished his hand backstage where the ball came from. A faint silhouette of a man could be seen, leaning against a pool stick with one hand and tossing a cue ball lazily with the other. "A thank you to one of our co-hosts and staff members, Shotgun, for help with that little trick," Blitzkrieg remarked with a wry smirk, still looking towards the audience.

The audience was dead silent, and Hiro couldn't help but feel more afraid of this man by the second. Shotgun simply smirked back, pleased, and bowed shortly, revealing a red and black half-face mask as he pulled back into the darkness. Blitzkrieg's smirk disappeared. "Anybody else?!" he snapped.

His glare, although hidden by his mask, caused the Shadows to recoil as they all shook their heads and resonated clear and uttered-sounding nos. "That's what I thought before I was interrupted by that bastard," Blitzkrieg retorted. He turned his head back and pointed his revolver back to the Shadow, who was now clearly deformed, and fired two more shots just to make sure it stayed down. "It's not my fault that your show was cancelled!" he explained as he turned back to the audience. "Blame it all on these people!"

With his free hand, he snapped his fingers and to reveal a hologram of three people onstage. Hiro gasped and nearly fell off his chair. The illusion depicted none other than himself, Mr. Mackenzie, and Kyoko that day they fought.

The crowd immediately began to boo and hiss again, close to rioting as they stood on their seats.

"Take their blood!" Shadows shrieked.

"Mortals like that shouldn't even exist!"

"We want to see them DIE!"

Blitzkrieg raised his hands. "Don't worry, don't worry, you all will have payback at them for the ruining of your show, but as I said again, don't worry. They were only lucky the first time."

The crowd ignored him as they continued to rouse. Blitzkrieg shook his head and turned back to the camera. "That's all that is happening now in our showing of The Wake of Dawn. To the people who are watching, thank you. To the others, especially the three who ruined this show, this is what I will do to you if I see you next time."

Without breaking a beat, Blitzkrieg pointed his revolver towards the camera and shot three rounds, causing the camera to crack, the cameraman to scream and then finally the vision becoming a flurry of feedback. Hiro, who just stared at the feedback, felt ready to break down again as thoughts began racing in his head.

Just great, just great. Just a few days here in Canada and I'm already on a hitman list to a show that will rip out my guts if they see me again, he realized.

He could feel his hand trembling over his mouse. He didn't want to do this anymore. He came here to escape the hard life, to start anew. This wasn't escaping and this wasn't starting anew! Why was he pulled into this strange world of Shadows and Personas?

Maybe Mr. Mackenzie was right...maybe he should just stay out. On the other hand...Kyoko wanted him to do this. But what if she was wrong? She almost died too. All of them nearly died. Mr. Mackenzie was right...at the same time...he was wrong...why did he feel so conflicted...?

What am I supposed to do now? Hiro thought.

He was completely shaken. He placed a hand over his head again, trying to breathe properly and ease an oncoming headache. His heart was pounding furiously in his chest, and a sick feeling knotted his stomach. Hiro gulped. It might be a good idea to...hit this hay...for sleeping, right about now.

The computer was shut down this time, and Hiro carefully walked back to his bed, trying not wake up Marcus. He did not calculate how it was the worst time for him to be stealthy – if anything, he was extremely clumsy right now. He didn't realize this until he accidentally stepped on what appeared to be Marcus' toe.

Marcus gave a sharp yelp, instantly throwing Hiro off-guard as he gasped, falling back on his bed in terror, panting as he watched Marcus very carefully, hoping he wouldn't wake up.

His wishes were granted as Marcus turned over the other way in his sleep with a groan. "Damn it, Lily, that hurts..." he muttered, and soon he was snoring off again.

Hiro just stared at him incredulously. How could he even sleep through all this? he began to wonder. He shook off the idea and laid his head down, letting himself fall into slumber as his eyes began to close.

* * * * * * * *

October 2, 2016
The Velvet Room

"Welcome back. I do think you should apologize after your sudden leave of absence from before, I did find it quite disrespectful."

Hiro began to open his eyes. He blinked as he saw the strange, well-dressed man Igor, and the pretty, well-dressed woman Sakura again, sitting in front of him in the velvet-covered cabin from three times before. It was the Velvet Room again, this strange room...

"Yes, even if you are still new to this sort of ordeal, it was very rude of you to disappear just like that," Sakura added for her master, lowering her brown-eyed gaze.

Hiro blinked again, and shrank back in uncertainty and shame. Well, it wasn't his fault he had to get back to helping his teacher and a classmate fight against the evils of the supernatural, was it? He still bowed his head sheepishly. "I'm very sorry," he apologized.

His eyes suddenly widened. He looked down at himself. "Wait, did I just...talk?" Hiro asked, pleasantly surprised.

Sakura and Hiro glanced towards Igor. The pointy-nosed man smiled. "I suppose you'd like an explanation for it." He nodded forward. "Please direct your attention to the table in front of you."

Hiro did so. On the small roller-cart, there was a piece of paper on the table. It appeared to be a form of some sort, and as Hiro skimmed his eyes down, he realized it been signed with his name - in his exact handwriting, no less. "Wh...what is this?" Hiro wondered. He stared down at this...contract? "I don't remember signing anything..."

Igor smiled rather crookedly again. "Of course not. But you did sign it, when you accepted your Persona," he explained cryptically.

Igor lifted a hand from his cane and pointed to Hiro's hands. When Hiro looked down at them, he realized that he was holding the Sun Arcana card in his hand. "Wait, what is this now?" Hiro added, growing a little bothered by these magic tricks.

"Your Arcana. With it, you can gain multiple other Personas if you obtain the necessary Arcana for each category."

With that, Igor waved his hand over the table, and the deck of cards from before appeared before them again, their masked backsides highly intriguing. He waved his hand over them again, and seven different tarot cards spread out in front of Hiro, one which he recognized from his fortune telling.

"So far, you have started and began to grow these Arcana - the Lovers, the Justice, the Magician, the Chariot, the Strength, the Moon, and the Star," Igor continued.

He snapped his fingers, and in order of each card said, the tarot images faded to people Hiro knew – Lily, Mr. Mackenzie, Marcus, his aunt Luna, his uncle Eric, Kyoko, and Ai and Akira. "What do you mean I started to grow these Arcana?" Hiro further inquired.

Igor tapped one of the cards; Kyoko's, the Moon Arcana. "When you first met these people, you began to establish relationships with them – Social Links, we call them. As they grow and your relationship continues to bear fruition, so does these Arcanas' abilities to bear new Personas. For example..."

His hand moved back, and tapped Lily's card. Suddenly, a bluish fog emitted from it, and a small fairy appeared above the now-glowing card, much to Hiro's surprise.

The fairy gave a mischievous smile towards Hiro, before she darted over to him and kissed his cheek. She quickly returned back to hovering over the card as Hiro placed his hand over his cheek. "What was that for?" he marvelled, slightly flushing.

"Well, the Pixie is a very playful and trickster-like Persona," Igor explained.

Hiro's eyes widened. He looks back at the Pixie very, very carefully, not believing for a minute that a fairy could be the same thing as the majestic, bizarre, mechanical-like creatures that Helios, Hermes or Selene were.

"I have a question?"

"Go right ahead and ask it, young man."

Hiro continued to look straight at the fairy-like humanoid. "Why does this Pixie not look like my Persona or the others with chains around it?"

The Pixie scowled at him. "N - no offense," Hiro apologized, sweatdropping briefly.

Igor placed his hands back on his cane. "Well, that's a very good question," he replied. He looked back down at the deck of cards, and they glowed dimly. "The chains bind your personal Personas from running rampant, or so we believe. Several of the Arcana have been getting a little...mixed up, tampered with. They're becoming dangerous." He lowered his head. "A disturbance has occurred within the system, and we're not exactly sure why. We believe, however, the cause to be related to one of our most common yet troublesome Arcana..."

Igor lifted his right hand and beckoned to a longer, decorated serving cart next to them. Hiro looked towards it and immediately spotted a strange, floating bluish box that enclosed one of the tarot cards. The card rotated slowly, and Hiro's eyes widened in horror as he saw the symbol of the Fool. "Um...is that bad...?" he asked uncertainly.

It was Sakura that said, "Yes." The red-haired woman pushed her spectacles back up. "Ever since you chose your Persona, the Fool has been acting up in very strange ways, as though it wants to be released to cause destruction."

"But what could make it do th..."

Suddenly, Hiro began to realize what she meant after thinking about his head pains, nightmares, and voices being said in his mind. His eyes further widened, and he clutched the Sun tarot in his hand nervously. As though he read his mind, Igor nodded. "Yes. It appears that you may have made a mistake when accepting your Shadow. As I suppose you've been told already, one must accept their Shadow before it can transform into their Persona." Igor raised a finger. "In your case, however, you had your Persona first before you accepted your Shadow."

Hiro looked back towards the strange man. "So does that mean that my Shadow is not accepting the fact that I said he is me?"

Igor nodded again. Sakura stood up. "We aren't exactly sure why, but until then, we may offer you our assistances in your struggles," she concluded. She beckoned towards the Pixie. "As we have explained before, you may acquire new Personas to help aid you. They will not replace Helios, but if you need their skills, they will be more than happy to serve you."

The pixie nodded and winked at Hiro. "However, they are not free," Sakura added.

Hiro scratched the back of his head. Shit, good things always came with prices. "Umm...I have to pay cash?"

Sakura shook her head. "Not with cash, no."

"But, since you're so eager to learn about how everything works and since the Pixie is so attached to you, I'll offer you it as a free gift," Igor butted in as his smile widened.

Hiro blinked. "Um, thank you," he said, uncertain of how he should feel about this.

The Pixie knew how she felt as she grinned happily and darted over to Hiro's other cheek to kiss it. She then disappeared in what looked like dust and particles, and returned back to the Lovers tarot in front of his eyes. All cards seem to have returned to their normal tarot symbol as Hiro grabbed the floating card in front of him.

"Congratulations!" Igor told him. "You have earned yourself a Persona of the Lovers Arcana."

Hiro continued to look at the card. "Is every Persona card something like this?" he asked as he placed his hand down to look towards Igor.

"Essentially that's how it works, yes. The same goes with Helios."

Hiro looked back down at his hands again to see two cards in his hand now – The Pixie, and Helios. He turned them over to see their respective Arcana symbols fade in on the back. "So this shows that this Persona came from this specific Arcana, right?" he asked, noting the Sun and Lovers symbol.

Igor's eyes seemed to light up – it sort of disturbed Hiro and made him feel very uncomfortable, but he assumed it was a good sign when the man said, "That's absolutely correct."

Suddenly, there was a strange flickering sound emitting from the service cart. Igor, Sakura, and Hiro turn to look at the cube containing the Fool, whose lights appeared to be shining unsteadily. Hiro's eyes narrowed. "What is going on with the card...?" he murmured.

Igor shifted his eyes back to Hiro, and their gazes met. "More like the Fool Arcana appears to be growing even more restless." Then Igor lifted his head back up cheerily. "It was good to finally speak with you. You're quite the curious young man."

Hiro watched as the Velvet Room began to fade away, wanting to ask more, wanting to stay. He had more questions to ask. Why were they telling him all this? What will he do about The Wake of Dawn? What if he saw his Shadow again...?

* * * * * * * *

October 2, 2016
The Johnson Residence

"Hiro-nii-chan? Wake up, please."

Hiro could hear somebody call out for him. He opened his eyes groggily and saw Ai standing over him, holding her stuffed animal in her arms. She beamed happily at him. "Finally, you're awake, onii-chan!"

Hiro blinked. "Ai..." He yawned and sat up. "What's up?"

Ai grabbed his arm. "Come on, onii-chan, everyone is downstairs already eating breakfast!" she exclaimed, and pointed to his clock.

Hiro looked towards the clock. The time read 9:45 AM; almost 10 o'clock. Hiro yawned again and stretched his arms when Ai let go, standing up from the bed as he nodded and followed her downstairs. He saw Akira watching cartoons with Marcus, Lily talking with Luna, and Eric busy putting the coffee canister back in the pantry.

Akira was the first to notice Hiro awake. "Good morning, onii-chan!" he greeted, before he turned back to the TV. "Jeez, you've been sleeping in too much. You look like a zombie."

Luna chuckled, overhearing this, and Ai giggled too. Marcus and Lily looked up to see their friend, his hair looking very dishevelled and his eyes baggy.

"Morning, Hiro."

"Morning, Super-Hiro!"

Hiro gave a nod. "Good morning-u," he simply mumbled as he walked past them, much to their confusion as they exchanged glances.

Eric closed the pantry, before he saw Hiro and blinked, raising an eyebrow. He waved a hand in front of Hiro's face as his nephew walked slowly into the kitchen. "Looks like somebody didn't get enough sleep," he said.

You don't know the half of it, Hiro thought as he trudged towards the pantry door and opened it.

Marcus gave a yawn. "I think I, on the other hand, got too much sleep," he retorted, and rubbed the top of his head. "Gah, I'm not used to sleeping that early..."

I'm still wondering how you can sleep with what happened at midnight, Hiro added as he took a box of cereal from out of the pantry.

Lily leaned back in her chair, pushing away strands of red-highlighted dark hair. "I had a good sleep," she boasted rather happily as Hiro opened the fridge and pulled out a carton of milk. "I feel ready to take on anything today!"

Hiro, now having everything needed for his cereal, mumbled, "you're lucky" under his breath as he placed the carton and the box of cereal next to the toaster and reached for the cupboard.

Lily blinked at him. Eric shook his head. "Oh, don't worry," he told her. "I know what will wake him up properly."

Hiro's hand stopped midway from opening up the cupboard to get a bowl. What does he mean by that...

With that, Eric picked up the frying pan from the stove Luna used, and began to heft it up and down, testing its weight. Satisfied, he began to bang it against the toaster near Hiro's ears, much to the boy's surprise as he panicked and began to scream as his hands flew up to his ears. "Uncle, what are you – "

"ARE YOU AWAKE NOW?" Eric bellowed, still banging the utensil against the pan.

"Oww, stop!"

Lily, Marcus, Ai and Akira winced and cover their ears too, clearly not used to all this noise in the morning either. "Not until you tell me if you're awake or not!" Eric continued to shout.

Luna immediately took the pan away from her husband and put it in the sink. "Eric, don't damage his ears, jeez!" the black-haired woman scolded.

Eric gave her an astonished look. "Well, it worked when you tried it on me!" the brown-haired man replied as Hiro quickly grabbed what he needed for his cereal and joined Lily at the table.

"That's because your ears were already broken."

Eric looked at her slyly. "They're not broken to the cries of love," he responded smoothly.

Lily dropped her fork down on her plate, Hiro nearly dropped everything he was holding, and Marcus pushed his glasses back on his face as he turned to look at Akira awkwardly. "Are they always this...tender...?" he inquired.

Akira blinked and lowered an eyebrow. "What does that mean?" he asked back.

"...nevermind, let's just keeping watching the ghost boy beat up the ghost rocker chick," Marcus dismissed, and turned around to see something he didn't want to see.

Luna pressed her hands against Eric's chest, looking up at him with sparkling eyes. "Do you really mean that, honey?"

Eric placed his hands on Luna's shoulders. "Oh, yes, I mean that," he murmured softly.

Marcus turned back around with tears in his eyes. "Aw, man, even his non-blood family members score..." he whined.

"Oh, brother," Lily muttered, her chin resting against her lips as she tried not to say anything more.

The twins look confused. "What are they talking about?" Akira wondered as he narrowed his eyes and Ai blinked. Hiro had placed his face on the table out of embarrassment of his aunt and uncle's affection.

Marcus readjusted his glasses and faced Hiro's younger brother. "Has anyone ever talked to you about the birds and the bees?" he bluntly questioned.

Akira and Ai look at him blankly. "Well – " Marcus began.

Before he could say anything more, the blonde was smacked face-first with a cushion from the table seat and knocked off the couch. "Marcus," Lily hissed from a distance. "Do I really have to say shut up?"

"Owww!"

Hiro sweatdropped as he poured milk into his cereal. I can't even eat a normal breakfast anymore if it's always like this, he thought.

He looked around the house. His siblings' attention was now glued onto the TV watching cartoons, not caring what happened to Marcus and not curious anymore about the bird and the bees. He could see Marcus on the floor in pain after Lily, who was now standing beside the twins, was the culprit of throwing the cushion towards him. And now looking in front of him he saw his uncle hugging his aunt tightly, making embarrassing and flirty comments to one another. Is this what's going to happen every morning? he thought as he took a bite out of his cereal. Jeez, it's been not even a month and my life of normal just went out the window.

At that moment, the phone rang. Luna immediately shoved Eric aside and picked up the phone. "Hello?" she said. A look of confusion crossed her face. "Oh! Who may I ask is calling?"

A pause. Her confusion seemed to grow as she raised an eyebrow, while Eric pouted and scratched his head in wonder at why she had to push him away. Then, Luna held out the phone to Hiro. "Hiro, it's for you. It's a girl."

Ai and Akira were not listening, but Lily and the now up and recovered Marcus and Eric all heard what Luna just said. Hiro was curious as well as he stood up. Who could be calling him so early this morning, or better yet, who was this girl and how did she even know his phone number? He took the phone from his aunt's hand and placed it up to his ear. "Hello?"

"Hiro. It's me."

Realization struck Hiro as his eyes widened.

Kyoko?

To Be Continued