Kiryll Nightroad and his friends are finally in Meltokio, ready to meet up with the Wilders and learn more about Guede, the Persona of Emotion. What is there to learn that Kiryll doesn't know about? Is there anything?

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Parking the ship was hard when there were other aircraft that was trying to land. But once Ad Libitum actually stopped moving, Kiryll and Arche were the first two off. Zelos jumped out for a clear third while everyone just stood there watching them run off the first few feet.

"Leon, do you know anything about the Wilder family?" Astrid looked up to him. "Besides them being one of the most prestigious families of the continent?"

"They're the human family chosen to watch over the World Tree." He answered. "Legend states that they were the ones that took in Lorelei and made him as if he was their blood brother. As a result, they're considered sacred."

"That's weird. Everyone in the Wilders is human, right? Like what you said?" Stahn turned to Leon. "But Zelos is a heron."

"What can I say? They only call them a human family because they never held a heron in their bloodline." Leon stepped down from the ship. "Let's just say that Zelos is the first one in a long time, and that…there's been some falling out of the Wilder's part."

"Falling…out?"

Everyone looked at each other as they all followed Zelos through the winding streets of Meltokio to a huge mansion. The outside was oddly golden (despite the other mansions being a strange holy white tone), with the bluest door they ever saw in their lives. Zelos headed toward the door.

"Let me handle all the talking, 'kay?"

"Um…sure." Kiryll blinked.

Zelos knocked on the door as a butler came out. He gestured the others away as they began to talk amongst themselves. After a few minutes, the butlers quickly ran back into the house. He turned toward the others and gestured them in.

"Go in with caution, I guess?" Kiryll tilted his head.

"All right. Humans and half-elves first." Yuri gestured.

Arche and Astrid nodded before dragging Rita in. Flynn gave both Estelle and Luke a reassuring nod before following the girls. The others slowly poured in one at a time. Kiryll looked around and admired just how noble the entire living room felt. The tiles were the same as in the throne room of the Tethe'allan kingdom, not to mention the dangling chandelier from above them.

"Wow!" Arche looked around. "Guests here, much?"

"Eh, from time to time." He answered. "Not as much anymore, but-"

"Lord Zelos, please wait for a moment." One butler nodded. "Your father is meeting with the king as of now."

"Let him do as he pleases. We're not in a rush." Zelos gestured. "Just make sure that my guests here are attended to."

"Understood."

"Don't I feel like an object now…" Rita grumbled.

As they settled down on the couches in the room, the butlers hurried out to the kitchen (to serve refreshments, as Arche pointed out. "They always do that", she stated). After three seconds, Stahn and Zelos were in a heated match of chess. How it got started was anyone's guess.

"Who's winning so far?" Kiryll leaned in.

"They're actually going strong. I'm surprised that Stahn didn't flunk on his moves." Rita answered.

"Shhh! Don't distract me!" He took up one piece. "All right then…knight to a6."

"I see…not a bad move, Stahn. However…" Zelos grinned. "Bishop to f5. I believe that's checkmate."

"WHAT?" Stahn jumped in the air. "Aw, come on!"

"Oh damn…surrounded by a queen, a bishop and a rook." Yuri chuckled. "You've never played chess before, haven't you?"

"Don't judge me!"

"Can't help but." Leon sighed.

"What can I say? A man of religious beliefs like myself always hold the key to the kingdom." Zelos grinned.

I have a strange feeling that he's doing this to make a political statement… Kiryll rubbed the back of his head.

"All right then…" He looked around. "Who's next?"

"I'll play you." Estelle sat at the board. "I've only played the maids back in Zaphias, so this will be a nice change for me."

"All right then. But don't expect me to go easy on you just because you're a woman."

"I expect nothing less."

"Oh boy…he's in for it now." Flynn grinned.

"I play the winner!" Luke called.

"Screw that! I play the winner!" Rita argued. "A noble with intelligence such as yours shouldn't be playing with the big boys!"

"What was that?"

As everyone started debating over that, Astrid began to wander around the room, staying close to their game. The windows were large, letting in a lot of sunlight onto the small dining table and what looked like to be a grand piano (possibly for entertainment?). She wandered to the fireplace, marveling at just how beautiful the wood frame was. All the gald that she could muster from any of her jobs wouldn't buy her that. She was barely aware that Kiryll stood next to her.

"This is really beautiful." He remarked.

"I know. I know that Zelos is rich and all, but I never knew that he would live in such a beautiful area." Astrid answered.

"Yeah, I know…" Kiryll blinked. "Hm?"

Astrid stared at the mirror and candles that hung over the fireplace. The mirror was angled so that she could see the group that was leaning over the game between Estelle and Zelos, who were now staring so intently at the board. Kiryll, on the other hand, noticed a small box that was sitting under the mirror. Looking around, he reached for the lid.

"K-Kiryll! I don't think that you should be looking in there…" She panicked.

"I'm not going to take anything in here, Astrid. Besides, this looks like it only holds hand bells." He answered. "You know…those silver orbs that make sounds when you roll them in your hand?"

"Um…"

Kiryll gave her a reassuring smile as his curiosity allowed him to open the box. However, it didn't hold hand bells as he expected. Instead they held five Cruxis Crystals, delicately arranged in a row and covered by nothing more than blue velvet. He quickly closed the lid.

"W-what is it?" Astrid asked, panicking.

"I-it was hand bells, just like I thought." He chuckled. "The design on them was pretty intimidating, but it's nothing to think too hard about."

Astrid stared at him as if she doubted his remark when they heard screams of delight and misery coming from behind them. It turned out that Zelos lost to Estelle…in five minutes. Astrid walked over to the group to get the details as Kiryll held his sweaty forehead.

The Wilder family is a group of Hunters… He closed his eyes. Dammit…

He lowered his hand toward his Cruxis Crystal, hidden only by a white collared shirt as he slid a button over it. Nonchalantly, he walked over to the group as Rita and Luke began a heated chess game. According to Arche, it was a game of speed chess (whatever that was).

"Ah. So they weren't lying."

Everyone looked up from the game to see a man walking into the building. He looked…noble, for someone of the Wilder family. He had red hair similar to Zelos's, and a clean shaven face that took five years out of his age. However, he had the air of…arrogance? Or was it something else?

"Zelos Wilder…so you have returned home."

"Hello…father." He said with hidden bitterment.

"And look at all of your guests! I wonder what this occasion calls for!" He turned to the butlers. "Prepare the lunch for our newcomers!"

"Right away!"

Kiryll watched as the butlers scrambled toward the kitchen. When he approached them, he found himself unconsciously angling himself away from him. Yuri caught on, because he was angling himself in front of him and Estelle as nonchalantly as he could.

"Is there something that you need my help with?" He asked.

"Actually…we need your help with a domestic issue." Flynn stood up. "The Wilder family is the only people we can turn to."

"Hm…this sounds pretty deep." He sat down. "What can we do?"

"Dad…he's talking about the Taijo Ritual."

Suddenly, the air in the room became very tense and humid. Kiryll had to look around the room to make sure that no one was secretly trying to cook them alive. After a few minutes of complete silence, his father quickly recovered from his shock and held an interested smile on his face.

"The Taijo Ritual? That's a complicated procedure for people such as you to learn about." He said. "Why would you want to know about that?"

"We need it. Badly." Yuri bluntly stated.

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Because we're dealing with the Persona of Emotion." Yuri leaned forward. "Does the name Guede mean anything to you?"

"Guede?" He jumped to his feet. "What about him?"

"You see, there's a guy out there running around with that name. He's after our friend here." Luke said, gesturing to Kiryll. "And we don't know why. On the off chance that he is in fact the Guede of legend, we want to make sure that we can get him under wraps."

The room sank back into silence. This time, it was more unnerving than tense. Silently, Zelos' father turned and took a closer look at Kiryll. He felt sweat drive down his back as he wished that he wouldn't notice his Cruxis Crystal. Instead, he merely stood and headed toward the fireplace.

"You're asking a lot, you know." He said. For some reason, his voice didn't seem scared. Almost…interested.

"We're not, really!" Estelle said. "We're just asking for you to help us!"

"Well, sad to say this to you guys, but the Taijo Ritual's been long lost in our history." He held the lid of the box. "My great-grandfather mentioned it to my grandfather but forgot to tell him how to initiate it. As a result…no one knows how to do it anymore."

"Are you serious? You said that you wouldn't tell me because I wasn't of age yet!" Zelos stood up. "You've been lying to me this entire time?"

"I'm sorry, Zelos. I was going to tell you when you were of age, but…" His father turned around, the box in his hands. "I learned something else that might be just as helpful, though."

"Anything will work." Flynn stated. "Can you tell us this technique?"

"Of course. Anything for the Knights."

Kiryll cringed as the man opened the box, revealing the five Cruxis Crystals inside. Instantly, he felt the air tense up yet again. What had it worse was Zelos. Kiryll watched as the anger on his face melted into that of sadness, as if he had known this all along. The man was his father, so…

"Are those…Cruxis Crystals?" Arche finally mustered up.

"The ones from my strongest characters. The one in the middle is my pride and joy." He pointed at it. "The heron I fought was a hard one at that: knew a lot of spells and was really fast. Almost took out my arm."

Kiryll looked around at the others and noticed that Stahn was getting extremely anxious. After a few seconds, he noticed that his arm was starting to twitch toward the Swordian at his side. Before he would go to stop it, he saw Leon grab the arm instead. It seemed to calm Stahn down, because the twitching stopped.

"So you're a Hunter now…" Leon said.

"The whole family is. Started way before my grandfather was born." He sounded happy about it. "Zelos here's going to be the heir to this Dynasty. He's gonna be the best Hunter the world's ever seen!"

Oh, the irony of that statement… Arche thought. "OK…about that statement before saying that you're going to be helping us…?"

"Yes, of course. Well, if you guys must know, we at the Wilder household have done some research concerning the Persona. And we came to a valiant conclusion…" The father closed the box. "When they come onto this world, they appear in the form of herons. In fact, they might as well be the first herons ever marked on the planet."

"So you're saying that using Hunter techniques is going to keep this Guede at bay?" Rita scoffed. "That sounds way too cocky, if you think about it."

"It may be a powerful being, but in the end it's still a heron." Zelos' father grinned. "A Hunter like me should always be-"

"He didn't have a Crystal."

"What?"

"Like I said…he didn't have a Cruxis Crystal." Kiryll stood up. "When I ran into him, he only had an empty Key Crest."

"Just a Key Crest…and he didn't show any symptoms of C.A.C.I?"

CACI? Does he mean Chronic Angelus Crystallus Inofficium? Kiryll blinked. "Um…no. In fact, he seemed perfectly operable. He almost killed me…"

"I see." His father grinned. "Don't worry. I have more than one method to handle a man such as him."

From the corner of his eye, Kiryll noticed Zelos cringing in pain and holding his hidden Cruxis Crystal as if he didn't quite digest something well. Quickly, he turned away so that his father wouldn't notice his bizarre behavior and hopefully won't realize that Zelos is the very thing he hunts.

"Perhaps now isn't the time yet." His father stood. "I believe that our lunch is done. Will all of you have the pleasure of joining us?"

"I'm actually quite hungry!" Stahn stood, oblivious to figure out what's going on. "I'm going!"

"Well, we can't turn it down." Estelle stood up. "Can you show us to the dining room?"

"Of course, my dear." His father grinned. "It's this way."

Everyone stood and cautiously followed him toward the dining room. When Kiryll stood to follow them, he realized that Zelos was still sitting down holding his Cruxis Crystal. Looking back to the crowd, he caught eye contact with Leon, who nodded before joining the group. It was only then that Zelos realized that Kiryll was still there.

"I'll be fine. You can go on ahead." He said.

"You don't…look fine. You look like you might get sick all over the furniture." Kiryll answered. "I'm guessing that you don't have tight relations to your father, huh?"

"Sheesh…is it that obvious?"

"Probably not to your father, but I'm sure that everyone else thinks the same way." He sat on the table. "I mean, you've been cringing the entire time he was talking. Was it because of his bragging about his Hunting skills?"

"That's not the half of it. It's…something else." Zelos lowered his hand. "While he was bragging, he was excited about it…like he's planning to brag about it during lunch time and perhaps for all eternity, on the hope that someone might want to listen."

"All people want to brag about their greatest achievements, Zelos…but then again, I guess it's not that good to hear about how to kill a person." Kiryll sighed.

"That's not what I meant, man." He grinned at his obliviousness. "I meant that I could…feel what he was feeling, the same way I can feel your sympathy and confusion about this whole incident."

"What the-?" Kiryll's eyes widened. "How did-?"

"Hey, didn't someone tell you this? All Herons have their own ability embedded in their Cruxis Crystal, you know." Zelos tapped his. "The same way your ability is Wild Card, mine's called Emotion. It allows me to catch on certain emotions that happen to stray into the room."

"Making you adjust accordingly." He grinned. "That way, you never say anything at a bad moment."

"Basically. And by the looks of it, you're actually interested." He stood. "Not only that, but my father's wondering just where in the world we are."

"You can read minds, too?"

"Naw. That's Leon's ability. I just happen to know my father's emotions well." Zelos walked toward the staircase. "We should hurry up and join the others. Here, I'll show you the way."

"All right."

Zelos grinned as he snapped himself back into his usual self and headed up the area toward the dining room. Kiryll stood up to join him when he heard something snap in his mind. A card shot out of his body, depicting the image of a sword (or is it a dagger?) in front of a black wheel.

"I AM THOU…AND THOU ART I." Kiryll was surprised that Zelos' voice could actually be that deep. "I, THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE, WILL OBEY YOUR EVERY COMMAND."

Kiryll quickly grabbed the card as footsteps echoed back toward his current location. Looking up, he realized it was Zelos, with a strange look on his face.

"What's up with you?" He tilted his head. "Come on."

"Right, right…"

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That's the most ironic thing to date: Zelos comes from a family of Hunters, yet he's a heron! Oh, don't mind me. I just love irony XD