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Ryo's POV
While everyone else was busy building a house or babysitting their friends, I stayed at the villa. As the sun set, I was in the sitting room, the rays of the setting sun lighting up the room. Haruko had taken off for somewhere, too, but I couldn't have cared less where. I didn't know her. Really, there wasn't any reason to be concerned about any of this craziness just then. Fuyuko seemed to have Natsuko's marriage under control, and if Fubuki wanted to build a house in such a ridiculous way, who was I to protest? It wasn't my choice, even if it was a little strange. I was used to that from these guys, anyway. None of that bothered me a bit.
What did worry me right around that time was what Fuyuko brought back with him when he finally returned.
I had expected him to return with Natsuko, possibly on a leash, given how angry he had been at that man. But what he brought back was certainly not that friend of his. In fact, Natsuko didn't seem to be present at all. No, Fuyuko came in carrying Sho, his expression conveying a sense of urgency.
When I asked him what had happened, he headed into Sho's room while telling me that Sho had attacked Ai. He said he had planned on taking him to the hospital, only to find police vehicles and the Misgarthian royal guard.
This sounded bad. I followed him into Sho's room, only one possible cause coming to mind.
I waited patiently until Fuyuko had put Sho in bed, then walked over and helped tuck him in. With Sho tended to, we both left the room, although I stopped in the doorway to keep an eye on Sho. Crossing my arms and leaning against the door frame, I asked, "So you say Sho attacked Ai?"
"Apparently she was attempting, yet again, to take advantage of Judai," Fuyuko answered with a nod.
I had a feeling it was something like that. Getting Sho mad enough to trigger an episode wasn't an easy task. "Really."
"So he attacked her. He, ah...bit her," Fuyuko said, seemingly unnerved. Understandable, given the circumstances. "Repeatedly. While she strangled Judai and clawed at his neck, apparently unaware of what she was doing as she tried to get Sho off her."
I closed my eyes. I had been afraid of that. "Thought so. There's a full moon tonight, isn't there?"
"Yes," Fuyuko answered, and I don't think he understood what that had to do with anything.
I sighed and said, "That's what I was afraid you'd say. See, Sho's one of those guys who needs to stay calm on full moon nights. According to the doctors, if riled up even just a little, something in his brain snaps, and he turns wild. Like a lot of the psychos you only hear about during a full moon. He has medicine to help control it, but..."
"I see," Fuyuko said, and it sounded like he really did.
I didn't want to know how bad Natsuko was.
Instead, I thought about the day Sho was diagnosed with this strange, werewolf-like disease. He'd been being bullied by Gorisuke again and had gone wild all over him. This led to several months in the hospital as doctors tried to find and treat the cause of this unusual behavior. After some extensive study of our family history, the only diagnosis anyone could come up with was something that only affects the second son of a second son of a second son of yet another second son.*
Still sounded like they were telling me my little brother is a werewolf, especially given what some local priests had called it—a "family curse." They tried using talismans and charms to treat it. In the end, the doctors gave him some medicine for temper control and signed him up for anger management classes. Thanks to all of that, he hadn't had an episode in 18 years.
At this point, Sho was very good at controlling himself, so Ai must have done something severe to set him off. Regardless, this needed addressed quickly. It could be dangerous otherwise. I decided to call Sho's doctor and see about getting an exam done. In the meantime, this gave me an idea that might keep Ai away from Judai as long as Sho was around him.
I turned to Fuyuko, conveying the urgency of this matter through my tone and eyes as I said, "Fuyuko. We've got to talk to Ai about this. She needs to know Sho's medical records and that she should watch herself next time or risk having the same thing occur, that is. Sho usually never calms down until the thing that rattled him goes away and he calms down naturally. She might want to be aware to keep her hands off Judai at those times if Sho's around. It could save her life."
Alright so I wasn't being completely honest about that one. Yes, it was true Sho was dangerous when off his meds during a full moon. Yes, it was true you shouldn't anger him then. But I highly doubted Ai would get hurt at all as long as Sho remembered to take his medication. He'd been released from that hospital because he was stable, after all, and he never went back. Today he must have just forgotten to take his medication, probably because of the circumstances, and I'd forgotten to remind him for the same reasons. Too much was going on around here, after all, so neither of us had thought about it. But I would from now on.
No need to tell Fuyuko that, though. Ai needed told to stay away from Judai because she needed to do that anyway. Sho was already angry with her to begin with, and she needed to leave Judai alone already. I was hoping I could deter her with that false warning, making Sho sound worse than he really was. That way, since Sho was almost always with Judai, Ai would be more inclined to avoid him.
"Understood. She's at the hospital now," Fuyuko said.
"Right."
I looked back into Sho's room, concerned. He needed his medicine the moment he woke up, and I was the only one besides Sho who knew where it was. While it was true I needed to talk to Ai as well, I didn't want to leave Sho alone right then in case he woke up raging. At the same time, Ai might tell her guards what had happened, and Sho would be arrested, possibly executed for this. I wasn't sure what to do.
I didn't have long to think about this. About two seconds after I looked at Sho, Fuyuko raised an eyebrow and asked, "Should I go speak with her?"
"I'd appreciate it, thanks," I answered.
"Alright. I'll go talk to her," Fuyuko said before heading out to do that.
"Thanks."
I was grateful Fuyuko had offered to do that. Now I could worry about getting Sho the care he needed without worrying about the royal family of Misgarth sending someone to get him.
I was really starting to respect that man. He was a good man, helping others when they needed it without them even asking. I didn't know too many people like that. Ed, Kyle, Judai... Those were three of the people on my list. They were all good men with kind hearts. Fuyuko was starting to look like one of those.
Regardless of that, this Sho thing had to be addressed right here and now. People might wonder why Sho wasn't hospitalized after hearing that story, so I pulled out my cell to ask Sho's doctor if he could come take a look at Sho. After all, while I saw this as a minor accident caused by forgetting his medicine, I highly doubted anyone else would. And Sho might need seen, anyway, if he was having episodes again after 18 years without them.
Judai's POV
Okay, didn't know Sho had that going on. No wonder he didn't want to tell me why he had meds in high school.
Anyway, the guys spent the rest of the day working on that weird house. Well, except for Asuka. Nah, she spent the rest of the day keeping an eye on me and talking to me. I won't complain about that part of this whole mess.
The professionals started putting together a sturdy foundation for this house, but my friends insisted that they leave the first four planks they'd shoved into the ground alone, along with a wooden frame they'd put together. Obviously the construction crew was a little confused by this weird way of marking territory and the wooden frame they couldn't mess with, but they did as they were told and left this stuff as it was. They were told it was important, for some reason. Okay, so that was Manjoume's answer to the "where's Judai gonna sleep" question.
It took forever for the swelling on my neck to go down, apparently proving to everyone that it was really bad. They all got a bit worried, even Manjoume and Akiko. I got the feeling they wanted to take me to the hospital, but, thanks to Ai, that wasn't possible.
I was going to try to stop them from worrying my own way, seeing as I knew that I could withstand more than that without any serious damage—and Manjoume, who'd seen me fly across the beach and slam into the sand, should have known that now, too—but Kyle beat me to the punch. He told them all that we'd have to work with what we had and hope for the best, and that it should go down on its own in time since it was just a swollen neck. It wasn't getting any worse, he said.
Stupid Kyle had done my job for me, and he'd done it so much better than I ever had before. Apparently his confidence that somebody was going to be fine meant more than the opinion of the person who was actually hurt. They all calmed down and went right back to work without a care in the world. Even Asuka calmed down, going back to worrying about my attitude toward her clearly inhuman boyfriend. I mean, nobody that perfect can possibly exist on Earth, right?
I decided to change the subject, not wanting Asuka to worry about my behavior for the rest of the day, but, like any time I tried to get people to stop worrying, it didn't work. She still seemed concerned about it the whole time we sat there talking.
Geez, so Kyle can calm my friends when they're worried, but I can't? That's not even close to fair! It was me they were worried about! Me saying I'm okay should be good enough! Then again, Asuka had recently learned how great I had become at hiding my emotions, so maybe that had something to do with that one...
Either way, the swelling did go down after a few hours, and then perfect Kyle came back over to me to medicate the dumb wound before bandaging it. That was when I learned that Kyle wasn't so perfect, so he must have been human after all. When he tried to bandage my neck, he did it so badly that Kenzan had to redo it.
Once he was done with me, Kyle took his worried girlfriend and headed for the villa. Asuka looked back over her shoulder as she walked away, still concerned about my earlier attitude, even though I'd gotten rid of it hours ago. Unless she was now looking for hidden emotions from me and had noticed that I wasn't happy with her boyfriend...in which case I needed to step up my acting. She didn't need to know I hated the guy. I mean, she was happy, so shouldn't I have been, too?
Fubuki gave me back my stuff around then, too. For some reason, he'd brought it over from Lisa's room and just kept it all day, waiting for Kyle to finish with me. Now that the treatment's done, he told me as he gave me back my jacket and shoes, it should be okay. What sense did that make? Shoes weren't something you wore around your neck, Fubuki! And it wasn't like I ever fastened my jacket, so that wouldn't have been anymore of an issue than the turtleneck shirt I was still wearing.
Soon after that, the sun set marked the end of the day's construction. The tarps were brought over and set up over the whole of it by the professionals at Fubuki's direction.
Manjoume came over to stand beside me, his arms crossed. "Well, there you go, genius. A nice, warm place to spend the night so you don't freeze. Happy now?"
He sounded annoyed, which was pretty much normal for him. After all, that was his default emotion, especially when dealing with me.
Fubuki came over, smiling, and added, "Also I returned your jacket and shoes to you, so that should help, too, right?"
Yeah, thanks for finally giving those back, Fubuki.
"So, Aniki, feeling any better now?" Kenzan asked as he leaned over me, eyeing my neck.
"Yeah, I guess..." I said, giving up on pretending I was fine now that Asuka was gone. Hey, it hadn't been working to begin with, so why keep it up?
Kenzan raised an eyebrow at me as the others all headed back for the villa. Oh, so when I'm not pretending everything's great, they all believe it? Or maybe they were just not going to worry about it since Kyle said I'd be fine.
Well, except for Kenzan. He asked me, "Say, Aniki, you okay?"
Whoops. Worrying somebody again. Kenzan sat down beside me while the construction crew finished covering up their work.
"Yeah, fine," I answered. I mean, everybody loved Kyle, so why shouldn't I? Just because he seemed like he was everybody's new favorite thing didn't mean that I needed to be upset about it. Even if some of those guys only started hanging out with each other because of me. Man, Kyle seriously seemed like the new me.
"Come on, Aniki, who you trying to kid?"
Funny, you guys used to be easy to fool.
"I can already see that you're not, so what's going on?"
Well, if you could tell I wasn't okay, why did you ask if I was okay? Wouldn't asking what's wrong have made more sense?
"Are you worried about Ai? 'Cause, judging from what Natsuko said went down—"
Was he serious?
"Really? You seriously think Ai's the only problem I've got in life?" I asked, giving him a lame look.
Kenzan looked surprised, which was really annoying, all things considered. "I never said that, Aniki."
"Then how come you always think she's the problem?" I asked. I mean, come on! Everybody was doing that! I did have other things to worry about besides when my stalker was going to crawl out from under her rock again!
"Well, she is a pretty big one right now, isn't she? She's why we're all here, after all. Why? What other problems are you facing right now? Just find out you're adopted?" he teased.
Okay, yeah, that would have been an earth-shattering reveal. I laughed and said, "No. More girl problems, that's all."
Kenzan looked curious and concerned. He really didn't seem to get what my other "girl problem" could be besides Ai. Well, I know I didn't exactly go out of my way to tell everyone about my crush, but was it really that hard to tell? Hadn't he been the one who decided Asuka and I should be partners for that Pair Duel tournament during the graduation party?
"Are you sure it's not Ai, then? She's the only girl you're having problems with right now, right?"
Well, there you go! Kenzan didn't get it. Why was I trying to explain it?
"Not quite..." I muttered.
"Huh? What was that? Are you telling me there's another? Who is it?" Totally Clueless asked.
I shook my head and said, "There aren't a lot of other girls around that I know, are there?"
Kenzan crossed his arms, thinking about it. Really? He had to think about it? "Well, no, not really. There's Ai, Akiko, Haruko, Lisa, Junko, and Asuka. Which one are you mad at? Well, besides Ai, that is."
Annoyed, I snapped, "I'm not mad at any of them!"
Did I really need to be mad at a girl to have problems with her?
Kenzan cringed away from me, saying, "Okay!" He straightened back up and asked, "Then what is going on? You said earlier that you were getting over someone and that you—" He gasped, his eyes widening as the gears finally started turning. Took him long enough. "Y-you don't mean—" His eyes were now wide in concern.
There we go! Finally! Seriously, Ai wasn't my only problem. For proof, here's a list: Asuka's not-quite-perfect boyfriend, my regrets involving that, Kyle replacing me in everyone's lives, whatever was wrong with Sho, Johan's stupidity, Jim's abandonment... Get the picture? So why did my friends always jump to Ai? Did they even know me at all?
...You know, come to think of it, I didn't want an answer to that one.
"Yeah..." I said, answering Kenzan's unfinished question.
If possible, Kenzan's eyes widened even more, and he gave a start at my answer. "B-but I thought that ended over six years ago! Are you telling me it didn't!?"
And now he was looking at me like he couldn't believe what I was saying. Great.
"...I've been thinking it did since she didn't seem interested, but..." I shook my head as I tried to figure out how to say this. "Guess finding out she's got a boyfriend brought it up again..."
Kenzan looked nothing but concerned now as he said, "Aniki...you need help. You're seriously dwelling on the past 'cause of that? You know, where I come from, we call that obsessed."
Thanks for the input, Kenzan. That totally made the feelings go away and fixed all my regrets!
"Yeah, yeah..."
"Oh, man. You really need to get over that already!"
So you just said.
He gave me a gentle and sympathetic look that made me feel like a wimp and said, "So what say you and I go find you a nice, tall, attractive dueling companion bright and early tomorrow? Sound good?"
Well, not really, but I did need to stop wasting my time being jealous of a guy who had what I never would, especially considering the answer to getting me off that dumb island was to get a girlfriend. In other words, probably sounded about right.
I looked down, not too thrilled. "...Yeah..."
Kenzan put a hand on my shoulder. Clearly he understood the problem now. "It'll be okay, Aniki. You'll see."
Feeling like a broken record, I said, "Yeah."
My vocabulary had shrunk a lot in the last two minutes.
Kenzan patted my shoulder and stood up. "Well, good night, Aniki. Hope tomorrow's a better day for you."
Please, when you're trapped on a tropical island with a crazed stalker who probably wants to have both your best friends arrested and executed and your old crush is hanging around with her new boyfriend, no day is "better."
My lack of an answer made Kenzan look at me sadly, so I guess I should have said something. After another moment, he said, "Night," then joined the construction workers in leaving for the night.
I sat there a bit longer, thinking about my stupid jealousy complex, sniffling every now and then because of that dumb cold. Finally I headed over to the tent/construction site that my friends had put together.
"Judai, seriously," Yubel said in my head. "Even your friends know when it ended. Drop it already. It's your own fault, you know. You never told her you liked her, and then you—"
"I know!" I snapped, cutting her off. "But it's not like I had a reason to since she said I'd betrayed her, right?"
"Ever the idiot," she said as if I were the annoying one. "Did you always let words keep you from telling people things they needed to know?"
I looked down, thinking of what I'd done to them. What they'd all gone through because of me. "I had no right..."
"So? I didn't either, and yet I still did. Why couldn't you have?"
Because I wasn't as forceful as her?
First rule for a peaceful life with the duel spirit you're fused with: Don't ever tell her something like that. My answer, instead, was, "...I don't know..."
I climbed around the obstacle course-like construction site, looking for this "warm place to spend the night" Manjoume had mentioned. More specifically, I was looking for that random square they'd set up for no apparent reason. When I found it, it was definitely big enough to sleep in, meaning the tarp-covered construction site was meant as my temporary home and this wooden frame with a sand floor was my bed. Geez, guys, you had to have been building this thing because of me. Saying it was for Natsuko was a cover-up, although he clearly wouldn't mind having a house on the beach.
As I crawled in to sleep, Yubel answered her own question, sounding like she'd taken classes on attitude from Manjoume as she said, "'Cause you're stupid. That's why. But that's all in the past, so I say forget about it and get on with your life. You can't go chasing after her forever, can you? Or are you like Ai now? Persistent and stubborn. And clearly can't take a hint, either. Take Kenzan's advice and accept his offer to send you on a blind date. Who knows? You might meet someone better."
Part way through that, Yubel switched over to a neutral tone, which was about as close as she ever came to sounding gentle or caring—unless I was having a breakdown, like the other day, anyway. Either way, if Yubel was concerned enough about me to be gentle, I must have been embarrassingly bad. It was clear she was right—I needed to grow up already. Asuka was happy with Kyle; who was I to complain? It was my fault I'd never said anything. There were other girls out there, and maybe there was someone around I'd like more.
With that in mind, I answered, "Yeah, okay."
"Good. Guess I'll see ya in the morning, then. Night." And she dove deeper into our mind to sleep.
I lay down in the sand to sleep, too, trying to get my brain to stop focusing on stupid Kyle.
Jim's POV
I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it. How could Johan have done something like that? What was he thinking? Or was he thinking?
Because of the delay caused by Johan looking for a disguise so he wouldn't be arrested, we caught the last flight to Mexico at the airport, and we'd still need to change planes when we got back to Mexico, so, not accounting for flight delays, I reckoned we might make it back to the Isle of the Maiden at around 4 in the morning.
I was sitting between the two of them in coach, with Johan to my right. Not that anyone could tell from looking at him. The bloke had improved his disguise quite a bit. If I hadn't been with him all day, I wouldn't have known it was him. He'd gotten a new outfit, visited a salon, and even got himself some colored contacts. Seeing as some other bloke has already told me he wants the honor of describing this new look, I won't spoil it for you. The point is, Johan clearly wasn't "him" at the time.
I was still highly concerned, wondering if Johan had lost his head. He'd really made a blue, attacking Ai that way. Crikey, I wouldn't be surprised to hear he was wanted in just about every country. "I still can't believe you attacked her, mate! Why on Earth did you do that? Didn't you think she'd retaliate somehow?"
Only a drongo wouldn't, after all.
Johan sounded annoyed when he answered. I suppose he would. I mean, we'd been getting up him all day after we'd heard about it. "Yeah, yeah. What was I supposed to do? She was gonna kidnap Judai! And he clearly wasn't gonna fight her off in that weakened state!"
Rei leaned around me to look at Johan, curious and concerned, and said, "Remind me again. What was wrong with him that caused that? Something about Asuka hating him?"
Johan sweat, looking awkward and uncomfortable. I couldn't blame him, considering what we'd heard the other night. "Well, uh, that's...complicated..." He turned to me and, desperate, said, "A little help here, Jim?"
"Well, after Judai ran off without saying goodbye, Asuka was resentful of him," I said, deciding to tell Rei what I knew of the situation. "She didn't understand how he could do that to his friends, so, yeah, she hated him deep down. Even she didn't quite realize it."
I felt like chucking a wobbly thinking about it—not only did Asuka hate Judai, but Judai had learned about this on his own by eavesdropping on her and Kyle! At least, that's what Johan had told me. I hoped it wasn't true. Judai hadn't sounded that bad on the phone, but he had a tendency to cover up his feelings these days, so that didn't mean much. And that was all we needed, too! Asuka was in trouble, Sho was a mess, and Judai already had enough problems without learning about Asuka's feelings on his own!
Rei sat back, closing her eyes with a smug smile. "Ha! I knew I was better. I didn't care!"
Well, it seemed Rei might have had an idea as to why Judai took off without a word that year. Whether it was right or wrong, I couldn't say, but she clearly didn't hate him for it. If she did, she wouldn't have been sitting by the window on a plane bound for Mexico.
She opened her eyes again and gave us both a serious look as she said, "So let me guess. She finally told someone, having figured it out herself, and Judai overheard it."
Johan closed his eyes and crossed his arms as he angrily said, "From what I could gather, yes."
I really couldn't blame him for being angry. After all, one friend with issues hurt another friend with issues with her words. If Asuka had really done that, then that phone call I'd gotten suddenly made more sense. Judai had sounded like he thought I had abandoned him when he found out I was with Johan.
Suddenly I was thinking of the other time I had left Judai alone when he was upset. You know, since I wasn't given the chance to give my input in the Duel Academy Adventures books, here's my take on Haou.
Judai was a mess through that whole thing, but his intentions were pure. He just wanted to get everyone out of that mess, and he didn't want any of us getting hurt. After the others were sacrificed, I should have known he'd need some attention, but I went after Sho when he ran off. I thought Judai would be okay, or that O'Brien would take care of him, or that it wouldn't take long to get Sho to calm down and come back. Unfortunately, for a tiny bloke, he was quick, and I lost him.
The next time I saw Judai, he wasn't acting quite himself. I had hoped it was just because he was upset about how things were going, but that didn't turn out to be it. Judai had been enough of a mess that he was possessed by his own power, his dark side, you could say. That time, I'd had a mystical eyepiece that could save him. However, after Judai was saved in Dark World, it had shattered. I didn't know if Haou could take over again, but I wanted to get back quickly, just in case. Couldn't let that happen again when we couldn't stop him, after all. Especially not on our home world.
Blast it, Johan, why'd you have to delay us for so long!?
Rei smiled, just radiating confidence. "Well, he doesn't have to worry about that anymore! I'll be his friend!" She gave a bit of a mischievous grin with her next words, clenching a fist. "I'll always love him, too, so she can just take a hike. He's all mine now."
Hoo, boy. I'd already been over this with her countless times. I'd pretty much spent the whole day getting up somebody. And it was looking like I should do it again before we landed. I didn't want her coming on too strong and scaring Judai off, after all. He needed her this time!
"Right," I said. "Uh, Rei...try to tone down on the love for awhile, alright? I don't think Judai's going to be too happy with you if you try calling yourself his girlfriend too soon. Keep in mind that he's got a stalker right now and won't be too thrilled to have you coming on strong, too."
Now Rei looked annoyed. "Yeah, yeah. I got it. Don't worry. I'll be on my best behavior, okay?"
Oh, she was annoyed, alright. Made sense. Johan and I had both been telling her that a lot that day.
We entered Mexican skies right about then. Hopefully we'd get back to the island before Judai did something he'd regret.
Ai's POV
Oh, my goodness! I didn't know I did that much damage to Judai! Now I feel terrible!
Anyway, I spent the night at the hospital getting stitches and tetanus shots. The doctor decided to hold me over for a few days for observation and the like.
To my surprise, one of my visitors immediately after treatment was that Fuyuko man. Not one of Judai's friends, but he did seem to be working his way into the group. What on Earth could he want with me?
"How are you feeling, Ai?" he asked, apparently starting off with pleasantries. "Are you up for conversation?"
"I suppose so," I answered, wondering where this was going.
He walked into my room and stood by my bed, saying, "I'd like to apologize for Sho. However, I've done some research on him that should help explain what happened. I hope this will dissuade you from pressing charges."
As he spoke, he handed me a manila envelope, which turned out to contain Sho's medical records. How he had gotten his hands on those was a mystery to me.
"What is this?" I asked, curious now.
"Apparently, as a child, Sho was diagnosed with a mental condition. During a full moon, he turns into a maniac if provoked. His brother says he's lethal when he has one of these episodes as he won't calm down until what has angered him is gone and he's had a chance to calm down. As you have learned first-hand, his...episodes are rather violent."
I looked through the papers, stunned by what I was seeing. It matched up with what Fuyuko was saying, and it didn't appear to be a forgery. I couldn't believe that there was actually a condition that made someone act like a werewolf!
"Well, with that in mind, I'll certainly be wary of Sho during the full moon." Never thought I'd say those words in a sentence. "Don't worry, I won't press charges. However, Sho will need to be brought in for an examination to see if, perhaps, a stronger medication wouldn't benefit him."
Fuyuko nodded, accepting my terms. "Excellent idea, as this condition is more common in Central and South America. Granted, they do sometimes claim that the person actually turns into a werewolf..."
Why didn't he seem as disturbed by that idea as he should have? If people really think that somebody turns into a werewolf, isn't there something wrong? Then again, with the world we lived in, it shouldn't have surprised me to hear there were real werewolves running around.
"Yes, well, just take care of it, alright?"
"Understood. I'll let the Kaiser know that Sho is not in trouble as long as he sees someone about a stronger medication."
"Good," I said, nodded. "See that you do."
Fuyuko took a step back and said, "I'll let you get some rest, then, Ai. I wish you a speedy recovery."
And he left. So polite, too. Not like Manjoume. I suppose there are still some well-mannered men in the world.
*Sho's condition in this thing is based off werewolf stories I've heard involving the "curse" affecting certain members of a family, like the 7th son of a 7th son. These stories took place in the Americas, hence Fuyuko's comment to Ai.
