By animeninjaNIPPON

Hanagumi came back, but that was nothing compared to the events that took place when Mikihisa showed up. It was he who revealed the ugly truth – that Hao and Yoh were actually twins.

He then proceeded to tell us the whole story – originally, the Asakuras had planned to kill both babies since there was no clue as to which one was the incarnation of Hao. Fortunately for the sake of their son (but not necessarily the world), Hao's Spirit of Fire came for the baby Hao and took him away, revealing the true Asakura child. However, Mikihisa was injured during this time.

"And that's the story of how I got my mask," he concluded.

"That's not what we asked about!" HoroHoro complained.

Mikihisa appeared to be making light of the situation. That's what I expected from Chocolove. Conversely, Chocolove was actually taking this very seriously…

"Um, can you all hold on a second?" he said warily.

"Huh?" HoroHoro asked.


"Don't you think you're all taking this too lightly?"

"Eh?" Ryu asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"As for me, I've got no plans to stick around with Hao's brother."

There he was, another traitor. I should have known better than to think he'd stick around long. Maybe he would go join Lyserg and the X-Laws. And for all I cared at that moment, he could. What business did I have trying to convince him otherwise? Ryu and HoroHoro tried to talk sense into him, to no avail.

"Don't you see?" Chocolove explained. "'Twins' means that Yoh is a part of Hao."

"You idiot!" HoroHoro objected. "They have different bodies, meaning they're different people!"

"That only means they were born separately."

"That means Master is Master anyway," Ryu said.

"Not quite."

"Eh?" Ryu was as confused with Chocolove's statement as I was with his sudden change of attitude.

"In the beginning, they were one," Chocolove explained further. "That's why Hao said he'd come back to get Yoh. That's what an 'other half' is. In other words, Yoh is Hao!"

"Damn it!" Ryu shouted. "Don't make up such stupid theories!"

I didn't say anything during this time. I didn't really know what to think – first, there was the shock of finding out the truth about Yoh and Hao, but in addition to that was my shock at seeing Chocolove take something so seriously (for once). To see that self-proclaimed comedian – who even tried the patience of Yoh – get so upset really got to me for some reason. Maybe it was because he was even convincing Yoh himself that Yoh and Hao were one in the same, but more likely, because his solemnity was getting ME to think – to think that there might be more to Chocolove than he let on. Maybe his comedic act was just that – an act.

My thoughts were once again interrupted by an impending battle. The X-Laws were back.

"We haven't come to fight," Lyserg assured us. "Jeanne-sama needs your power."

End of part five