Chapter Five - Close Call.

After school, Hiro, Jin-Ho, and Lyra would walk out of the school together.

“So, how long do we have until we have to be at the safehouse?” Hiro asked. Jin-Ho grabbed his phone from his pocket, pressing the power button. He looked at the time.

“We have about 20 minutes…” Jin-Ho said. Hiro nodded,

“Why don’t we grab something to eat really quick?” Hiro suggested. Lyra shrugged,

“Why not, I could go for some spoiled fish!” Lyra said. Hiro and Jin-Ho looked at her blinking.

“She did it again…” Hiro said. Jin-Ho nodded. Lyra covered her mouth in embarrassment.

“You can speak in your language when you’re with us, we can understand it…” Hiro said. Lyra nodded,

“R-Right…” Lyra said. Hiro looked down at her as she walked by it side.

“You alright?” Hiro asked.

“Y-Yeah, I’m alright… I’ve just been feeling weird lately…” Lyra said. Hiro looked confused,

“How come?” Hiro asked.

“I'm just a little homesick… Do you understand?” Lyra asked. Hiro nodded,

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve felt somewhat homesick ever since my mom passed away, our house just feels more lonely without her…” Hiro said.

“I wished you had stayed with us Lyra… My sister struggles to relate with my dad and I being a girl and all, so I thought her having a sister of some kind would’ve been nice…” Hiro said, looking at the ground as they walked. He had a somewhat sad look in his eyes. Lyra looked at Hiro, blushing.

“I’m uh… Sorry… It wasn’t really in my control anyways… Nothing has since the incident that took me from home…” Lyra said. Hiro looked slightly surprised,

“Hey, Lyra, y’know what?” Hiro said. Lyra looked at Hiro curiously,

“What is it?” Lyra asked.

“When I get stronger, I’ll help you out.” Hiro said. Lyra raised a brow,

“How so?” Lyra asked.

“We’ll get you back home, and you’ll be Queen Fournier of…” Hiro looked at the ground, slightly puzzled for a second. Lyra opened her mouth, slightly taken aback.

“… Of wherever you’re from!” Hiro said, smiling. Lyra closed her mouth, smiling.

“I’m grateful I met you Hiro… You’re very kind.” Lyra said. Jin-Ho looked at Hiro and Lyra, somewhat surprised. He then sighed, smiling. The three continued walking, it was somewhat quiet. The only thing that could be heard is school children playing on a playground in the distance and the quiet sound of car engines and horns. The sound of the breeze was quiet,

“It’s nearly Fall…” Hiro said. Jin-Ho nodded. Lyra looked at the two in confusion,

“If I may ask, what is Fall?” Lyra asked. Jin-Ho and Hiro looked surprised,

“You don’t know what Fall is?” Hiro asked. Lyra shook her head,

“Really, that's surprising…” Jin-Ho said. Lyra looked surprised,

“Is that so…?” Lyra asked. Hiro nodded,

“Yeah, do you guys not have seasons in…”

“Aetheris.”

“Aetheris! That’s right.” Hiro said. Lyra chuckled,

“Oh, Seasons… Yes we have seasons.” Lyra said.

“How many?” Hiro asked.

“How many do you have on Novaterra?” Lyra asked.

“We have four seasons here on Earth.” Jin-Ho said. Lyra looked confused,

“Earth?” Lyra asked.

“What you’re standing on… Basically a big rock with life on it in a vast plane of infinity.” Jin-Ho explained. Lyra blinked, somewhat struggling to understand what he said.

“Okay…?” Lyra said.

“So, we have four seasons, as I said earlier.” Jin-Ho said. Lyra nodded, looking him in the eyes. The two made eye contact. Lyra looked away for a second, blushing.

“S-Sorry…” Lyra murmured. Hiro looked over, watching with slight curiosity. Jin-Ho looked at Lyra raising a brow,

“What's up?” Jin-Ho asked. Lyra shook her head,

“I-It’s nothing…” Lyra said. Jin-Ho looked confused,

“Lyra, c’mon…” Jin-Ho said. Lyra shook her head,

“If I tell you… Can you promise me you won’t tell Cassandra?” Lyra asked. Hiro’s eyes widened, walking backward slowly. Jin-Ho noticed this, looking at him, raising a brow.

“What’re you doing?” Jin-Ho mouthed. Hiro shook his head, pointing at Lyra. Jin-Ho looked confused,

“Back when I was young, about 6 years of age… I used to hang out with my older sister and her friends…” Lyra said. Jin-Ho looked back down at Lyra, slightly confused.

“One of them used to make fun of how my eyes looked…” Lyra said. Jin-Ho looked shocked,

“How come…?” Jin-Ho asked. Lyra shrugged,

“They told me they were bright and distracting…” Lyra said. Jin-Ho put his hands on Lyra’s shoulders.

“Let me see…” Jin-Ho said. Lyra opened her eyes in shock, looking up at Jin-Ho. The two looked each other in the eyes. Hiro looked over from a distance, he would be chewing on a small bread roll. Suddenly, an older woman stood next to him.

“Young love, isn’t it sweet?” The old woman said. Hiro looked down at her to his right, raising a brow.

“I gummhguess, I dunno…” Hiro said, looking back up at Jin-Ho and Lyra while he chewed on the bread. Lyra began tearing up slightly. She stepped back, looking away. She wiped her tears,

“L-Lyra? Are you alright?” Jin-Ho asked. Lyra nodded, her back turned toward Jin-Ho.

“Y-Yea… Hiro got us some food… Go help him out…” Lyra said. Jin-Ho raised a brow, nodding.

“S-Sure…” Jin-Ho said, a confused look on his face. He turned, quickly walking over to Hiro. Hiro looked at him, smiling.

“Hello.” Hiro said, still chewing on the bread.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full of food, idiot.” Jin-Ho said. Hiro smiled innocently, swallowing the bread.

“My bad!” Hiro said. Hiro handed Jin-Ho a bag of warm bread.

“Here ya go.” Hiro said. A few minutes later, the three would be walking again but this time Hiro stood in the middle instead of Lyra. Lyra stood at Hiro’s right and Jin-Ho at his left. Hiro looked at the two of them in confusion, both of them eating their bread.

“You guys alright?” Hiro asked. Jin-Ho looked over at Hiro, raising a brow.

“Yeah? Why wouldn’t I be?” Jin-Ho asked. Lyra nodded,

“I’m fine…” Lyra said. Hiro had a straight face,

“She’s really good at this thing we call lying, huh…” Hiro internalized. He sighed, looking back forward. Suddenly, Hiro’s arm would stretch out in front of Lyra. His eyes were red like Ryuji’s. Lyra’s eyes widened, looking at his arm. Hiro would be holding a dark red arrow. He then looked up to his left at a building seeing a black cloaked figure with a bow that matched in color with the arrow.

“Jin-Ho, get Lyra out of here!” Hiro said. Jin-Ho and Lyra looked shocked seeing the arrow. Jin-Ho then shook his head, nodding.

“Got it!” Jin-Ho said. Hiro blinked and the red color in his eyes went back to its normal black. Hiro jumped toward the building landing on the roof, across from the masked assailant.

“Hey! Who the hell are you!?” Hiro shouted. The figure just stared at him, then turned running. Hiro’s eyes widened, chasing after them.

“Don’t run!” Hiro shouted. Hiro grit his teeth, remembering what Cassandra ordered of him.

“You’re not allowed to use that sword under any circumstance, do you understand me!?” Cassandra said. Hiro sat down sweating heavily from a training session.

“Y..Yeah… I understand…” Hiro said, breathing heavily. Back in the present, Hiro would be chasing after the unknown assailant.

“Who the hell is this guy?? What was he going to do to Lyra?” Hiro said. Just then, Jin-Ho would catch up with him. Hiro looked over,

“Where’s Lyra?” Hiro asked.

“She’s safe… Don’t worry.” Jin-Ho said. Hiro nodded,

“Good…” Hiro said.

“So… Who’s our friend here?” Jin-Ho asked. Hiro shrugged as they continued to chase.

“I don’t know… They didn’t speak.” Hiro said. Jin-Ho looked confused,

“Really? Interesting.” Jin-Ho said. Hiro nodded. Jin-Ho opened his palm, the black fire with a blue outline appeared in his hand. Suddenly, it formed into his pistol. He turned the switch on the side of it, changing the mode.

“What does that do?” Hiro asked.

“I just changed it into lethal…” Jin-Ho said. Hiro looked shocked,

“L-Lethal? Are you trying to kill this guy?” Hiro asked. Jin-Ho looked confused,

“Uh, yeah!? He just tried to kill Lyra!” Jin-Ho said. Hiro nodded,

“I mean, good point, but like, they have to be working for someone, why not take them to Cassandra, she’ll get it out of them.” Hiro said. Jin-Ho thought about it for a second before moving the switch again.

“Good point, we do need to figure out who they’re working for…” Jin-Ho said. A few feet in front of the two, the assassin jumped down an ally. Hiro and Jin-Ho’s eyes widened.

“Shit!-” Jin-Ho said. The two walked over to the edge of the building the assassin jumped off of, looking down. Hiro and Jin-Ho sighed,

“Crap… How could we have lost them…” Hiro said.

“Why didn’t we use Leiwen!?” Jin-Ho said. Hiro sighed,

“You could have, Cassandra’s forbidden that I use Ryuji’s mana.” Hiro said. Jin-Ho glared at Hiro,

“Piss off…” Jin-Ho said. A few minutes later, they’d be at the safehouse. It looked like an average Japanese neighborhood home. Jin-Ho grabbed a key, unlocking the door. They walked into the house. They walked over to a closet. Jin-Ho put his thumb in the middle of the door knob. The middle of the doorknob glowed a bright blue and the door opened slowly. When they opened the door, inside the closet it was pitch black. Suddenly, a dim blue light turned on on the ceiling of the closet. Jin-Ho looked down. There was a ladder going downwards quite far. At Least far enough to where they couldn’t see the bottom. Jin-Ho stepped to the side, looking back at Lyra.

“You first.” Jin-Ho said.

“But usually-”

“I don’t care what we usually do…” Jin-Ho said. Lyra looked down, her eyes squinting slightly.

“You’re in serious danger, we have to be extremely careful.” Jin-Ho said. Lyra looked up, nodding.

“Got it…” Lyra said. She slowly walked toward the closet. She then crouched down, putting her hands on the edge of the hole. She then put her feet on the ladder, grabbing the left side of the ladder with her left hand. She then slowly began to descend the ladder. After a little bit of time, they would be standing in a hallway with the same dim lights making a path on the ceiling. The three walked down the path, leading to a door.

“Hey, Jin-Ho… You never did end up telling me where all this technical stuff came from… Cause this definitely doesn’t exist… I mean, this stuff is insanely advanced.” Hiro asked. Jin-Ho sighed, looking back at Hiro in annoyance.

“Did Cassandra not tell you?” Jin-Ho asked. Hiro shook his head.

“It’s from another realm…”

“… Or technically you could say it’s from the future.” Jin-Ho said. Jin-Ho tapped on the frame of the door and a futuristic keypad switched on.

“What do you mean, the future?” Hiro asked. Jin-Ho then typed in a code onto the keypad and the door opened slowly.

“It doesn’t matter, we need to speak to Cassandra about what happened-”

“What happened?” Cassandra interrupted Jin-Ho. She would be sitting on top of a table eating a bowl of ramen. She wore a black tank-top and black military pants. She had her hair in a bun as she looked at them raising a brow while blowing on some steaming hot noodles. The three looked at Cassandra in shock. Cassandra blinked, slurping up noodles. She raised a brow as she chewed on the noodles. She then swallowed.

“What's up?” Cassandra asked, raising a brow along with an innocent puzzled look.

“So uh… Something happened on our way back from school.” Jin-Ho said. Cassandra's innocent look then turned to one of seriousness.

“Jin-Ho.” Hiro said. Jin-Ho looked back at Hiro, raising a brow.

“What?” Jin-Ho asked.

“Don’t beat around the bush… It’ll get us nowhere.” Hiro said. Jin-Ho’s eyes widened slightly, blinking. He then sighed, closing his eyes and looking back over at Cassandra.

“We were attacked.” Jin-Ho said.

“By who?” Cassandra asked.

“Some kind of assassin.” Hiro said. Jin-Ho looked at Hiro raising a brow.

“An assassin?” Cassandra asked. Hiro nodded,

“Yeah, they were too quick for us to catch…” Hiro said. Cassandra stood up, placing the bowl of ramen on the table next to her. Cassandra walked over to Hiro, looking down at him. She then kneed him in the stomach. Hiro’s eyes widened, covering his mouth. Cassandra then retracted her knee. Hiro grit his teeth, lying on the ground in pain. Cassandra scoffed, looking down at him. She looked up at Jin-Ho and Lyra. She then turned around walking slowly.

“Had to have been Cyrus…” Cassandra said, rubbing her chin.

“No… It wasn't Cyrus…” Hiro corrects, weakly. Cassandra raised a brow, turning her head to look back at Hiro.

“Pardon?” Cassandra asked.

“I said… It wasn’t Cyrus.” Hiro said, standing up, his hand over his chest.

“Are you saying you know something we don’t?” Cassandra asked. Hiro gulped, trying to get his wind back in his chest.

“I met with Cyrus…” Hiro said. Cassandra, Lyra, and Jin-Ho looked shocked,

“What!?” Cassandra shouted.

“Well- Not exactly met up with him, it's more like he came to visit me…”

“He told me, the next time I’d see him, I’d uh…” Hiro scratched the side of his head trying to remember.

“… I’d test something for him…” Hiro said.