The Reflection Hero

Kaden looked up at the tall, lanky figure that he just bumped into, and quickly wiped his tears away.

“Uncle Morey?” He asked, surprised.

“Last time I checked, yeah!” Morey said jovially.

Kaden laughed a bit sheepishly. He had not expected, or rather hoped, he would run into anyone, let alone his uncle, who he had not seen in ages.

Morey kneeled down, to be on Kaden’s eye-level.

“What’s wrong, little man? He asked, ruffling Kaden’s hair.

“Nothing!” Kaden lied, turning away his head.

“What are you doing here anyway, uncle Morey?” He asked, in an attempt to steer the topic away from him.
“Ah, well,” he started like he was about to spin a grand tale, “I was never the best in school, believe it or not. Unlike your father.”

Kaden had no trouble believing it. While his uncle had never outright said this was the case, it was obvious he was always in the shadow of Axel. Kaden supposed that's the reason he got along so well with Morey. They were alike, in a sense.

“Nevertheless, I became a fine hero, if I may say so myself.” He added proudly. “I've fought off some strong villains, you know. Even saved your father's life once, though he'll never admit it.”

Kaden nodded.

“That was in the Big Fight, right?” He asked, excited to finally hear more about the topic.

“Yes, yes,” Morey nodded, “brutal battle, that was, but I came out unscathed! Mostly, at least.”

His voice started to become slightly irritated as he continued his story.

“Dad, however…” he said annoyed, “he does not think me a proper hero.”

He let out a small sigh.

“He believes I should 'learn from my brother', and 'know what it is to be a good hero'.”

He made air quotes as he imitated his father. Kaden thought his grandfather sounded strikingly similar to his dad.

“So then he sent me to the city, to stay with Axel.” Morey sighed.

“Hasn't he told you?” He asked, surprised.

Kaden shook his head.

“Huh…” Morey contemplated.

“Well, either way, it's an excuse to see you again, little man!” He exclaimed as his smile returned to his face.

Kaden smiled back happily.

Morey put his fists on his hips and stared out to the street Kaden had run from.

“Well then, shall we?” He said, as he briskly moved past Kaden in the direction of the Ryoman residence.

Kaden hesitated. He had no desire to return home any time soon. Not after that.

Morey seemed to have picked up on this fact, because he turned around and said,

“You do seem to be properly upset about this ‘nothing’.”

Kaden sighed heavily. It seemed he had to explain what happened after all.

“Me and dad just had an argument.” He mumbled.

Morey nodded in a manner that indicated that it didn’t surprise him.

“And what was this argument about, if I may ask?”

Once again, Kaden sighed. He wanted to say something along the lines of “I lied about the school I went to”, but instead, Kaden he let out everything he had held back.

“He never believed in me.” He said, feeling the anger and sadness surge back into him. “I knew he didn’t, but… I thought maybe, if I went to a good school, he’d… he’d…”

Kaden clenched his fist. He wanted to punch something. To break something. He wanted to make something feel the same pain he was currently feeling.

“Why does it even matter?!” He yelled out. “Why does it matter what school I go to?! I’ve tried, so hard, but he just can’t see that! He expects me to be a perfect hero, like him, but I can’t be that! I know it’s my fault. I know I shouldn’t have lied about it, but I just got so scared when I got rejected. I just didn’t want him… I didn’t want him to be…”

Kaden’s voice trailed off, almost like he had run out of words and couldn’t bring out any more, no matter how much he wanted to.

“You didn’t want him to be disappointed in you.” Morey finished his sentence.

Kaden nodded feebly.
“He’s starting to sound like our dad.” Morey said calmly.

“What I wouldn’t have given to shout at him like that.” He chuckled. “I was always his least favourite child. So much expectation, to be the best heroes we could be. I never even wanted to be a hero.”

He seemed to need to remind himself that there was going to be a point to his story.

“Oh right, uhm, I was trying to say that, no matter how much we might hate them sometimes,” he clenched his fists frustratedly, “family is important. You might not always agree, but at the end of the day, all you have is each other, right? They’ll be there when you need them. Sometimes, anyway.”

Morey stretched out his hand for Kaden to grab. Kaden scoffed.

“Either way, I’ll be on your side, always.” Morey said kindly.

Reluctantly, Kaden grabbed his hand, and they headed back together.

The closer they got to home, the more Kaden wanted to turn back. Morey seemed to pick up on this too, as he held Kaden’s hand even tighter.

He knocked on the door loudly, once they had reached the house.

“It’s me!” Morey yelled out.

Heavy footsteps could be heard from the other side of the door, before Axel swung it open.

“Brother!” Morey said happily, and threw his arms around his brother, before he had time to react.

Axel reluctantly patted Morey on the back. He looked over his brother's shoulder and for a moment his eyes met Kaden’s. They both quickly averted their gaze.

“Oh, and Rowena, it's good to see you!” Morey called, waving to her.

“You can let go now.” Grunted Axel, trying to push Morey away.

It seems Morey had been waiting for those words, because, as if on cue, he let go of Axel instantly and walked past him to shake Rowena’s hand.

Kaden and Axel stood in each other’s presence awkwardly, for a well too long moment. It seems neither of them wanted to shout again, so they had instead resorted to a quiet seething. Eventually, Axel turned his back and walked inside. Reluctantly, Kaden followed.
“What are you doing here, Morey?” Rowena asked, trying to sound friendly.

She had difficulty composing herself now. It seemed she had also been shouting, as her voice was ever so slightly hoarser than it had been before.

Morey opened his mouth to explain, but Axel cut in.

“Father has requested it.” Axel said grumpily.

“And why am I only hearing this now, dear?” Rowena asked, still forcing herself to sound friendly.

Axel didn't give a response. Rowena gave a look to Kaden, who quickly raised his shoulders, before averting his eyes.

“I would've called, but I was sure Axel would've relayed the message.” Morey said awkwardly through the tense silence.

“Well, you're here now, I suppose.” Rowena nodded.

Once again, there was a tense silence, that felt like days could be stretched out within it. Kaden and Axel were angrily glaring away from each other. The silence was only occasionally broken by Morey, inhaling as he opened his mouth to attempt to say something. Yet no words ever sounded from him.

Eventually, it was Rowena who cut through the quiet.

“Morey, shouldn't you go and unpack, if you'll be staying here?” She said, while not quite looking in his direction.

For a moment it looked like Morey was struggling to comprehend the words, but then quickly answered.

“Yes, of course! Kaden, why don't you join me?”

Kaden, surprised by being addressed all of a sudden, looked up into his uncle's grey eyes.

“Oh, yeah…” He mumbled hastily.

Kaden didn’t waste a second, and headed for the stairs. He wasn’t particularly ecstatic about the idea of unpacking, but any place away from there was fine now. He walked to the stairs as swiftly as possible, though not quite having the energy to run.

The moment they were out of earshot, Morey began talking.

“It seems your fight was pretty bad, huh?”

“What?” Kaden said, not really paying attention to his uncle.

“Oh, yeah, I guess.” He mumbled, after comprehending what was said to him.

They reached a spare room, next to Kaden’s. It was mostly empty, since nobody had used it in quite some time. The only thing there was a bed, a small desk, and the dust covering it.

Morey put his trunk down and sat on the edge of the bed.

“What will you be doing here?” Kaden quickly asked before Morey could say anything about the situation.

He had no desire to go into more detail about the fight between him and his dad.

Morey patted on the bed, signalling Kaden to sit down. Kaden obliged.
“I hadn’t really thought about it, to be honest.” Morey said slowly. “I suppose I’ll just be tagging along with your dad. He’s working on a new case now, if I heard correctly.”

Kaden gulped and nodded.

“Though our powers don’t work well together at all!” Morey chuckled. “Did I tell you about that time in high school, when Axel and I both almost got expelled?”

Kaden shook his head quietly.

“So there was this kid in Axel’s class, Maton Ijime. Now, your dad was good in school, but this kid was always slightly better.”

“He never told me about that.” Kaden said, not so surprised.

Morey nodded and continued his story.

“They were always at odds, fighting each other when there were no teachers around. Pretty evenly matched too, they were. So one day, your dad roped me into one of his fights. I was just minding my own business, you know? Things went pretty well though, we were winning. That was until your father used his power.”

“What happened?” Kaden asked, getting more invested in the story.

“Well, your father tried to invert Maton’s explosion attack. I believe he was trying to invert the temperature, so it wouldn’t ignite or something, I didn’t really understand it myself. Either way, unfortunately, I used my reflection power at the exact same time. I tried to cancel his explosion, by mimicking it. I wasn’t the brightest kid, I admit. Instead, what happened is, I mimicked Axel’s power. And, well, long story short, we created an implosion that destroyed an entire wall of the school.”

“What?!” Kaden gasped, a little louder than he intended.

“Nobody got hurt!” Morey added quickly. “I used a different reflection to get the implosion away from everyone, but that only caused more destruction. Needless to say, the school was not happy. Oh, and father, he was furious.”

“Right…” Said Kaden sombrely, remembering why he was up with his uncle in the first place.

Morey cleared his throat.

“Though, seeing as I wanted my big brother to succeed, I took all the blame.” He said, in a less reminiscent tone.

“Why would you do that?” Kaden asked shocked.

“Well, he was always father’s favourite, you know? I knew father would blame me either way, and getting him expelled would only have made that worse. Besides, I wasn’t sure whether I really was at fault or not, this was just the easiest way.” Morey explained.

“I didn’t take you for someone who takes the easy way out.” Kaden blurted out.

He quickly covered his mouth, not knowing why he would even say something like that.

“Hey now.” Morey said sternly and let out a sigh.

“It all turned out alright though. After that, I knew father would always be disappointed in me, so I stopped caring as much.”

Kaden looked down.

“Ah, but that’s bad advice, don’t listen to me!” Morey said quickly.

Kaden chuckled.

“Alright then.” He said softly.

“Now, come help me unpack, before it gets too late.” Morey said as he rustled Kaden’s hair.

Kaden stood up and walked towards the door.

“I thought I wasn’t supposed to listen to you.” He said smugly.

Morey opened his mouth, like he was about to retort, but closed it again with a frustrated look on his face.

Kaden smiled at his uncle, and bent down to help unpack.

“Cheeky…” Morey mumbled as he walked over to Kaden.

It didn’t take long for them to finish. Once they were done, Morey thanked him, and Kaden headed to his room.

He shoved his whole backpack, which he only realised just now he still had on, into his hiding spot, then promptly laid down on his bed. He recalled how he left his friends behind at the Desuna mansion, and felt bad now for doing this so suddenly. He felt angry, not just at his father, but at himself. He felt sad, that he couldn’t find a way out of this situation. Though his uncle had managed to cheer him up for a brief moment, now that he was alone again, in silence, it all came back to him.