June 19th 11:34 AM

On that night, the only noises the bystanders could hear were the sounds of cars going off with faint wails of despair and shock. The rain pounded on his head as his facial expressions shifted from confusion to a befuddled look as he hovered his gaze to understand what just happened. At that moment, he only knew one thing, and one thing only. His life would never be the same.

"Hey ma, I want Kage to come along with us! Can I pleaseeee call him over??" Kaito pleaded while grasping his hands together as if he were a beggar.

"Kai, we already went over this dear, this is a family road trip! He can tag along next time but for today, it'll be just us!" Kaito's mother said while swooping him in for a hug. Laughter filled the room as the fresh scent of breakfast surrounded their noses.

Kaito could already guess what meal was being fixed up, so he quickly wrapped up his hug session with his mother to go check out what his next meal was going to be. Upon entering the kitchen, he saw the usual routine of his little sister tossing her food around her plate and his father bopping his head as soft music filled the room alongside the smell of—

"PANCAKES!!" Kaito exulted as he scurried to his father's side.

"I thought you said you didn't like the smell of pancakes cooking pa, have you changed your miiinnddd?" Kaito said with a grin slowly growing on his face. His father never liked the smell of pancakes as he was growing up, and would only cook them if his wife asked, or if his children were very desperate to have some sweet little pancakes for breakfast but other than that, he wouldn't even go near the batter.

"No son, I'm simply making something special for this special occasion! You're finally going to get your spirit power at the ripe age of 10! Soon enough you'll be able to get some cool powers just like ya pops right here" his father said while stroking his hair back in confidence while trying his best to look cool.

"I can't wait! I wonder what powers the grant will give to me" Kaito said with a huge smile stretching across his face.

(The grant is the spirit that everyone receives their powers from once they turn ten, and everyone usually gets 1-2 powers, each deriving from the powers that their parents have. It is extremely rare to have 3 powers, but it happens about every 50-100 years.)

"Well, go get your luggage ready, I don't want you to tell me that you forgot it when we're about to leave. "His father said, fixing his posture with a serious face.

"But I want pancakes first, pleaseeeeeeeeee" he pleaded while puppy eyeing his dad.

"They'll be ready by the time you're done, now run along." His father said with a sweet smile as he shooed him to his room.

{An hour passes and Kaito has already had his breakfast and is buckling his seat belt.}

"Alrighty kids, are we ready to have a great road trip?" Kaito's mother says with excitement while looking back at the children with a grin. Road trips were always Kaito's favorite, so he was ready to answer this question with all his might.

"YES! -"

"No. "Kaito 's Sister interrupted.

"I want to get my powers too! That's no fair!" She pouts while crossing her arms and turning to stare at her brother.

Kaito snapped his neck at her with an annoyed expression because it was obvious why she could not get her powers till later. She wasn't even old enough and now she's trying to start a fight before his big day? He obviously knew better than to start an argument with her, so he just rolled his eyes and turned his gaze towards the window to ignore her.

"Now now, let's not stare at our brother with envy but enjoy our trip instead. We'll be gone for quite a while so you might as well start getting comfortable now dear and put your seatbelt on. I won't tell you again young lady." Their mother said with a stern tone.

{A couple of hours pass by} June 19th 20:47 PM

Even though road trips never happened that often, they were still enjoyable because eventually everyone would settle down and the car would become full of laughter or snores. They would sing songs together and snack on things they've never tried before while crossing through the states and Kaito's favorite thing to do was to look outside and scope for things that repeated, like colors, designs on cars, animals, sounds, or even grocery stores because he liked to keep count of things.

"One... Two... Three... Four.... Five!" Kaito said in shock, not believing what he managed to hear all at one time.

"Ma, I counted five clicks in a row! Did you hear em too?" he exclaimed, excitedly reaching over to get the attention of his mother who seemed to be concentrating on something else. He continued to tap her which was a strange occurrence because she always responded quickly to Kaito's little bursts of excitement. Kaito started to worry "Ma---"

"Honey, stop the car." she abruptly said as her eyes widened, and voice shook. Her voice started to become heavy as she continued to panic. "Jack, I said STOP THE CAR NOW!" She yelled, startling everyone in the car with her sudden screams.

"Why? What's wrong dear? We're almost there." The father said, still shocked that she called him by his first name which even had the children in shock, so much that it woke Kaito's sister from her sleep. "Is there something that you... see?" He questioned with a concerned look on his face.

"We won't be here for much longer..." She whispered under her breath and grasped her chest.

"Mom?" Kaito said in a distressed tone as he watched his mother act in ways he's never seen before. His sister started to tear up because she was so confused.

"We have to get out of the car right now! I see something attacking our car, but I can't see anything else past that. I can't even see what exactly is approaching the car or how fast it's going for some strange reason, but I see our car being destroyed... so we have to get what's important as fast as we can and get out." His mother said while shuffling through her things to grab her phone and keys but before she could even lay a finger on her keys, a large sound engulfed Kaito's ears and he covered his ears and shut his eye lids tightly as fast as he could, not knowing the horrific scene that he would see before him. ————

Upon opening his eyes, he found out that his car really was destroyed, just like his mother said it would be, but his parents and sister were no where to be found. As a matter of fact, the whole area around his seat was destroyed except for him. The seat belt was still intact along with his booster seat and his little super hero figurine that he kept right next to him during the whole ride, but everything else was… crushed. He couldn't even comprehend what just happened because all he knew was that today was SUPPOSED to be his big day. He sat in silence, his hands slowly falling from where they were once raised and looked around trying to understand what happened.

"Ma...? Pa...? Emilia…?" Escaped his mouth in a trembling manner, whispering their names and praying for an answer back. Nothing. He heard nothing but the sound of sirens and the alarms or other cars going off with bystanders gasping and running over to him. He did notice one thing that he desperately tried to ignore, and it was his mother's arm, leaning out of the cars remains. 'That's not my ma. She's still alive.' he thought as tears streamed down his face, but you couldn't tell since the rain mixed in with his tears. He let out a shattering cry of despair, struggling to unbuckle his seat belt. The same seat belt his mother would help him get out of. Being as small as he was, he began to feel overwhelmed and started to black out. ———

End of chapter 1