Ethan ~ POV

I could understand why Noah looked shell shocked standing there. People would be that way when they learn about this. Most people don't know their family history, yet this building has hallways full of mine, not to mention the basements. I usually don't announce my last name on tours. My family history can cause trouble.  

“Wow… so your entire family are just badasses?" That got a chuckle out of me. 

"Yup… our family has a lot of history under its belt." I pointed out as we walked through the halls. 

"So, what else do you know about the town?" Noah asked as we walked back to the museum.

"Depends what you want to know. If you're into ghost hunting, there's an abandoned mining town not far." I began listing things off randomly. 

"If you're into camping there’s Sterlin Basin a few miles away. Some try to go treasure hunting for cowboy gold there," I said without thinking and regretted it immediately. 

Looking back, I saw the classic raised eyebrow I get from most people who learn about.

"What?" Noah asked as he walked around to the other side of the see-through display. 

I grab some of the cleaning supplies under the receptionist's desk. 

"Guess you haven't heard about Thomas Edwards Fortune." I joked as I walked over to a sword display and sprayed the glass down. 

"What's that?" Noah asked as he appeared on the other side of the display. 

I couldn't help but smirk as he looked at me through the glass. Then, I moved to another collection and began wiping it down. I always hated telling this. Mostly because people think the treasure is real. Some have even trespassed onto my grandpa’s property trying to find it. 

"It's an urban legend around here. Some records say that my five times great grandpa was a secret society member. Fearing the group grew too big, he took the group's fortune and hid it out in the wild west. Though that's the basis of the legend. There's no concrete evidence to support it other than a few old pieces of paper." I moved over to a display of some recently recovered documents in the area. 

As I cleaned the case, I heard a familiar voice. 

"Ethan!... Who's up there with ya?" A rough older voice yelled out. 

Noah and I looked over to a doorway behind the receptionist desk; that led down into the basement of the building. 

"I swear if it's more of…." He stopped when he saw it was just Noah and me. 

I turned to grandpa, who had stomped up the stairs carrying a large saber, and stared at us. Then, I looked at Noah, who was surprised, and seemed a little scared. 

"Grandpa, this is Noah… his mom's…." I stopped when grandpa walked over and stood next to us.

Grandpa looked at Noah intently. His eyes squinted as if examining a new artifact for display.

"Oh… your Grenchins kid… nice to finally meet ya." Grandpa smiled and lowered the sword and held out his unarmed hand.

I laughed a little as I watched Noah take hold of my grandpa's hand like a timid puppy. Before he got shaken like a bottle of soda. Grandpa may be old, but this man will make you see hell as heaven if you ever piss him off. I should know, since I've pissed him off too many times to count. So watching an old man shake a city kid like he was on a jackhammer made me laugh. 

"Guessing Ethan here gave you the grand tour," Grandpa said before patting me on my shoulder.

I think Noah noticed my laughter as he gave me a small glare. Though it only fueled my smile more. 

"Ya… mom brought me since school's canceled." Grandpa only smiled wider as he looked between Noah and me. 

"In that case, Ethan… doesn't look like people are coming today… why don't you and Noah here head on out." Grandpa said, which was surprising to me. 

"You sure… I thought you wanted help with swapping out…." Grandpa interrupted me again with a wave of his hand. 

"It's fine… we'll set it up tomorrow. We have plenty of time." I couldn't help but hug grandpa when he said that. 

"Just be home by five and give us a call if you're going to be late." He patted me on my shoulder again. 

I set down the cleaning stuff; as I walked out of the museum with Noah, I heard grandpa call out. 

"Got your flashlight?" He asked the question that made most of the town folk look twice. 

I reached behind me and pulled the flashlight from my back pocket. It was a small slim pen flashlight. Grandpa always liked the family to be ready. I looked at Noah, who seemed confused. 

"Grandpa gives everyone in the family a flashlight. Says it's the perfect self-defense tool." I clarified, which honestly I didn't fully understand myself but hey, so long as it makes grandpa happy.

After walking to Mrs. Roger's office so Noah could explain that we would be heading out. I met Mrs. Rogers once before; the desk was an old one we had in the basement. Grandpa said she could use it since it was only gathering dust. Once we got the ok from Mrs. Rogers, Noah and I headed off. Stepping out of city hall, I couldn't help but notice Noah looked happier. Once we made it to the corner of the sidewalk, I turned to him.

"So, where are you from?" I asked as we kept walking. 

"Los Angeles." He said, which caught me off guard. 

"Hmm… I knew you guys from the city… didn't expect that far south." I got a laugh out of him. 

"What; think you're too good for us city-folk?" Noah asked in a bad country accent. 

I couldn't help but chuckle at his bad attempt.

"Oh, come now, child, I'm sure you can do better than that god-offal accent." I joked back in what I was hoping was a fancy voice.

It got a laugh out of him as we came to a crosswalk.

"So, where are we heading to?" Noah asked as we stood waiting for the light.

I looked up to the sky in thought for a minute before I came up with an idea. 

"There's a game shop down this road… they do D&D games on the weekends. I think they also have some anime merchandise. City people like that, right?" I asked as the light turned green, and I got a small punch from Noah in my arm. 

"Hey, that's stereotyping… not everyone is into anime," I looked at the black shirt he was wearing. It depicted what I'm guessing was a ninja on top of an electrical pole. The figure stood straight up with what looked like a large sword hanging from their back. 

Noah followed my eyes to his shirt. He said nothing as he followed me with a slight pout. A short walk later, we arrived at the comic shop. Across the street was the business district of the town. Restaurants, shops, and all that; most of them were small family-run places. The game shop where I was taking Noah was Nine-Tails Den. Inside was a large open shop with some tables on one side. It looked like a few people were getting in some fantasy role-playing games with school closed. The shop also catered to anime fans, with rooms upstairs for rent to watch the latest episodes. 

I bowed my head to Mrs. Tanaka as she bowed back. Noah was surprised; he bowed though he seemed a little awkward. I wave to some of the table players as I walk past them. Some of them were friends from school; walking up to the counter, I saw Noah amazed at the display countertops that showed anime figures. Guess he's a bigger anime fan than I thought. 

"Is that a limited edition Knight Model Mecha figure from Nova War?" The figure he was talking about looked like a giant robot carrying a sword and a shield.

Noah could barely contain himself as he stared fixated at it. The mech, I guess it's called, was kneeling with its shield hanging from its shoulder and sword stabbed in the base. There was what looked like the remains of a building in the background. The robot's chest piece was open, drawing the eye to a figure standing in front alone and looking up. Mrs. Tanaka couldn't help but giggle as she watched Noah drool over the figure. She asked me in Japanese if Noah was new to town. I spoke some Japanese which got them to talk to me easily. Speaking in Japanese caught Noah by surprise from the way he was staring at me.

"You speak Japanese?" I gave a hand sign meaning uncertainty.

"I lived in Japan with my dad for two years; I picked up some basics. I can hold conversations, but reading and writing are still tough." Mrs. Tanaka giggled as she placed a hand on my shoulder. 

"He… very good boy… he… help me with bad Engrish." She said before patting my head. 

I was taller than her, so it felt weird, but I didn't mind it so much. Noah seemed a little confused by what Mrs. Tanaka said. 

"Mr. and Mrs. Tanaka moved here from Okinawa. Mr. Tanaka is the local gym teacher, and Mrs. Tanaka runs this store. Mr. Tanaka also runs the club I mentioned before." I clarify to try and get attention away from myself. 

Noah went back to looking around the shop. He noticed a few decorative anime swords that hung high up on the walls out of reach. Then I remembered something I wanted to ask Mrs. Tanaka. Some people said they've been noticing a creep wandering around town lately. I couldn't help but think that the creep and the break-in were connected. Dressed in a hooded jacket, apparently whoever they are has approached random people. Ms. Tanaka said she heard about the rumors too but hasn't noticed anything off herself. 

She mentioned that one customer at the cyber cafe her neighbor ran, made a scene, and left before the sheriffs arrived. I have to admit that's not too weird; I was about to break an old radio that I couldn't get to work. People can get crazy at times when they aren't thinking clearly.

After hearing everything from Mrs. Tanaka, I asked her if she knew where her husband might be. With school canceled for the next few days, I wanted to see if the club would be taking a break too. She told me he would be setting up at the local park for tonight but that school should be up and running tomorrow. Though the sheriffs have taped off the computer lab building along with the library. 

I looked over to Noah, who was looking through a rack of DVDs with different anime’s. He seemed to be staring at one DVD set that showed two people standing on a stage. From the way the characters looked, I guess they were fighters. I didn't say anything as Noah bought the DVD and we left. We ended up going to one of the local diners, The Garden. It was a small place that prided itself on giving good healthy meals. We sat down at a table where Noah and I continued to talk. 

"So you know a lot about me… tell me something about yourself… besides being a big anime fan," I suggested as I opened the menu. 

I already knew what I was going to get, but it doesn't hurt to look to see if you want to try something new. 

"Nothing much to tell… I grew up in L.A. until we moved here a few months ago. Mom works for the town… dad works as a freelance programmer." That surprised me; I wasn't much for computers, but I knew programming was hard. 

"Cool, what does he do?" I was a little curious. 

Noah shrugged his shoulders. 

"Honestly depends… he's programmed a few games before." I smiled when Noah mentioned that. 

"Anything I should know?" I asked as a waitress placed two cups of water before us. 

Noah took a sip of his drink before giving me an answer. 

"He mostly does the stuff you don't see when it comes to games. I think the most famous one he's worked on was Horizon Hunters." That really surprised me. 

Horizon Hunters is a popular online multiplayer game. It's one of those fantasy world games where you play as a skyship captain. Some of the guys at school play it religiously. I mostly play story mode, if I went online, I’d get destroyed by everyone. 

"Wow… now that's impressive." I regretted saying that when I noticed Noah looking away a little annoyed. 

Guess he and his dad don't get along well. 

"What about you? What do you do?" I quickly tried changing the subject. 

I noticed Noah seemed to shrink back a little. I guess he's not good at sharing or just doesn't want to. It wasn't until I looked at the bag of anime dvds that I got an idea. 

“Hey, what anime would you recommend for a newbie like me?” I was curious about it; I mean I lived in Japan but never really got into anime myself. 

It started with which anime he'd recommend for a newbie like me to start on. That turned into a rabbit hole quickly, mostly because he started by asking what type of story genre I liked. Gotta admit he did look cute as he talked about the fictional worlds of each series he recommended. Noah and I talked for hours; gotta say for a city boy, he's not bad. From how he talks about some of the anime he's recommending, I'll have to take a look.