We were about to fight with robots. Not like the ones in video games but real, physical robots; ones we would build ourselves then pin against each other in an arena. To those who claimed all the adventures happened in the Hero Department, I laugh.

But before all that, it seemed like a normal visit. Koto had a friend from middle school, and thinking we would all get along, she offered to introduce us.

Reina Fujino, to anyone just meeting her, was your average teenage girl. What I wasn't prepared for was for her to come with a family of nine behind her doors. When Koto mentioned this, Double thought she was joking, and I'd believe it if she was. We didn't meet all of them at once though, thankfully. Koto started by introducing us to Reina first.

"It's nice to meet you all," Reina both said and signed along. I wasn't surprised Koto had told her I couldn't hear, but seeing her sign caught me off guard. It shouldn't have; Koto was mute and frequently used sign, so it made sense her friend knew it.

"Hey-Hey," Double stammered, "We've heard- We've heard a lot about you-you, Reina. It's-It's nice to-"

"This is your house‽" Rose interrupted him, casually shoving Double aside as she stepped in and stared up at the high ceilings.

"Rose," Dani warned, keeping a hand on the collar of her jacket before she wandered off.

In what I was guessing to be a more hushed tone, Rose argued, "What? Cut me some slack, I was homeless for the first half of the year. Frankly, I'd be impressed by anything."

I let them be, watching the paranormal, green glow surrounding one of the ghosts as he flew inside.

"What's the big deal? It's just like my place in America." Edison hadn't been to America in centuries, so his memory was sure to be misleading him. There's no way anyone here ever stepped foot inside a house like the Fujino's.

We were just near the front door when Reina welcomed us into the living room, but even that was larger than my room. Growing up in my parents' business, our house was huge, but what impressed me here was the detail. Dozens of family photos were hung on all the walls; accented rugs were under the furniture of the living room; the dining room was even over the top with just a fancy table and chairs.

"It's like a palace!" Cleo cheered, soaring around the hallways and through the walls. "There's no dirt, no stone, not even those dreadful tombstones. Oh, Mordecai, isn't it amazing? Can we stay? Please!" She floated back with her hands pressed together, already too attached to the house.

Instead of explaining that I obviously have to leave today, and I was sure Reina wouldn't be too happy if I told her I cursed her home with ghosts, I let Cleo have her fun. Jack soon phased in to drag her back down anyway. He was always skeptical of new places, especially crowded ones.

"God, that's a lot of kids," he muttered while looking at a family photo of the Fujinos. "I don't like this, kid. These people seem. . . Well, I don't want to say strange 'cause, let's face it, the freak who talks to ghosts isn't too normal either."

I shot Jack a glare to stop his helping, and Cleo assisted by thumping him on the head for me.

Looking back to the group, I saw Reina stand in front of me, kind, dark eyes warmly greeting me behind thick glasses. She signed to me, not talking along so I could focus on her hands.

"You must be Rocket, right? It's great to meet you," she signed.

It wasn't often that I got to use sign. Being a lot easier than writing, I preferred it even if it wasn't always accessible. Seeing that Koto's friend was fluent, I briefly smiled back and responded.

"To you as well."

The ghosts hovered over my shoulders, as if this girl was seconds away from snapping. Edison and Jack both eyed her skeptically, but I assured them, "Don't worry, she's nice."

"That's what they all say," Jack growled, sinking back to hide behind me.

If the ghosts weren't only visible to me, I'd roll my eyes at him. One day or another, they would have to start trusting mortals. Frankly, there was nothing for them to worry about. Reina's family was anything but trouble.

Before I could argue about how pleasant this family was, I felt something tangible shove past me and run by. I pushed the locks of hair out of my eyes to get a clear view of the preteen boy skidding past me and Snake as he ran to the end of the hall.

Snake gave the kid a glare that challenged him to do it again, but the boy seemed preoccupied. He hid whatever was in his hands behind his back and stared across the hall.

Following his eyes, I noticed another boy his age, one identical to him in all ways but expression, running up to him. This kid looked unamused with his twin, his eyebrows furrowed down at him. While he talked, I watched to read his lips.

"Not funny, Yuta," he said. For a moment, I was wondering what the quarrel was about until I glanced down to the second twin's hand. Stuck to his left palm was a tube of toothpaste, but his fingers weren't wrapped around it. On his right hand, a toothbrush was sticking in the same way. A Quirk could have easily done this, but the more likely answer said it was the work of a prankster sibling.

I turned back to Yuta who held one hand up to his cheek and stuck his tongue out to his brother. The kid laughed as the unnamed sibling tried to shake off the toothbrush and paste, but it was no use.

"How's that for a wake up, Uka?" The boy teased. I watched his brother, Uka, expecting him to be at least a little peeved, but he only smiled and crossed his arms.

"You tell me," he warned. Yuta's grin fell down into a confused frown. Pulling his hand back from behind his back, we all saw what Uka meant. A backlash to his prank, Yuta's hand was stuck to a container of glue. Whether it was the work of his brother or careless work, Uka didn't care as he took his turn to laugh at his twin.

"Yeah, they seem like a treat," Jack scoffed.

I didn't face him to clarify, "I said she was nice."

As the twins talked and another sibling came in to help unstick them, the rest of us eased against the wall, not wanting to get in the middle of it. Koto was comfortable enough to lend a hand though. I couldn't tell what she was saying, but she talked with Reina's older sister and helped the boys with the glue. Once they were taken care of, Reina turned to us and rubbed at her forearm.

She both signed and mouthed, "Had I known they would be puckish, I would have just met you guys at the Garage. We can head there now, if you want. It should be more tame over there."

Although, we all soon learned that "the Garage" was anything but.

Reina walked our group outside and across their yard until we were stopped at a tall, windowless building. I already knew not to assume it was an average garage from how Reina and Koto have mentioned it. The whole family had twists to them, so I stayed alert with this new location.

"Oooh, spooky," Cleo shivered, somehow feeling the importance this place radiated. Reina led us to the doors and stood by as we entered.

"Koto tells me you all like robotics. If that's the case, make yourselves at home!" Her hand stretched out to welcome us into a cyber-geek's heaven. Colorful murals decorated the metal walls, creating an eye-catching view from every angle. The second story was enough to show how over-the-top this place was from its porthole windows and cozy loft. Although, what caught our attention was the work space right in front of the entrance. Drafting tables, organized supply cabinets, and power tools as far as the eye could see. I had to lift onto my toes to see the back of the first floor that was almost empty.

"What do you see over there?" I asked Jack. The ghost dove through the solid floors to get a better view. Seconds later, and he floats back up next to me.

"Looks like a miniature prison fight-club," he chortled. I didn't want to take his observation seriously, but it was hard to know what to expect from this family.

Back to my friends, they all stood at the doorway with dropped jaws. Their reaction to the house had nothing on their expressions when taking in the Garage in all its wonder. Rose stepped up by once again shoving her arm in front of Double to move him aside.

"No. Shitting. Way," she breathed, her eyes skipping from one remarkable feature of the building to the next.

Double grabbed her hand off of him and looked around, starting at the high, painted ceilings and drifting down to the workspace. "All-All respect to you- to you and your-your family, Reina, but, uh, it's going to be very-very difficult to get us out of here."

Snake nodded, "Yeah, I'm never leaving."

Next to her, Edison leaned over Snake's shoulder and straightened his monocle to look. He threw out a rare compliment by stating, "I must say...my place in America certainly did not have this."

I felt bad for Reina, knowing after one of us blew something up she would have to shoo us away from the best support lab in the country, but the dark-haired girl didn't look like she was regretting her decision at all.

"Oh, please enjoy yourselves! The twins use this for robot fighting all the time, so we're used to the chaos. Go ahead and make the most of it. The more the merrier I always say," she signed. Koto smiled and moved her shoulders like she was illusing. I didn't need to hear her as I was able to infer from her thumbs up that we had permission to put our skills to work here.

"Wait," Dani asked, holding a hand up before any of us went anywhere. "We seriously get to fight with robots here?" Reina nodded, giving Dani all he needed to hear.

"Then what are we waiting for?" He cracked a smile, putting a hand on the inventor in front of him. "I call Double on my team."

In an instant, my friends started to break off into pairs and run to different sides of the work space. Rose had claimed Snake on her side, and Koto moved aside to talk to Reina. That left me to work with the spirits in my head, but I was fine with that. I had enough experience under my belt and with Cleo's support, Jack's creativity, and Edison's nagging, I was sure I could handle it.

I found a table near the back and next to the pull-down ladder to the second floor. After gathering an assortment of scrap metal, circuit boards, and tools, I started working on a program for my robot.

"Are you sure about that?" Edison questioned, seemingly from right next to my ear, but he was only on the other side of the table.

"Yep." I tried tuning him out, but when he was one of three things I could hear, it was tough. Jack phased through the table to get a clear view of my working hands.

"You call that a killer 'bot? Where's the shank, the speed, the bloodthirsty edge?!" Clearly, all that was in my hands resembled none of that.

I explained to Jack, "I have to develop a program first, so I can control it later."

"Why not give it that AI voodoo junk?" Jack pestered.

"Because it would kill us." He didn't know it, but slowly he was proving why it was a good idea to leave him out of my school assignments.

"You're wasting valuable time, Mordecai," Edison so kindly pointed out, reaching for the wire cutters to start helping.

I didn't have to argue with him as Cleo stood up for me on my behalf, "Oh, he's doing just fine. Besides, he's not the farthest behind. That girl isn't getting much done either."

Cleo prompted me to glance up to the table across from me. Koto stood there as the only other person to work solo, her auburn hair tied back into loose braids, but she still used one hand to grab at them while the other hand slowly worked.

I wasn't good at reading people. I barely knew how to tell if she was serious when inviting us over. But something told me things were off for her that day. It was hard to explain, but her eyes didn't have the same "spark" per se as they usually had when she was working on something fun. It reminded me of Marie in a way. When she was working in the science field on a good day, her smile was almost contagious. But on days when she was stressed or mourning, her fair blue eyes felt dull.

"Should I ask to work with her?" I wondered to the ghosts, pulling my stare down back to the work desk.

Edison hummed. "I'll be honest, boy, I think you might have a better shot when working alone."

If she could have mastered the art of tangibility, I guaranteed that Cleo would have smacked Edison for his suggestion.

"Are you joking?" She asked; I couldn't tell either.

Cleo floated closer to me, keeping Edison away as she made her own suggestion, one she wanted me to take instead of Edison's. "Mordecai, I may not get a lot of what you post-BC kids are working with, but I do have enough social skills to know it isn't gentleman-ly to leave your friend hanging when she's feeling down."

I thought about it. As usual, Edison told me to go with my head and look out for myself while Cleo wanted me to practice empathy and help out a friend. Jack gave some irrelevant advice that didn't help me at all, leading to me listening to Cleo and approaching Koto. Her eyes were glued onto the circuit board in her hands as she tangled with the delicate pieces. I gently tapped on the area in front of her, my left hand holding my tools and unfinished parts as I signed with my other.

"Need a hand?"

I was right about the liveliness in her expression being muted, so I tried to be as friendly as possible while offering help. She gave me a smile as if nothing had changed when she moved over her tools to make room. However, the metaphorical "spark" was still faded, and something in the back of my head wanted to try and fix that.

Koto kept to herself for most of the time. I wasn't surprised as I understood working better in silence. If only things were at all silent on my side. I felt the ghosts looking over my shoulders at every little thing I did. When sketching out designs, Edison made sure to comment on how he would do things differently. Jack was still disappointed in my lack of deadly accessories to the robot, but I knew there were little chances of pleasing him. Cleo actually didn't bug me as much as I worried. She stayed near Koto for the most part, happily watching her program our robot to its controller.

It didn't take long for us to finish designing and constructing our robot. Koto knew what she was doing and where to find everything in the Garage while I had more or less been training for this for years. I loved engineering, not always for fighting, but it was one of few things I had fun with. After blocking out the distractions, I was in the inventing zone. Isaac Newton once taught me a long time ago to not work hard, but work smart. Pay attention to small details that will pay off later. Many of the other inventors working spent time on the robots' brute strength and attacks. I didn't exactly skip out on that with ours, but I spent longer on the machine's endurance and speed.

Koto liked the route we were taking. Some inspiration came from the way she used her Quirk, not exactly head on but still with power. She followed my lead in the engineering stage, and with the help of a few extra paranormal hands, our robot was almost finished.

We painted the thick exterior with streaks of black and orange. The wheels at the bottom were securely guarded to protect the bot's mobility. It resembled a jacked up ruumba vacuum all except for the metal arm at the top where a saw blade would spin and hopefully cut any robot that got too close. I was proud of our work when it was finished. My hands cramped from the tedious work and the tics every now and then, but it didn't phase my good mood. I was too excited to see our robot in battle.

Once everyone was close to finishing, the Fujino family called us over for the first fight. Reina and her older sister worked together to create a robot that would first fight against her twin brothers. I was slightly worried to see what the boys had planned, knowing they could probably beat most of us when working together. Reina and her sister put up a good fight with their robot. The girls put together a pneumatic crusher that relied more on strength than speed. I respected the choice of design, but the twins' robot had a few tricks built into it. When the girl's robot got close, the twins' released a metal capture net that kept its opponent in place. After that, it was an easy victory for the boys.

Reina congratulated her siblings and helped clean up the mess. Round two soon started, pinning Rose and Snake against the twins' winning robot. The two boys were crafty when they worked together, but knowing they were going up against Snake's cunning strategy and Rose's fervid competitiveness, it would be a close call.

Rose and Snake put together a beat of an invention. I expected them to go big since Rose spent years on the robotics team and Snake was a merciless opponent. Their robot was longer than some, with a set of spinning hammers on a tilted axis. I was impressed even before the metal arm started rotating the hammers around. Snake held the controls in her hand and spread a cold smile that showed off her fangs. Next to me, I saw Cleo shiver and duck away as if she wanted to hide from the soon-to-be flying debris.

Round two was intense. The twins had more and more tricks tucked away in their bot, but Rose and Snake refused to give up, even when their robot was tilted over. Snake just spun the arm until their bot was upright again, and used the last of their battery power to deliver one quick blow to the opposing robot. Steam poured out the bottom, and the match was called.

Snake and Rose high-fived in victory. The twins didn't seem too upset with the loss, only sharing a look and a nod like they were silently plotting their next move. Once the fight was cleaned up, that left only two groups who had yet to enter the ring.

When waiting at the edge of the ring, Dani and Double did not look thrilled to fight. Dani would admit to anyone that engineering wasn't his specialty. That explained why he wanted Double on his team, but with only him doing most of the work, I wasn't sure if they stood a chance. We waited together, about to discuss who would go against the girls next.

Dani looked down to their pieced together robot, a sense of disappointment in their work. When seeing the machine Koto and I had put together, Dani offered to us, "Ladies first," something telling me it was more to save them embarrassment than to be polite.

Koto and I accepted the challenge, taking our places at the end of the ring against Rose and Snake. My friends watched us as we set up our robot, eyeing the features and the controller. Snake narrowed her stare as she analyzed our machine, but Rose was far more confident in the fight.

They took their places, and once we were ready, the fight was off. Immediately, their robot took a swing, powered by the fast momentum of the spinning axis. I couldn't react in time, my tics flinching my eyes shut before I could do anything. When their robot hit one of its hammers at ours, the bot we had built was pushed back, just at the edge of the ring.

Rose laughed as she passed the controls over to Snake, holding up her free hands to us and bragging, "You come for the queen, player, you best not miss!"

It was looking bad for us. I could hear Edison shouting some advice to me while Snake geared up their bot for another attack. The tics pinched at my brain while we fought, but I tried to focus.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Koto hold her hand out for the controls. I had already cost us a hit to our robot, so it seemed fair to give her a shot before we lost.

"What are you doing‽" Edison interjected. "Do you know if she can operate such an intricate machine?"

He was starting to irritate me. I wasn't confident about our chances either, but Koto had fought here before. I didn't waste time explaining that to Edison, instead using the chance to remind Koto how the controls worked.

"If you keep out of their way until the last second, you could ease them onto the edge." I tried to sign as quickly as I could, not wanting to keep her eyes away from the match.

Edison still wouldn't let it go, "Child, I keep telling you to think these things through before you act."

"I have thought it through," I told him, facing away from Koto to the ghost.

Edison shook his head at me. "The odds are better if you take the lead here. You can't keep making exceptions for your lady friend here."

My eyebrows knit together, not exactly sure what he meant. When the thought crossed my mind, my face felt warmer, but I didn't get why; it was winter and the windows were open. Jack for whatever reason laughed when I stopped to think, but I'd have to ask him to explain later.

When I was about to ignore Edison's comment and tell him to butt out, his head turned over to look past me at the ring.

I followed the direction, seeing the robots in a locked position with ours having the upper metal hand in the moment. Our saw blade was inches away from the front of Snake and Rose's robot. The arm of their bot had stopped rotating to push against ours, trying its best to stop us from splitting it in half.

Koto was doing it. To Edison's surprise, she went with her own strategy that was close to being a landslide success. A mixed feeling of pride and adrenaline rushed through me, and I smiled. I couldn't sign to her, but I clapped along so Koto could hear me support her from the sidelines.

Here she glanced at me quickly and cracked a smile as she continued to concentrate hard on her win. She managed the controls with a will of iron as Snake tried to push the saw back, but as time passed, this round was thrown in our favor.

The power blade sliced through the head of Rose and Snake's machine, stopping it for good and giving us the win. Snake hung her head in shame while Rose took the loss very well.

Koto dropped her shoulders like she was holding her breath during the match. I stepped over and put a hand on her shoulder to tell her I was there. When she looked over, I signed.

"That was amazing," I congratulated her. I didn't realize it for a minute, but my grin never faltered while we signed. She might not have been used to seeing me so emotive before, turning her head down to smile more towards the ground than at me.

"Thank you," she signed back. I heard the ghosts cheer and aww behind us, but I didn't acknowledge them. When Koto looked back up, I noticed a change in her eyes. Just barely, one could see that the little sign of life was back, and she was, for a moment, feeling better again.

For me, that was enough to feel good about.

Chapter 7 is dedicated to riceygirl101