December 31st
8:30 pm

-Reiji's pov-

"Oni-San, we're going to get some party stuff!" I heard Yogi call out from the living room. Wiping my hands with a towel, I walked out of the kitchen to see most of the young clansmen including my sibling heading out.

"Don't get anything stupid or do anything that'll cause trouble!" I called back.

"Don't worry, Reiji," Milo tells me before shutting the door that connects the store with the house.

"How troublesome," I mutter before heading back to the kitchen to help Satio with the cooking. "Why is there a rabbit dish?" I asked after looking at the open cookbook.

"Uh?. Oops, seems that I accidentally got to the wrong page." Satio looks at me with a worried look as he rubs his neck.

"No one in the clan is supposed to eat rabbit. Don't you remember what happened?" I asked.

"Technically Milo was the first to traumatized them," Satio says switching the page to a more likable meal.

"True.. And that's the reason why we can't have snakes at all in the house." I threw the towel over to the counter and grabbed a pot from the cabinet. "Anyway as Kouta and Shizuka are getting the ingredients for the other dishes, we'll have to start with the entrees."

"Let's hope they take their time getting back," Satio says cutting some potatoes before pausing. "I can't imagine that's its already been almost 5 years now."

"Let's not think about it now, Satio," I told him setting the pot on the stove. "We'll have the entire trip to think about it and you were about to cut your own finger."

"Ah!?.. oops..." He said moving his finger away from the blade.

~~~~~~~~
-3rd pov-

"Finally the sky is clearing up from the snow," Mako says in relief, stretching his arms out. "Anyway, What are we doing?"

"Well... While Reiji and the others are busy with food prep. Will have to spilt up to get the drinks and snacks." Milo says taping his chin. "So I guess I'll head over with Max to get the plastic dishware, Mako, Ren, and Ukina can go find some drinks and the Mori twins, Haru-kun and Inga can get the snacks."

"Yea!!" Yoshina and Yogi cheered.

"But no going overboard, alright!" Milo tells them. "Or else Nii-San and Reiji are probably going to complain and take most of them away."

"Aww." The two look down in shame as Haruto and Inga were standing behind them with a chink sweat drop on their forehead.

"Let's just hurry up," Mako said looking away from the disappointed twins.

"Yeah, you're right, Mako." Milo agrees. "Let's meet at Nii-san's bar afterward before heading back."

"Hai." The others agreed as the parted ways.

~~~~~~

"Happy New Years!" Everyone cheered as they all were sitting in a circle with different kind of foods on the table.

"This is amazing, Nii-San," Yogi says with his mouth full.

"Yogi, please don't talk with your mouth full of food," Reiji tells him, picking up some shrimp dumplings. After most of the food was done and the others were full, everything was pretty much fine except for Mako and Ren fighting over the last of their favorite. Shrimp Dumplings.

"Oi! It's mine!" Mako complained, shoving Ren.

"Come on, Mako. You had more than me!" Ren yells at him, pushing his brother's face away.

"Kids," Eva says rubbing her forehead with her forefingers. Ayu smirked and held his chin. "They never change, Eva. Plus they're still young." Ayu tells her.

"Ayu-san, they're 21. They're not exactly kids." Kouta tells him. "Before them, the eldest had to grow up. So you can't really play that card."

"Kouta, Don't be down in the dumps. After all, you can in at a mature age than them, plus Reiji and Shido grew up from childhood." Ayu explains before standing up and stopping the twins fight by splitting the dumpling in half. "There. Now stop the fighting ."

The twins glared at each other before each taking a half and turned away from each other as they ate.

"What you say is true but you can't keep your head in the past." Kouta says watching Ayu. "Especially when that day comes closer." Kouta's eyebrows come to a frown.

Ayu kept quiet as the others-except Inga, who was napping on Haruto's lap- looked at him as he sat at his seat. It wasn't until Shizuka broke the silence with a clap of her hands.

"How's about we talk about something else." Shizuka pleaded with her hands together. "After all, this is a New Years celebration. So there's no need to be down."

"Of course. Shizuka is right." Yogi adds. "As long we stick together nothing matters."

"Unless there's a snake involved." Milo joked before receiving a smack from Shido. "Ow!"

"What's wrong with you?" Shido asked crossing his arms.

"What? It's not like they're scared of a snake being mentioned." Milo says holding his head before looking at the Mori twins, whose faces looked in horror as the gripped their elder fellow clansmen by their arms.

"Oh, shit... sorry," Milo says looking down in pity.

"Ehh?... So Kouta, Shizuka What are you planning to do before you head home?" Jess asked lightly flicking Yogi to get off his arm. "After all don't you have to say goodbye to your family."

"I know but seeing that Haruto still has that eyepatch on I willing to train the Homra boys before going," Kouta says.

"Kouta-san, you need to that. I and Mako can handle that." Milo suggested before everyone else started to laugh and giggle. "Ahh... Come on. I'm not that bad."

~~~~

January 1st
10:48 am

"Remind me why we're meeting them at somewhere else instead of the usual park?" Yata asked as he and the others were walking over to the location that Haruto sent to them.

"Maybe Haruto wants to do something different," Shohei says "Besides it's not like there's anything else for us to do."

"Hey guys, I think this it," Eric says stopping at a Dojo.

"You sure?" Shohei says standing next to him looking at the sign. "This is a totally different change of pace. You sure this is the place?"

"Yeah, this is where the nav stops at," Eric says shuffle a bit away from Shohei as he was looking over his shoulder's to see Eric's phone.

"I see you guys found your way here." They heard and turned to Jess, who had walked over to them from the other end of the street. "Kouta told me that you were going to be here. I decided to see how this training is going to be."

Jess smiled a bit before turning towards the Dojo. "It's an old friend's Dojo. He's letting us borrow it for the day since he doing a field trip with his trainees." Jess explains.

"Nii-san's going to be here?" Kosuke questioned and gives a shocked look. Jess nods and opens the door.

"Haru-kun's at the Hospital for his eye again, so Kouta volunteered to train you guys," Jess explains as they entered the Dojo. The dojo was almost completely empty and felt like it had a huge space. Leaning against one of the pillars, Kouta and Shizuka waited for them. "Morning Kouta, Shizuka."

"Where the hell were you, Jess?" Kouta asked frowning at him.

"Buying some things you needed of course since you wasted most of what you had on holding Tashi," Jess explains holding out a plastic bag.

"Nii-san, how is this going to be different than Haruto's training?" Kosuke asked as Kouta looked through the contents of the bag. Looking up at his younger brother, Kouta placed the bag down and pulled out a few talismans from his jacket.

"Firudo." The talismans lit up and flew out of Kouta's hands and separated, attaching themselves to the walls of the dojo. Soon their surrounding flickered from a forest back to the dojo. "It's quite simple. Instead of fighting against a familiar opponent, I've decided to change it." Kouta explains.

"So we'll be fighting you?" Chitose asked.

Kouta shook his head. "No. I don't that's ever going to happen. I'd most likely break your bones."

"It's true." Jess states. "Mako and Ren tried it and both got fractures."

"I sometimes think you take it too far, Kou-chan," Shizuka adds. Kouta scratches his head as he looked at the two of them.

"That's because those two knuckleheads decided to jump me," Kouta explains. "It was on instinct."

"Either way, Nii-san you have very strong brute force," Kosuke says, "Don't you remember that you gave concussions to those-"

"Okay, I get it," Kouta barks harshly and stops to take a deep breath. "Any way we'll start simple. Just pick one of the stacks of decks I've had time to make." Pointing over to a table nearby where Shizuka was placing three different stacks of talismans.

"Then bring it to me then we'll begin," Kouta explains as Shizuka walks over to him. Walking away from the three, the Homra spoke amongst themselves.

"Seriously... Having Mako around or even Haruto would be comforting," Bando says to Shohei.

"Hey Kosuke, do you think you'll be able to handle this?" Eric asked his best friend. Kosuke took a glance at his brother before answering.

"I'm not sure. Kouta's my brother but even before he left he sometimes scared me even though I knew he never hurt me." Kosuke replied. "Even now I'm still not sure he's the same as he was back then."

"These are some weird topics," Dewa says looking at the talismans. Chitose looked over his friend's shoulder to see the topics. "Fears. Mirror. Wait what's a 'Ground Breaker'?" Chitose asked.

"Hold on there's something written on the back on the sticky notes." Dewa points out and turns the notes to the other side. "Noob... Trainee... Pros.."

"Uhh... Wow.. I guess 'Ground Breaker' is the hardest." Yata says.

"Seeing that Haruto can still beat our asses, I think we should do them by the easiest," Kosuke suggested.

"Chicken," Eric mutters. "But it's not like we know what mirror is going to be."

"Let's just get this over with," Dewa says grabbing the fear topics and turning to Kosuke. "You're doing it."

"..Huh?" Kosuke took quick glances at his friends seeing that they didn't want to be the one to give the talismans to his elder brother. "Alright then... Nii-san, here."

"..Fears..." Kouta mumbled before looking at his girlfriend, who was smiling innocently at him. "Very well then... Let the training begin." With a snap of his fingers, the dojo had changed into a forest. The boys took a look around before noticing the three colorful clansmen standing on top of a high tree branch.

"This is how it's going to work." Jess starts to explain. "Usually we'd do all at once but for now one at a time so you can at least familiarize yourselves with the concept."

"Since Shizuka decided to rig the talismans so you are going to face your fears and work passed them," Kouta tells them. "Besides this will help you if you ever come face to face to Nightmare."

"Nightmare has an ability to make you hallucinate your worst fears that could possibly scare you to death," Jess adds. "Don't worry if you can't beat it the first few times, Mako and others haven't been able to ignore those fear as well just understanding that you're able to beat them is best."

"Kosuke, you going first," Kouta tells him as he jumps down to them and holding out a talisman. "Don't worry the thing you fear will soon disappear if it becomes too much. Ready?"

"Nii-san... Yea, let's go." Kosuke replies. Kouta closes his eyes and nods as the talisman words glowed brightly before transforming into his fears. But to the others, they only saw the talisman floating in front of him.

"Isn't something supposes to happen?" Chitose asked. "Cuz that thing isn't doing anything."

"It is working but Kouta wanted to at least copy the effects of Nightmare's ability. The ones able to see your fears are yourselves and Nightmare but in this case, Kouta is seeing his little brother's fear." Jess explains before Kosuke drops to his knees and starts to pant as the talisman stop emitting light.

"Kouta, everything okay?" Shizuka asked as Kouta walks over to his brother. Kosuke was sweating as he continued to pant from whatever he saw. "The after-effects of the real deal is more mentally damaging than this. That's why we're doing this. To prevent any of you from going mad or worse."

"Shall we continue?" Shizuka asked them as she held up more talismans.