It's All Relative

    The campus tour was uneventful. Arashi noticed that Takun and Sirod were gone and Sasuke was more relaxed than he was yesterday (granted he did have three cups of coffee and caffeine was supposed to have a relaxing effect on dragons).
    They walked back to the lecture hall and waited to meet with their advisors.
    "So how do you like the school so far?" Arashi asked her new friends.
    Taiyo shrugged.
    "It's all right," Sora said. "It's not as spectacular as they made it out to be."
    "Oh," Arashi said. She didn't bother to ask Usagi; she loved every college she went to. Arashi had to agree with Sora. The school campus was a disappointment considering that it was one of the best colleges in Atheria. Of course, the school was only a place and it's reputation was dependent on its faculty and the caliber of its students. With students like Takun the jackass, Tessa the dumb bitch, and the scores of whorish cheerleaders and their drunken frat-boy counterparts, she wondered what exactly Aoikin University was known for. Study hard and play harder was apparently the school's unofficial motto.
    A woman with golden brown hair, slanted jade green eyes, and animal ears approached the stage. She was dressed in white and sky blue garments, signifying that she was a teikasui.
    "Hello students of Aoikin University!" A bright smile graced her face, showing off her sharp teeth. "Good morning to you, I'm so excited to be here." As if her voice didn't already give away that fact. Arashi tuned out most of the logistical matters. She heard it all before. All colleges had the same little spiel about academic challenges and resources.
    Arashi looked at Usagi who was listening intently while Sora took notes and Taiyo's golden eyes followed the woman as she walked across the stage, though it didn't seem like Taiyo was taking in any information. Sasuke was reading a book, his eyes scanning the pages at a frantic pace before he methodically turned the page.
    The tigress was curious where Takun had run off to. She scanned the room for Tessa and saw the girl giggling in the back row with her friends. No lion-wolf in sight.
    "Sora, do you know what happened to Takun?" Arashi tried not to sound too concerned, but she was a bit worried. He was acting strange when they announced that the survivors had died. There was something not right about that boy. But he wasn't her main concern.
    Sora glanced up and looked around, then shrugged. "He's not here."
    I know that. Arashi wanted to say, but she dropped the subject. She didn't want to seem to concerned. But if she was going to do what she was told to do, she'd have to be concerned with Takun because Sora was concerned with Takun.   
   "He's probably eating," Usagi said.
    Sora bit the tip of her nail. "I don't think so." The girl's brows furrowed as she wrestled with the idea of checking on him. According to her file, she was one of the Kuroshiro housekeepers hired with that specific task of keeping Takun company and checking up on him. Sora picked up her pen and continued to take notes.
    "Okay, we're going to break up in to groups by major and you'll walk over with your advisor to your respective buildings where all of your academic needs will be taken care of," the woman said. She broke the groups up by major, with the majority of the students concentrated in Business or Goddess Studies. Arashi stood with the other girls in line and they headed back to the Goddess Studies Building.
    Sasuke's tour didn't do the Goddess Studies Building justice. He merely read a description of the building from the school's brochure and didn't even go near the building, partly because he was having trouble reading the map. He stated that map reading was Sirod's expertise.
    The Goddess Studies Building had small orange and pink rosedragon flowers climbing up the sides and weeping willows covering a small patio area with a small fountain. Arashi could imagine studying here or talking to the professors or just hanging out and eating lunch with friends.
    "This is the 'Tranquility Garden'." The woman walked the group over to the area. Usagi was drawn to the water, putting her hands in the fountain and manipulating the water into different types of moving animals. She made a tiger and a rabbit.
    "This garden was first built by the restorers of our school, Mamoru Iyasu and Eiji Takanara," the woman explained. "In l.y. 122, the garden was dedicated to those lost in the Megami Bara attacks.  The information in the underground library was split between Kiyahana and here. We have yet to come up with a suitable name for this building."
    The woman watched Usagi dry her hands on her shirt. "We should be getting inside."
    The inside of the building was painted with different colors and symbols representing the different elements. A blue wave for mizukasui. A red flame for hikasui. A white cloud for teikasui. A tree and a rock for chikasui. A star for tenkasui. A yellow heart for light kikasui (though it was still represented as a ying-yang on the ID cards to account for the possibility of dark kikasui powers). Women were standing near the walls representing their elemental manipulation.
    They were going in alphabetical order and Arashi's last name, Teitora, was going to be called close to last. She and the other girls found a nice seat on the floor in the corner of the room.
    "Hey girls," she heard the strange accent of the MacLaine boys. Arashi didn't even notice that there quite a few boys in the building as well. Atherian society thought tensenshi to be weaklings who were submissive to women, which didn't attract a lot of males to the field. It wasn't until recently that the World Goddess Federation considered having a tensenshi major at colleges, maybe within the last twenty years or so.
    "Yuhi? Asahi? What are you doing here?"
    "We're Tensenshi majors," they said in unison.
    "This is where our academic advisor is," Yuhi, the one with the green streaks, said.
    "What are you majoring in?" Arashi asked.
    "Hikasui," they said in unison once again, a "stop copying me" look writ into their faces.
    "I want to change my major to something different though," Asahi, the one with blue streaks, said as he took a seat on the floor.
    "Your father wouldn't like that," Sora said. Asahi shrugged.
    "No he wouldn't, but he'd just have to deal with it."
    "Oh brother," Yuhi said, giving his brother a skeptical look as he sat next to him. "Do tell them what you want to major in instead of hikasui."
    "Art. More specifically photography," Asahi said.
    "How impratical." Yuhi scoffed.
    "I already work for Ryo. He said I had a guaranteed job under one condition."
    "What's that?" Usagi asked.
    "Nothing that important," he murmured, looking as if he had said too much.
     Someone had called out the H's and Taiyo stood to her feet.
    "This should be interesting," she said. "See you in a few." She left and went behind the red-orange door with the flame.
    "So you are Ryo's adopted brothers?" Arashi asked. The twins nodded.
    "How did he get adopted?"
    "His mother married our dad when Ryo was one year old," Yuhi said.
    "And when his mother died, our father married our mother," Asahi finished up. "Then our mother adopted Ryo as well."
    "And what about Ryo's wife?" Arashi asked. She hadn't gotten to ask Ryo exactly how that happened. Asahi, Yuhi, and Sora looked at one another, giving each other some type of code.
    "Well, Giselle wanted to have a baby with her girlfriend, choose Ryo as her baby daddy, got pregnant, her girlfriend cheated on her, they broke up, Ryo proposed they get married, and they've been together for three years," Sora said.
    Arashi nodded. That wasn't the oddest arrangement she had ever heard. Atheria cherished children just as long as they were taken care of. Parents who couldn't take care of children either gave them to the Taigun, sold them on the street to underground world, or simply abandoned them. She supposed Giselle could have just given her child up if Ryo hadn't step in.
    "That's really admirable of Ryo," Usagi said.
    "Not really," Asahi said. "Giselle is rich."
    "Let's talk about something other than Ryo," Sora said.
    "Any idea of what classes you'll take?"
    "Well, I think we all have to take Intro to Goddess Studies, physical science and/or math. I think I might want to take a creative writing class or ethnic studies," Sora said.
    "I might take tensenshi history."
    "Art design," Asahi said. Yuhi rolled his eyes at the statement.
    The red door creaked open and Taiyo stepped out.
    "So how was it?"
    Taiyo shrugged. "Uneventful. Just talked to the advisor and got classes." She handed her friends her class schedule. Arashi looked it over. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays: Intro to Goddess Studies, 9:40-10:30. Political Science 009, 2:10-3:00. Tuesdays and Thursdays: Math 005, 11:10-12:30. Freshman Seminar Wednesdays 6:00-9:00. She had discussions thrown in randomly giving her large breaks between classes.
    "Looks cool," Sora said.
    "It was a pretty simple process. If you have an element, you have to take the seminar. They base your classes on that."
    "Oh, what's all your elements?"
    "Fire," the twins said again.
    "Air," Arashi said.
    "Water," Usagi said. Everyone turned to Sora. She twidled her thumbs.
    "Well, I don't really have any power but I really like either air or earth," Sora said. "I know they really don't complement each other, but those are my favorites."
    "Why earth?" Asahi asked. Sora shrugged. "They say Earth is the hardest and fire and water are the easiest."
    "Yeah. If you are really emotional, it would be really hard to be a hikasui," Usagi said.
    "Fire's kind of dangerous, if you don't know how to control it," Yuhi said. Asahi nodded.
    "Earth has two forms," Sora said. "It would be cool to learn both the rock and plants. If you can learn the plants, you can control the other elements indirectly. But it wouldn't matter because I can't even do the basics of either one."
    "You could just be a late bloomer," Yuhi said. "We've talked about this. I didn't get my powers until I was at least fourteen."
    "Someone I knew didn't have powers until he was fourteen as well," Taiyo said.
    "But that's different," Sora said. "I had powers. My dad was a hikasui and my mom was a teikasui. They were really good. I had powers, but they were never that strong."
    "What kinda powers did you have?"
    "I had limited teikasui powers."
    "Hmm, that's interesting," Arashi said. "Why don't you focus on teikasui then?"
    "I don't know. I really don't want to be reminded of that time."
    "Do you still feel the energy?"
    "Yeah, but I just can't get to work. No matter how hard I try I can't bring it to the surface," Sora said.
    Asahi held out his hand. "Grab my hand and tell me if you can feel it."
    Sora went to grab his hand, but they called out K. "I've gotta go. See you on the outside." She walked into the green door with the rock and the tree.
    It was a little strange after Sora left, since she knew the boys better than they did.
    "So what are you're majoring in?" Yuhi just threw the question out there.
    "I'm majoring in Goddess Studies with an emphasis on History," Arashi said. This time. She wanted to add.
    "What aspect?" Yuhi asked.
    "I want to focus on the Red Rebellion up until the Cursing of the Crown," she said. The boys nodded and it was quiet again.
    "What about you..."
    "Taiyo," the bird animari said. "Taiyo Hiyama."
    "Yes Taiyo Hiyama." Yuhi and Asahi looked at each other before she spoke.
    "I am majoring in Political Science."
    "That's a hot field to go into," Usagi said. "With all these things about war going on. They're going to need to know a lot of people who deal with public policy."
    "They are going to need it after Akukami leaves the throne," Taiyo said.
    "Do you think it's going to happen soon?" Arashi asked.
    "Without a doubt," Taiyo replied. The twins nodded.
    "It's going to be messy," Asahi said. "He's not going down with a fight."
    Sora came back out of the room, a grim look on her face.
    "What's wrong?" Asahi and Usagi asked.
    Sora let out a big sigh. "They said I can't declare an element until I show proficiency in it. I can't choose teikasui either."
    Arashi wasn't surprised. She wasn't going to tell her friend that she couldn't be a timekeeper without powers. If she was a complete gehin she would be relegated to secretarial duties. The only problem was that Sora did have powers at some point and losing powers was more problematic than being born without them.
    "M?"
    The two MacLaine boys went behind the red-orange door, leaving the girls by themselves.
    "Your cousin's brother's are kind of cute," Arashi said. Arashi could hardly remember what her own family looked like.     
    "They're all right, but they're always arguing," Sora said.
    "You'd think they'd get along being twins and all," Usagi said.
    "Asahi got his powers when he was like seven and his brother didn't get his until he was around fourteen. Their dad would take Asahi out on these little trips and leave Yuhi behind. Then when Yuhi got his powers, he just left him at home and took Asahi. They used to be really close before that, but after that trip Asahi changed."
    Sora glanced behind the girl and got quiet as the twins came back to the lobby and sat down. The air was filled with that strange silence that came when one was talking about someone who just came into the room.
    "What classes did you get?"
    "I'm taking Intro to Hikasui Theory, Intro to Ethnic Studies, Religion and the Elements, Comparative Literature of the Timeless Age, and the Evolution of Hikasui," Yuhi said. Everyone stared at him with awe.
    "That's a lot of classes," Asahi said. "I'm only taking Intro to Photographic Theory, Studio Art-Photography, and just to please father, Intro to Hikasui Theory."
    They sat in the silence that accompanies people who don't know each other well. It wasn't awkward, but people were formulating questions to ask one another. Arashi wanted to know how Asahi had changed, but she couldn't explicitly ask him since it was probably information that she wasn't supposed to know.
    "I'm taking all the same classes Taiyo is taking," Sora said. "Except I'm taking ethnic studies instead of political science."
    "Same here," Usagi said. "I'm taking Intro to the Timeless Age instead of political science or ethnic studies."
    It went silent again as Arashi waited for her letter to be called. She didn't even realize that Usagi had left for when her letter was called (she didn't even hear it called). That was probably why it had been so quiet.
    A woman with brown hair streaked with sky blue wearing a traditional teikasui mourning dress stepped through the white cloud door. The dress was black and navy blue, the fabric as light and shimmery like dragonfly wings. Arashi recognized the woman and looked at Usagi,who nodded. Neko Koneko was the woman's given name--the name on her name tag--just as Arashi Teitora had been her own. But it wasn't her real name.
    "T," the woman said. Arashi had to pretend that she didn't know the woman as she stepped through the door. 
    "Hello Catherine," Arashi said once the door closed.
    "Arashi," the woman addressed her. "We have a lot to discuss."
    Arashi nodded and sat down in Catherine's office. "We do. Can you look up some student profiles for me?"
      Catherine had her fingers poised on the keyboard ready to type the names into the portalcomp. "Which students?"  
       "Takun Kuroshiro, Sora Kainomori, and Taiyo Hiyama."