It's All Relative

"So are you going to join any clubs?" Sora asked. The quad area near the commons area was filled with blue and goldenrod tents and people passed out flyers.
    "I wouldn't mind joining some mizukasui clubs," Usagi said.
    "I'm not sure I want to join clubs," Asahi said. "Too involved."
    "What? Clubs are awesome. I want to join the hikasui club," Yuhi said.
    "You want to join the hikasui club?" an orange haired nymph stated, handing a flyer to Yuhi. "Meetings are Thursdays at 7:00."
    "Awesomeness," Yuhi said, looking at his schedule. "My class is over at 7:00." Asahi rolled his eyes.
    "My name's Jesameen," the girl said with a thick accent. "I look forward to seeing you around..."
    "Yuhi," he said, leaving out his last name. He smiled and pocketed the flyer. Sora knew that he was going to try to go to as many meetings as he could. She wondered how he'd react when he got burned out. If he was anything like his twin brother, the results could be disastrous.
    "I think that girl was hitting on you," Asahi said. Yuhi looked back and Jesameen waved at him. The boy turned around with a blush and started at the ground.
    "Where are our counselors?" Taiyo asked. "Aren't they supposed to be guiding us around this free-for-all." She batted a flyer filled hand away from her face.
    Sora looked around and didn't see any of the counselors. She shrugged. "I guess we're just going to be on our own."
    "That's good," Arashi said, twirling her magenta curls around her finger. "I guess the counselors can't be with us all the time."
    "This would be the perfect time to get them to join our memorial," Arashi said. "I totally forgot to hit up some of the student organizations while we were going around."
    "Let's eat something first," Asahi said. "Then we'll help you."
    Yuhi chimed in. "Yeah, that way we can see the clubs and get ready for the memorial."
    "How did you know about the memorial?" Usagi asked.
    "The guy at the buffet in Aoiya told Ryo who told his friends and us," Yuhi said.
    "News travels fast," Arashi said in surprise.
    "Ryo knows some powerful people," Asahi said.
    The group stood in line for lunch which consisted of a sandwich, chips, a fruit, and a choice of fizzes.
    "Too bad you couldn't move the memorial up to today." Yuhi took a bite of his sandwich.
    "I should, but it would be too chaotic to do so much in such a short amount of time," Arashi said. "I want it to be organized so it doesn't look like we threw it together at the last minute."
    The twins nodded. 
    "So we should break up into groups of two," Arashi said. "Usagi and I will be a team."
    "Yay!" the rabbit-wolf cheered.
    "I suppose Taiyo and I could go," Sora suggested.
    "Oh no." Asahi shook his head. "I'm not going with Yuhi. Yuhi and Taiyo can go."
    "That means I'm going with you," Sora said. Asahi nodded.
    "Okay then," Arashi said. "Usagi and I will get the tables with the blue tents. Sora and Asahi can get the yellow tents. Yuhi and Taiyo can talk to the parents since you both are kind of famous."
    "It's times like these that I wish that Takun was here for that," Taiyo said. Despite Taiyo being raised in the rich environment, she didn't seem like she totally fit within the rich Atherian society. Speaking of Takun, Sora wondered where he was. It wasn't like him to miss a meal.
    "Maybe Sasuke could help you?" Sora said. "If you can find him."    
    "No," Taiyo said. "That's fine. Yuhi and I are sufficient enough for the task."
    "Well, let's get started," Asahi said. Sora followed Asahi, his hands in his pockets, frowning.
    "What are you frowning about?" Sora asked.
    "I'm not frowning," Asahi replied. Sora stopped in front of him.
    "Yeah you are." She pushed the crinkles of his forehead with her finger. He went cross eyed looking at her finger on his head. He batted her hand away and sighed.
    "I'm tired of Yuhi telling me that father wouldn't approve of my major change," he said. "I know that already, he doesn't have to rub it in."
    "He's just looking out for you," Sora said, standing next to him and following him to the yellow tented tables. "You know how strict your father can be."
    Asahi nodded. "I'm not my father's puppet anymore. That can be Yuhi's job since he's so eager to please."
    Sora didn't respond. She knew the dynamics of the MacLaine household were just as strange as the dynamics of the Kuroshiro household. The twins father, Liam, was a bit like her. He had powers, just like she did, but he also lost his some how. Sora wished he wasn't so surly and mean so she could ask him how that happened-- he technically was her uncle after all.
    "Uh... Ryo told me that Takun was here," Asahi said off-offhandedly, looking at a yellow tent with a group of autumnarian earth nymphs making a salad.
    "Yes, he's here."
    "Ryo said that you went out with him last night," he said.
    "Yeah, we did go out. What does it matter to you?" How did Ryo even know that. She didn't say anything.
    "Ryo just told me to look out for you."
    "So you mean to tell me that the whole reason why you're here is because Ryo told you to look out for me?"
    "No. I already got accepted to this school and you were coming here and..." Asahi explained. Then he stopped. "You can't tell me that part of the reason why you chose this school was because Takun was here."
    "This is the best school for Goddess Studies," Sora said.
    "...That Takun happens to go to."
    Sora glared at him. It was just a coincidence. Just how Takun said that his friend Sasuke was a coincidence. Or the fact that Asahi and Yuhi go to the same school that she and Takun happen to go to as well and the fact that Ryo knows Takun entirely too well to trust him in an unsupervised environment with his younger cousin.
    "Just be careful," Asahi said. "Guys talk."
    She hadn't thought about that. Takun was in the face of the media all the time and he always talked the way the media portrayed him--the lovable jackass persona that he adopted. She could tell by the way he talked to her and the way he talked on the portalvision that he was putting on an act, but she wasn't sure which act was his real personality. She hoped it was the guy from last night, but she wasn't sure. She didn't want to give Ryo or Asahi the satisfaction that they could be right about him. She knew him better than that.
    "Hey guys!" A girl with dark brown-red skin and green hair approached her and handed her a flyer.
    "Are you interested in our group?" she asked.
    "Kinda," Sora said. "But I don't really have any powers."
    "This isn't an elemental group," another girl exclaimed. "We do community service by helping with the environment."
    Sora looked at the flyer. The Green Girls.
    "We do use our powers to help out, but you can pick up trash or something."    
    "You don't need to have powers, just a love for the environment," the girl said.
    Sora looked at Asahi. "Well actually, we could use your help." Sora told them about the memorial.
    "That sounds so cool," they said.
    "Are you guys in?" Sora asked.
    "Of course."
    "Cool, we'll be meeting in the cafeteria. My name is Sora and the girl you want to contact is Arashi, she's in charge. I'm not exactly sure when the meetings are, but you can talk to Arashi and she'll let you know." The autumnarian girl gave Sora her contact information.
    "Let us know." They said their good-byes and Sora moved on to the next yellow tent. She saw Arashi and Usagi on their way to the blue tents and waved.
    "Well, that was a good first experience," Sora said.
    "I guess I'll take the next one," Asahi said, as they approached the next yellow tent.
    The next couple tables were descent and she found that most of the people were receptive. She followed Asahi's lead, since he could weed out between the rich and the poor people. (She wasn't sure how he knew). He stated the rich people could be loyalists and undermine their whole memorial.
    "I wish there was a club for people who didn't have powers," Sora said after a while.
    Asahi shrugged. "Powers aren't everything."
    "That's because you have powers. I used to have powers and now I don't and even when I did have them they weren't very strong," she sighed. "My whole future is dependent on having powers. I can't go to goddess training with no powers. At best, I could probably be a secretary."
    "Why would you choose something that was dependent on powers if you don't have them?" Asahi said. Sora glared at him. "I'm sorry, I'm just being realistic."
    "I know. It's been my dream to be a timekeeper ever since I was a little girl," Sora said.
    "My father lost his powers and he's still a great alchemist," Asahi said. "He spent most of our lives trying to get his power back. He was never satisfied."
    "How did he lose his powers?"
    They walked to were getting closer to Oak Vista.
    "A dark kikasui or something took them from him. I don't know how, but someone came and took them away," Asahi said, softly, as if recounting the day in his head. "There was a lot of yelling and a flash of light, and father's hands were scarred and he had to go to the healer. I was six or so. Then when I got my powers and when father's obsession started."
    Sora was silent. Someone took his father's powers. That didn't help her discover how she could get her powers back.
    "Can someone who is a light kikasui return his powers to him?" Sora asked.
    "There hasn't been a light kikasui for hundreds of years," Asahi said.
    "I know. Just a thought," Sora said. 
    He sat on a rock and Sora sat next to him. "He had an idea to get his powers back."
    Sora perked up at this
          "It's called a power transfer. Someone with spiritual or elemental energy transfers their powers to a willing host. I know that's how he lost his powers, someone with low energy sapped them from him. He tried it with me."
    "And what happened?"
    Asahi unbuttoned his blue and black checkered over shirt, exposing his white undershirt. "I don't want to show you all of it." He pulled the collar of his shirt, stretching it down to his chest.
    His lightly tanned skin was smooth until it got to the area around his heart. The skin around his heart was pink and scrunched as if someone took his skin and wadded it up like a piece of scrap paper. Sora's mouth fell open.
    "He tried to take my powers, but I fought it and this is what I got," Asahi said, letting his shirt go and buttoning his over shirt. "It was a lot worse."
    "How did he...Asahi, I didn't know," Sora stammered. How could anything be worse than that?
    "Give me your hand," he said. Sora placed her hand in his, the contrast of her dark brown skin against his tanned white skin made her think of the wrinkled pink burn on his chest. She wanted to take her hand away, but she kept it there. Her face felt hot, as if she had a fever, and her chest constricted as if she had run a marathon. When Asahi took his hand away, the sensation ended.
    "What did you do?"
    "Did you feel something?"
    "I felt hot," Sora said.
    "That means that you can receive power," Asahi said. "I felt cold, so I know that it was working."
    Sora closed her eyes and tried to summon the power that Asahi just gave to her. Nothing. Not even a spark or a rustle of wind.
    "My chest burns when I do that," Sora said. "But no power."
    "But you can receive power."
    "I don't want to do it like that," Sora said. "Not if it burned you."
    "That only happens when you get obsessed," Asahi said softly.
    "Does Yuhi know?"
    Asahi shook his head. "Yuhi is doing all he can to earn the respect he deserves. He shouldn't know about this. Father doesn't value Yuhi, even though he's had more training than me. I know my powers only fueled by anger and that's dangerous. That's why Father's power transfer backfired. We both had too many emotions for it work properly."
    "Would you let your father have your powers if it didn't have that outcome?"
    "Why would I give him something that he didn't earn? He's a world famous alchemist. He was nowhere near as powerful as he was as a tensenshi, but he should have been happy enough to just have power. You have to promise me that you'll never get that obsessed."
    "Never," Sora said. She still couldn't imagine how much worse a burn like that could be.
    Asahi's face was red; Sora wasn't sure whether he was blushing or if that small energy transferred caused it.
    Asahi stood to his feet. "We should get going."
    Sora nodded and followed him, not noticing the burnt area on the rock where her hand had been.