"When do you think Sora will be back?" I asked Earia, as we picked apples from our orchard.

"I'm not sure, I kind of want to help him earn some money." My older sister's eyes went to the apple in her hands. "Hey, I have an idea! We can take the truck to Ame city and bring with us more food for Sora to sell.

"Yeah but the truck is broken we have to walk all the way there ourselves," I remarked.

She wagged her finger and chuckled. "That's where you are wrong, little brother. I fixed the truck yesterday. Why do you think I was working on it all day?" my sister said with a grin on her face.

"Well, I'm not really surprised. You are a great mechanic, unlike me," I said with some laughter.

"Of course, you are not very good. Ya the pretty boy type," my sister said mockingly. She patted my back. "You have made it a habit of cultivating the good looks you inherited from our Pa and Ma."

"Just because I care how I look doesn't make me a pretty boy, plus I don't mind getting dirty," I responded, throwing a bad apple into the mulch bin to my left.

She snickered. "I know. I'm just messing with ya. So, are ya coming with me to Ame city or nah?" she asked as she finished picking all the ripe apples from her tree.

"Yeah, let me just finish getting this one," I said as I grabbed the last ripe apple on my tree.

"Let's go ask Ma and Pa," she said as she ran back home while still balancing her basket of apples on her head. I'm surprised at how many skills she and Sora have...compared to them I'm nothing special... I'm just the 'pretty boy'.

"Hey wait up for me," I said as I tried to balance my apples in my basket and run at the same time.

"Why are you two running with baskets full of apples?" my dad said as he came outside. He wore his white doctor coat. Did he have a patient? They were pretty rare here in the village. Though, when he was young, there was a disease that ravaged this place.

"We were thinking of selling these in the Ame market," my sister said bluntly. "I fixed the truck so I can drive there and give our brother more merchandise to sell.

"In that case, you can two can go but ask your ma too," my dad said in his usual lenient tone. 

"Thanks, Pa," I said as I passed him. "I'll be back to help with the harvest."

He sighed. "That said, I worry about Sora. I asked Amtri to check up on him, but he hasn't been able to find him."

Amtri was our half-brother from our pa's first marriage. He lived in Ame with our half-sister from Ma's side. Ma would often visit them whenever she got the chance. Did Sora not think to find them?

"Don't get into trouble with the government," Pa said, turning away. "I heard on the news that they found four suspected terrorists and began shooting at them but all of them were killed from behind."

"Did they show the terrorists' faces?" I said curiously.

"No, they didn't they show them. They were covered up but one of them had orange eyes, another had light blue eyes and the last two had opal-like eyes," Pa responded with downcast eyes.

"Orange eyes...but you said only our family has that color...Sora!" I said in shock.

"I don't think it was him, though." Pa walked away from us, his head still directed at the ground.

"Me neither, there's no way that Sora would do stuff such as terrorism. Anyway, we should find out soon," I said as I entered the house.

"So you are planning on going just for today?" my mom said to my sister.

"Yeah, we will be back today or tomorrow," my sister responded.

Ma hugged the sleeping Alan. "Alright, then you two can go."

"He's so cute when he's asleep, isn't he?" Earia said as she looked at our baby brother. "I promise we will try to be back soon so don't miss us, little guy."

"What about me," our little sister said as she looked up at us.

"I promise we will be back for you too, Alana," I said as I picked up my baby sister. I poked her tiny little nose, causing her to giggle.

She smiled slightly. "I hope ya two can find big bro."

"We will try to find him."

"I got the keys, let's go," Earia said as she walked to the truck.

"Sis. We still have to pack the stuff we're going to take."

"I already took care of that yesterday," my sister said as she gave me a wink.

"And you made it sound like you barely came up with the idea! How long have you planned this, huh?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Now hurry up or I'm leaving you behind," my sister yelled as she went outside.

I ran after her! "I'm coming!"

My sister started the truck. She hadn't lied about it being filled with fruit and some of my mom's textiles. 

We drove on the old dusty road that lead to Ame for some minutes until Tsukyo waved at us.

"Where are you two heading?" our childhood friend said as he walked toward us.

"We are going to Ame city to give my brother more stuff to sell. Want to come?" my sister asked.

"Of course I do... but first I have to go and ask my parents if I can go," Tsukyo said as he ran towards his little house.

"Doesn't it seem to you that Tsukyo's always on this road," I asked.

"Yeah, it does actually. Though, think that's because he wants to travel," my sister responded.

"I'm back!" Tsukyo said as he ran toward us. "They said yes."

"Then get on," my sister said with a smile.

"Thanks a lot for giving me the chance to travel, Earia," Tsukyo said in a grateful tone as he got on the back of the truck.

"It's nothing, after all what are friends for?" Earia said.

"Well I see you two as more than friends," I said under my breath.

"W-what? I-I don't like Tsukyo like that," Earia stuttered as she began to turn bright red.

"Oh come on. We would make a great couple," Tsukyo said in a flirty tone.

"Shut up!" Earia said as she began to drive off, causing Tsukyo to tilt back.

"Warn me next time, will you?" Tsukyo yelled. "I could've fallen off."

She scoffed.

I chuckled nervously. Earia sure could be scary at times...

***

We arrived in Ame city in just under one hour.

"Here we are. Let's start looking for Sora," Earia said as she looked around the plaza. The plaza was huge, it was filled with people from all corners of the country rich and some poor. Shops filled the plaza farther than my eyes could see and I can see almost twice as far as the average person can.

"Maybe he's someplace else, hey we should try to sell at another site. This plaza seems full."

Earia drove us farther from the center of town. Stalls lined the towns, as did intimidating men dressed in black.

"Stop, we can park the truck there and sell stuff while getting info on Sora," Tsukyo said, pointing to a dark alley.

"Alright, you and Earia can sell things while I go and look for brother after that we will return home," I said.

Earia drove the truck into the dark alley which thankfully was big enough for us to park it there and set up shop.

"So the chosen one has to save his or her nation from a certain evil that could envelop the whole world in darkness?" a familiar voice said from behind us.

"Yeah that's true," a white haired boy said as he appeared behind us.

"Huh who's setting up a store here," a girl's voice rang from behind.

"Is that you Sora," Tsukyo said. I turned around and saw my brother with a group of people with the same eye colors as those "terrorists" my father had described.

"How do they know you?" the boy who sounded like a girl asked.

"They are my brother, sister, and my best friend," Sora responded.

"Wait, a person with opal eyes, light blue eyes," I finally said as I walked away from my brother. "You three are the terrorists they talked about in the news aren't you?"

"Wait but dad said that there were two white-eyed people, and there is only one person with white eyes," my sister said.

"I got a limo to come pick us up," a man with white eyes said as he came out of some hole in the ground along with two kids.

"Now there are two white-eyed people," I said in shock.

"What do you mean by "terrorists"?" Sora asked, tilting his head.

"My dad heard on the news that there were four people who planned on bombing this place," I responded.

"Wait a moment, it was the government who wanted to bomb this place to kill me, her, and your brother," the white-eyed boy said.

"What? Why would the government want to kill you three?" I said as I continued to move away from them.

"Because I'm the Chosen of the Citrine, and they fear that I would try to overthrow their corrupt government," my brother responded.

"So you are making yourself out to be even more special." I laughed... why couldn't I be the foretold chosen? "But I believe you. Especially as Dad said the terrorists had been killed. It's clear that if they meant you, that you're not."

"Thanks, Satsu. I'll explain everything later, but for now, we need to go someplace safe," Sora said as a limo approached us.

"Wow, a limo. You must really be special, big bro," I said with some jealousy in my voice.

He chuckled. "Not really, it's just my job to save this world from the corrupt government we are ruled under," Sora responded with a cocky smile on his face.

Yeah go on brother, continue moving ahead of me to the point that I become only your shadow...I wish someone would come and tell me I was special...

"Oh yeah, Satsu. I forgot to tell you that just like me you have powers too. Only I don't know what they are yet," Sora said as he looked back at me. "My parents have them too, as do you Earia."

Earia grinned genuinely. "We do? We better go ask our parents to teach us then."

"That's nice to know," I said with a fake smile.

The three of us continued to sell food after the limo left and made quite a bit of money...ha we came here to help Sora but it doesn't look like he needed the help...

"Hello you three," a boy with blond hair said as he appeared in front of our shop. "Would you three like to be part of a special group that plans to overthrow the government?"

What in the world? Did this really just happen? "Who are you and why do you want to overthrow the government?" I said with curiosity. While the guy was weird, I probably was weirder for even giving the time of day.

"So that people can stop being poor. My group wants to replace the corrupt system with something that benefits all people. Eliminating poverty as well as extreme wealth. A society with no class distinctions," the boy said as he took out some silver orbs. "Take one and chose a weapon for it to turn into."

"I'll consider joining you, I'll make my decision later," I responded. Something felt wrong. What kind of rebel went up to a guy and asked him to join them? He had to be a part of the government, trying to track rebels. Or perhaps, this was all part of a false flag operation. They had tried to make Sora and his companions out to be terrorists. Or maybe, just maybe, he was an actual rebel with social interaction issues. Perhaps, the gods had answered my pleas.

"Alright then," the boy said as he walked away.

"Will you actually join that guy's group?" my sister whispered. "I don't trust strangers like him."

"I don't either, but I want to help big brother. Maybe I can help him through this group. If it's the government, I could at least direct their attention away from you know who," I said, trying to think of the best way to help my brother. I didn't want to feel useless. Not when he was playing hero without me.

"In that case, we should really consider joining them," my sister said with a smile.

"I don't trust him nor his group," Tsukyo said as he took out a jewel.

"What's that," Earia asked.

"It's a Citrine, just like your eyes," Tsukyo said as he showed us the stone. "I found it one day when I was digging for treasure."

"Wow it's beautiful," Earia said as she looked at it.

"It is but it also seems to glow when it detects lies, it's almost as if it were alive," Tsukyo said as he held it up to the sun. "Though the stone was acting differently around him than around liars. It was glowing dimmer but that could be because the boy doesn't believe in his organization's own goal."

"We should show this to my brother," I suggested, pointing to the silver orb.

"Alright. Let's show it to him when he returns. For now, we should return to our sales," Earia said as more people began to appear.

**Solar Note: What did you think of the chapter? Do you think that Satsuya is right to be jealous of his older brother?**