"Natsu?!" Denki exclaimed as he shot up from the ground. "Holy hell am I glad to see your ugly face!"

  "Damn it," Natsu resounded. "I finally get free of that place and the first person I see is you. Why couldn't you be a hot redhead?"

  "Whatever, punk, you know you missed us!"

  Denki pulled him in for a hug and the others joined. Just behind all of the commotion, Nina and I stood dumbfounded. From our perspectives, he just appeared from the fence that lined the neighborhood to our left. I looked over to see a shadow cast over her face as she lowered her head.

  I've got a bad feeling about this.

  Without using her ability, she walked up to the standing dog pile. Everyone split apart and held her at the center of their attention. She stopped toe to toe with her older brother with her head still tilted down. Fearing the worst, I slowed time. I watched her head snap up as her arm flew to the side ready to recolor the side of his face a painful and bright pink. Her eyes were puffy, and tears had already begun to escape. At the last possible second, she stopped along with everyone else.

  I walked over and maneuvered her arms around him. His were the next to move as I wrapped them around her. I pushed the two of them together and stepped back before unfreezing.

  Sorry, Nina, but I won't let your reunion with your brother be that way.

  Her arm moved forward the same as before, only this time it found his back as his arms found hers. Wrapped in a hug, he didn't hesitate to lock her in place. She struggled for a second as she shivered, but as her shaking became more and more apparent, she gave up the facade and buried her face in her brother's shoulder.

  "You... big... stupid... idiot of a brother!" She finally managed between the sobs.

  "Hey, Nina," Natsu smiled. "I'm back. Sorry for being gone."

  It was a special moment. Our group was back together just in time for the next big thing in our school lives. As the sun began to kiss the horizon, the golden air made their tears glisten and our smiles glow even more. Through it all, I caught Nina cast a stare at me. Being the closest to the two of them, I was the only other one to hear her words.

  "How many times are you going to make me embarrass myself, you jerk?"

  Hate me all you want, Nina. You can never go back to how you were before if you lose someone as close as your sibling... trust me.

  *  *  *  *  *

  "So, aside from the rest of the fight," Natsu said as he stuffed his face. "What did I miss?"

  "That's pretty much it," Denki replied as he stole a piece of meat from his lunchbox. "The stadium came down thanks to that Sato guy. The authorities did what they could to investigate, but with everything that happened and what was left, there's no way they could arrive at the truth."

  "Hey!" Natsu began a power struggle with him to keep his lunch.

  "Can't forget how fast everyone moved on when that city board member's affair came to light," Nina added cynically.

  That was convenient, for sure. I don't remember anything about that from last time, though. How far does the butterfly effect reach?

  "Huh..." Chika looked up to the white and blue sky from the roof of the school. "I hope these clouds don't mean that I'll need my umbrella tomorrow." She glanced down at me and smirked.

  I can't focus with you around... I still haven't told you how I feel... Honestly, I'm scared to...

  "We should be fine once we get to the school," Kaori said as she offered Chika more of her food. "I'll bring mine just in case so you don't have to share with the kings of stench." She motioned to all of us boys and giggled.

  "First him, now you? I'm getting attacked on all fronts here!" Natsu interjected as he struggled to hold his lunch away from Denki.

  "Well, you do make a good punching bag," Nina remarked as she picked food from her brother's lunch.

  "Can I please catch a break?!"

  "What was it like where you were?" I asked.

  Everyone went silent and became still, their gazes fixed on me then slowly shifting to Natsu. Denki had let himself get into a headlock under his arm but slipped out and joined the staring contest. It was as if everyone suddenly remembered that he had been missing for a month. Natsu sat back and looked up like he was gathering his thoughts and memories.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "I don't know where 'there' was," he started. "I honestly don't even know how I got there. Like, one second I'm in the stadium, the next..." his state held with the sky as his eyes seemed to glaze over.

  "The walls were shaking," he continued. "Chunks of the top of the stadium were already coming down. One landed between me and everyone else. I knew I didn't have time to get everyone out, especially since I couldn't see them. I guess I was desperate. I opened a portal below me and warped myself out. I had never tried it before, and I wasn't even sure it would work. Desperate was one word...

  "I knew when I did it that something was wrong, specifically the fact that I didn't fall anywhere. You'd think taking the ground out below myself would mean that I followed gravity and fell. Where I was seemed to have no gravity, or airflow, or light. I felt like I was floating in the night sky, only there weren't any stars at first. They came later..."

  As he spoke, the color drained from his eyes and face. He held his stare with the sky as a breeze surrounded us. A dark cloud covered the sun as Natsu went silent, and we all felt the sudden cold cut through us.

  "I'll never forget that feeling," he continued. "Surrounded by darkness, nothing below or above, no left or right, not even warmth or cold... just the void."

  Natsu's words were clearly not his own. As the twisted words escaped his mouth, his appearance became like marble. He violently twitched just for a moment, yet he somehow seemed to stay perfectly still. Without a moment of hesitation, everything ground to a halt, and I pulled my hidden knife. As I did, however, I saw that someone had beaten me to action.

  Nina was frozen in mid air as she dove for Natsu's chest. Her face held no malice, though: she was trying to hold him in hopes that he would snap out of it. I pulled back and replaced my blade joining in her hope. As time slowly began to resume, she crashed into him and wrapped her arms around him. As everything moved at a snail's pace around me, color returned to Natsu's brown eyes and fair skin. Nina's hope had been fulfilled.

  "Huh?" Natsu sounded dazed. "Hey, what's with this?"

  "You were talking crazy, dumbass," Nina grunted.

  "Yeah, it was even creeping me out." Denki agreed.

  "Creepy? Try an all-in-one horror movie," Kaori stuttered as she held Chika's arm.

  "Huh," Natsu looked around. "Anyway, I don't know how long I was there. I don't remember feeling hungry or thirsty. I didn't need to sleep, but I did out of boredom. I woke up one time to see little lights in the distance. I reached for one, and it pulled me in. The next thing I knew, I was in a cleared field."

  "Wait, so when you found us wasn't when you broke out?" Hiro chimed in having been on the edge of his proverbial seat since the story began.

  "Let him finish," Rito nudged also in extreme anticipation.

  "Yeah, I don't know what happened," Natsu continued. "I still felt like I was... wherever I was before, but I looked around and saw this empty field that was getting prepared for construction. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another light and reached for it. In an instant, I was on top of a skyscraper. I didn't see much of the city below, but it wasn't Hoenn City, that's for sure. A strong wind hit the building and almost pushed me off, and I found another light.

  "It only got worse from there: underwater, somewhere in the sky, a desert, the side of a cliff. Each time, it all seemed so random. Eventually, I found a light that sent me back to the field where I started. Something was different this time, though. Where a field was supposed to be, an apartment complex stood. The writing all over it was in a language I couldn't read. I wanted to go home so badly at that point.

  "I sat down and beat my head trying to think of a way home when another light seemed to burn in my mind. I opened my eyes to see the same picture as before. I closed my eyes and saw the light again. As I reached for it, I got pulled, and when I opened my eyes, I was crashing into ugly here." He motioned his head at Denki as an awe-filled silence came over the group.

  "Oh my gosh," Kaori finally broke the silence. "I'm so sorry."

  "It is what it is," Natsu replied as he placed his hand on Nina's head. "I'm just glad to be back."

  "One thing bothers me, though," Nina launched up and began pacing. "Was it a fluke? Or has your ability always been teleportation, and this was just the catalyst to bring out your potential?"

  She looked at him, and he gave a goofy shrug. To that, she sighed and threw the can of soda she had been drinking at him. Denki took the opportunity and snatched the rest of Natsu's lunch which started another brawl between the two of them. The mood had taken a complete turn from the frozen horror only minutes before. The sun reappeared in the sky as the moments slipped to memory.

  Whatever he could or couldn't do, the experience itself was what bewildered me. He surpassed his limits with his ability but with a cost. Something about that cold snap seemed otherworldly, even considering metas. I remembered Nina's consequences of using her ability too much, and my mind raced with questions.

  If he keeps using his ability, will that happen more often? What other long term effects do meta abilities bring? Previously, I had never thought about it, but seeing two examples of it makes me worry. What if there's a major drawback to our abilities that we never could have expected?

  *  *  *  *  *

  The day was drawing to a close as I cleaned up the kitchen after dinner. Mother was off work, so she had prepared my favorite curry for the three of us. Yui was still engrossed in studying and offered little to no torment as she had before. I welcomed the break.

  "Hey, Zuzu," she started as she continued reading. "Your class is doing the haunted cafe, right?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Hmm," she seemed to have forgotten what she was going to say as she closed her book. "I guess Hana and I can pop by, then."

  "I'll make sure to be on break," I laughed as I started to walk up the stairs.

  "I hope you'll take time from your break to come watch me win the pageant," she trailed off.

  "Huh?" I poked my head back into the living room.

  "I decided to compete this year," she locked eyes with me. "I have a boy to impress, after all."

  "Why are you the way you are..." I turned back and left.

  I feel like these next three days are going to be longer than the sports competition.