Chapter One: New House, New School, New Ghosts
Her white-tipped black tail slowly flicked from side to side as she stretched with a wide yawn, the sleeves of an overly large t-shirt sliding to her shoulders. Bright blue eyes opened lazily, looking at the room around them. The girls head cocked to the side in a curious fashion, black ears flopping over her ruffled hair, as she slowly crawled out of the bed. She climbed over the other figure that slept peacefully next to her.
Wonder where Father brought us this time, she thought offhandedly. Jumping to the high window sill above her dresser, she looked out to the land beyond her room. Cars rushed by below on the busy roads, pedestrians waiting on the sidewalks to cross the street, and large pictures were printed on the sides of buildings, advertising various products.
What caught her eye, though, was a man who was walking in the middle of the street mindless to the traffic that was going straight through him. No one else seemed to notice him, yet it looked like he was trying to reach out to them. As if asking for help. The girl sighed.
Looks like another one. I guess I will go it. Though I will wait till after I eat something, can't work on an empty stomach, now can I? She thought carelessly. Things like this just didn't freak her out like they did back when she were younger. Even back then, she wasn't that scared. No, she got used to it after she figured that if they meant no harm, they couldn't hurt her. So she Guided them.
Now she wasn't sure when she found out she could Guide them, but she was sure it was somewhere around the time when she lost her mother to a fire when she was nine. It was only a chance that she happened upon it.
After her mother had died, it seemed like all the ghost just flocked to her. It was as if she was a beacon of light in their otherwise dark lives. She even made friends with some of them, but when she touched or got near them, they seemed to flicker and waver until they faded away completely. They usually appeared again a few hours later, and came to talk to her again, but at a distance.
She never told anyone out of her family about what she could do. Her brother took to it right away, asking many questions excitedly. Her father took it in a different way. He immediately had them taken out of school and moved them to a secluded house in the mountains.
Apparently she got this 'gift' from his side of the family. He comes from a line of Holy People, while their mother was a cat demon. But he found it odd that she had it. Usually only the males in the lineage have this trait-he being one of them.
So she trained and honed her 'gift' for five years in the mountains, being home-schooled on the side with her brother. After that they had been skipping from city to city and country to country for three years, never really finding a place to settle down in.
A groan from below brought her out of her thoughts. A head of brown hair with triangular, tan ears perched on top of it popped from under the covers. Honey eyes blinked sleepily up at her in an endearing way.
"Hey, Souta, how'd you sleep?" she asked bemused by his wide yawn and large stretch-the same way she woke up.
"Morning, Kagome. I slept pretty well considering we were in a car for half the night," His voice was a low tenor that made most women want to turn into a pile of goo. He pulled the blankets off of himself and jumped out of bed clad only in pajama bottoms, a chiseled chest had small almost unnoticeable scars littered across it. A dark brown-tipped tan tail poked out of his pants.
"Yeah, about that, do you know where we are this time?" Kagome questioned as she looked back at the ghost-man from before. He was waving his hand in front of a random woman's face, but she only continued to talk on her phone.
"I think Dad said something about getting a job in Tokyo from a guy named Taisho or something like that," Souta said. Kagome looked back at him with a quirked eyebrow.
"Why would he need a job; he runs a perfectly functioning business from home. We are even helping him." Souta just shrugged his shoulders.
"I guess it's to keep up appearances, you know. Don't want random people questioning how we can afford this place without a high-paying job," he replied. Hearing his stomach rumble he looked at Kagome and said, "I'm gonna go get something to eat, you comin'?"
"Yeah, sure," she said, jumping onto his back as he turned around. He just held onto her legs as if this was a normal occurrence (which it was). He walked down the hall of doors till he reached the stairs and descended.
"Do you think he signed us up for school yet?" Souta asked her when they reached the kitchen.
"Yeah, he told me last night in the car, I just hope it's not one of those preppy demons ones. God, they would hate us there." Kagome shivered just thinking about it. Souta chuckled at her quietly. She wasn't ever one to be a judge of people, but she just detested any rich demon snobs that could care less about any other race. They being half-demons weren't easily accepted by any species, let alone pure demons.
"Don't worry your little butts off," a voice said from the door way. "I decided to send you to one of those inter-species schools." A man in his late forties stood in black pants and a white dress shirt, his long black hair held back in a low pony tail. Steel gray eyes were framed by half-moon glasses.
"Hey, Dad," the siblings said in unison. Kagome was making two plates of toast and Souta was making two cups of milk. Their dad walked over to them and placed a kiss on Kagome's forehead and ruffled Souta's hair.
"You both start school tomorrow morning at eight. This time I don't want to get any calls from the principals about your misbehaviors," he said, making himself a glass of orange juice. Kagome gave an indignant huff.
"You know it's not my fault that those stuck up b-" she got a look from her dad; "barbies decided that I was fresh meat. And Souta was just helping me out; no harm done to anyone."
"Oh, I'm sure; I got calls from several parents complaining about what happened to their children," he retorted. It's true, the most common call he got was about their child's clothing. Apparently, Kagome had spilled paint, glitter, feathers, egg yolks, and honey over a group of preps in the cafeteria. When she got all of that stuff was a mystery to him, but he had to admit, he was a bit proud of them. They got the pranking genes from him.
Kagome shrugged. "They deserved it; they called us dirty half-breeds that shouldn't exist. I just gave them another reason to hate us. Who cares though; it's not like we'll ever see them again, anyway." She took a bite out of her buttered toast. Souta nodded in agreement. Their dad just sighed.
"Okay, I'll give you that one, just don't cause as much trouble at this school; try to keep a low profile, okay?" he asked his children, but it was more directed at Kagome than Souta since she was the most likely to get into trouble.
"No promises," they both replied. Kagome took a last bite of her toast and gulped down the rest of her milk.
"Well, I don't know about either of you, but I'm going to go explore the new city; see if I can help anything around here, you know," she said with a wink. Both men nodded their heads and resumed with their breakfast.
Walking back upstairs, Kagome followed her nose back to her room. Going in, she looked around, taking in the dark blue walls and the large, white bed that they woke up in that morning. Next to the bed was a door that she supposed led to a closet. The wall across from the one her bed was up against had a dresser and vanity taking up its width.
Walking up to the dresser, she opened the top drawer and found all of her favorite shirts. Picking out a plain black one that hugged her torso, she closed the drawer and opened the next one, getting undergarments. Setting the clothes on the bed, she walked to the closet and picked out some dark blue denim jeans. Looking at one of the shelves she found a back ball cap that would hide her ears; humans and demons didn't take well to half-demons. Throwing the jeans and hat on the bed she walked out her room, down the hall, and into the bathroom. She quickly undressed and took a warm shower, making sure to scrub her ears and tail carefully.
Getting out, she wrapped a white fluffy towel around herself and walked back to her room. Dressing swiftly, and wrapping her tail around her waist, she made her way back downstairs and found the living room and Souta, who had discovered the television.
"Did Dad already leave?" she asked, but already knew the answer. Souta flicked his eyes in her direction, then back to the TV.
"Yeah, said something about meeting with his boss and left," Souta told her. She closed her eyes and nodded.
"Well, I should be back in about an hour or two; I'll call if anything comes up." She turned on her heel and walked to the front door, hearing a small 'okay' from her brother. Putting on her black running shoes she made sure she had her money, phone and keys. Nodding in affirmation, she walked out the door and into the sun.
Well, she thought, here we go, another city, another life.
