A/N: This is version 2.0 of chapter one. It contains sections from my original chapters one and two, as well as some added narrative that I felt was missing the first time around.
A/N 2: Footnotes will be marked with numbers in parentheses for your convenience. That way, I won't bother you with author notes in the middle of my fanfiction if you already understand the terms I've used.
"Higurashi!"
"Hai?"
"You do know that if you miss a certain number of classes, you will fail your freshman year of high school, right?"
Higurashi Kagome paused for a moment. The teacher's stern gaze didn't waver, and she realized with a pang that she had forgotten about that regulation for high school. "Hai..."
"And you also know that you have missed one day more than the maximum number of days you can miss to pass the tenth grade?" the teacher continued slowly.
Kagome was silent for a while as that thought sunk in. She knew she was doing badly in Geometry, and she by no means was good at proofs, but she thought that she could maintain at least a C average for her grades overall. She knew after her constant D's in Geometry and her almost failing grades last year that she couldn't possibly get a B average, but she hadn't taken her absences into account.
"Is there some sort of extra credit assignment?" she asked finally. She prayed that there was. She definitely didn't want to be left behind while everyone else graduated from high school.
"Why yes, Higurashi, there is. However, it will cost some elective money from your parents to pay for the trip; it's expensive to be an exchange student to America."
Kagome bottled up her excitement, which took an enormous amount of mental strength on her part. She wanted to scream with joy. She had always wanted to go to America, and this was her chance! "Seriously, Sensei? The extra credit trip is to America?"
Tanaka-sensei nodded. "It's an exchange program. You would be transferred to a school called Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters. It is a highly prestigious school with a reputation of salvaging students' grades to which most believed had no hope. They always find the right way to teach so the instruction sticks with you, and as smart as you are, that should be no problem if you stop falling sick all of the time. Your flight will be at Sakura Airport, and you will leave next Sunday morning at 10:00 if you so choose to be there."
Kagome smiled, ignoring completely the suddenness with which the offer had been placed upon her. "Doumo arigato gozaimasu. I'll be there at ten."
Tanaka-sensei handed her a plane ticket, they both bowed respectfully (Kagome bowed lower to show extra respect), and Kagome forced herself to walk until she got to the edge of the school building. Only then did Kagome dash home. She left her shoes at the door, walked in, and slipped on the slippers that she had to wear exclusively inside the house. Her mom walked over to her.
"So, how was your day at school, Kagome?"
Kagome grinned. "I'm going to America!"
Professor Charles Xavier of the Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters, a bald, elderly man, leaned back in his wheelchair and sifted through his mail wearily. A few of the elementals had decided to play element tag that morning, resulting in three cases of frostbite, seven burns, and electrical overloads of three security alarms. In conclusion, Scott Summers, trying to break up the dangerous game, suffered frostbite as well as the three second-degree burns. He managed to make the students see things his way, yes, but even Xavier couldn't really trust someone with laser eyes completely, especially since young Mr. Summers was a teenager himself.
A very formal-looking letter caught his eye. Charles gave it a double take. It had the return address of the American National Student Exchange Committee, or ANSEC for short. This new committee was a part of the current president's campaign to promote student exchange programs around the world. They were a huge success, with students from China, South Korea, Italy, France, Egypt, Russia, South Africa, and even poor countries like Sudan.
Charles opened the letter, these ideas running through his head like a river through a forest. The letter, in short, was a congratulatory letter directed toward the Institute. He read it. Xavier closed his eyes for a minute, as if asleep, and was motionless until the sound of rushed footsteps entered his office. Without opening his eyes, he motioned toward his student, a serious-looking redhead named Jean Grey, to close the door, and she obliged.
She sat down. "Professor, why did you call me?"
He opened his eyes gravely. "If you do not want others to find out about us, we will have to act quickly. Convert the target practice into an archery range. Close off the controls to the Danger Room and convert it to a gym. Tell Hank McCoy he is to not be seen. Kurt is to wear his holo-watch at all times. We have to go onto a sub-digressive minor lockdown mode."
"Why is that, Professor?"
"Miss Grey, listen to this. 'Mr. Charles Xavier, we are pleased to inform you that the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters has been nominated and accepted into the exchange program. As you know, you will teach an exchange student for anywhere from two to four years, and one of your students will get the learning experience of a lifetime by studying in a foreign country. Your school has been widely acclaimed and the Japanese government particularly requested the Institute for the program. One of the school's students needs a break from busy city life and has agreed to spend the remainder of her school year with you, as she has been absent exactly one day too many for her to pass her Freshman year of High School due to various illnesses that were unavoidable on her part. Because your school teaches over the summer as well, we are delighted to inform you that you will be the school this very good student will attend. Thank you, and have an excellent school year. Sincerely, the ANSEC.' Now, Jean, what shall we do about that?"
"We were nominated without our knowledge?"
"Yes. Nomination is confidential, unfortunately. We were probably nominated by a parent of one of our students. As you know, not all of the parents know about our school's special nature."
"There's no way out of this?"
"No. We are acclaimed to be the best school in the US, and if we didn't participate in this program, it would look highly suspicious. The government would investigate, they would find out about us, and we would be shut down. As I said before, we need to go on a sub-digressive minor lockdown mode."
"Yes, Professor. I understand, sir."
Jean hurried out the door. Xavier sighed and went back about his business with the mail. One couldn't be bothered with something as minor as overseeing a sub-digressive minor lockdown mode when one was Professor Xavier. It was a boring, tedious task, and he could do it from his office while filing papers, anyway. See, Xavier was not a normal person. He was the head of Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters, the special school for persons with the mutant gene, the gene that gives humans superhuman powers, such as super strength, laser vision, and yes, telepathy. He didn't need a closed-circuit camera system to view what was going on during the lockdown; he could oversee it while working on his everyday business, such as filing papers or reading through applications for his exclusive school. Of course, since one had to be selected in order to participate in the school program, the first place the applications generally went was in the trash. Normal humans would be terrified if they knew about mutants, so Charles made it his duty to ensure that mutant activity didn't get out of hand, or at least just not bad enough to be seen by the government as a threat. That consisted of making their existence almost invisible. It was a shame; the school had originally been formed as a training school for mutants who wanted to use their powers for the common good. Now it was simply a normal school, albeit the fact that all of the students were mutants, and one of the "core classes" was a class on how to control their powers.
Of course, sending one's son or daughter off to "mutant school" is not a very easy thing to do. Some parents would view it as a prep school, others as a school to cure the mutant "disease". Others still would just think this school promoted segregation between mutants and everyone else. Because of this, only parents who already knew about their childrens' powers were informed of this other duty of the Institute. Most parents just believed it was a special accelerated program for intelligent and unsuccessful adolescents, and indeed, it was.
Xavier put a letter to one of his students in the mailbox for another staff member to sort through, and took a look at what was going on. Kurt was wearing his watch, disguising his outward appearance…good. Kitty wasn't running around anymore, making sure to walk around things instead of through them. Yes. Even with the cooperation of his students, this was going to be a difficult day.
Inu-Yasha cursed. What was taking Kagome so long? He knew Kagome often left the Sengoku Jidai (1) for extended periods of time, but she had already been gone a week! He punched the ground in frustration and sped out of Kaede's hut, ignoring the soft mist that lay upon the ground or the muted colors of early daylight, and raced toward the forest where that accursed well was. He jumped inside, ricoched off the bottom, and sprang toward Kagome's house, cursing at her as he went along. He slid the door open as fast as its track would allow. "Kagome!" he cried. "Come on! We're waiting for you, idiot!" He looked down at the table where Souta and the old man were sitting. No Kagome. "Oi, where'd she go?"
"Kagome left already," Souta said blandly.
"What do you mean? She's always here on Satty-days!" Inu-Yasha pouted. Did this school thing require her to go even more often than she had let on? Why couldn't she just ditch it and be done?
"No, she and Mama went to the Sakura airport this morning so Kagome could catch her flight."
"Air-port? Flight? They went hunting without me?" Inu-Yasha asked sourly. He didn't want to sound stupid not knowing words. He thought maybe she was trying to catch a flight of birds for dinner that night. Was this a festival of some sort?
"Hunting?" the old man asked incredulously. "Heavens, no. The airport is somewhere where people go to fly to other countries or islands. It's like a ships' port. Kagome is riding something called an airplane that will take her to America, where she is getting a new schooling." His eyes glowed with admiration for Kagome's situation.
Inu-Yasha cursed, but to himself. "Old man," he demanded, glaring. "Tell me how to get to this "airport."
Rogue, a tough-looking sophomore with a white streak in her untamed hair, grimaced when she looked at the new schedule Jean had posted on the wall. She may not have minded the change in schedule, but she knew some of her peers and underclassmen certainly would. And she didn't like whining. She played with the long sleeves on her shirt, pretending to ignore the change in schedule, and tried to nonchalantly stroll out of the room before she ran into--
The tornado of dissent. A mass of students ran her over, trying to view the new schedule. There was a pause. Then there was chaos.
"What do you mean we have gym class? I don't want no stinkin' gym!"
"Why can't we use our powers? What'll happen to our powers class?"
"Why is seventh grade English a double period?"
The poor middle schooler who spoke was given many a condescending look, and the mob returned to expressing outrage at its new gym classes. Rogue, unfortunately, was the only upperclassman in the vicinity (the rest having fled the mob minutes ago), so she angrily got between the mob and the cause of their entropy.
"Listen up!" she hissed at them. "We're having a transfer student come in tomorrow morning, and nobody--I repeat, nobody--is to use their powers, under any circumstance. I don't know about any of you, but I don't want the world to know about my powers!"
"Screw you," a tall, lanky boy sneered, sticking out his tongue. "Your powers suck, so you don't care!" His pale skin and spiky blonde hair turned white and started to glow. His eyes faded from green to yellow.
Rogue recognised him as Roger Maeholm, a sixth-grader who had just arrived in the institute last month. His power was to...shine light on people. Very scary. "Shut your mouth, punk," Rogue shot back, slipping off her glove. The mob of middle-schoolers instantly took a few steps backward; Rogue's power was to absorb human energy, memory, and mutant powers through ectodermal contact. In other words, if she touched any one of them, she'd sap that person's energy, steal his or her power, and know that person's deepest and darkest secrets. "You know if you were worth it, I'd hurt you so bad you couldn't move to hit me back." She glared at Roger, and he knew she meant it. She replaced her glove and smiled grimly. "Now, I want all you middle schoolers to be on your best behavior for the exchange student. If not, I know where to find you!"
She scanned the crowd, and noted a general assent. A few heads nodded reluctantly. She stepped away from the schedule and pushed through the crowd and into the empty hallway that would take her to her dorm.
Inu-Yasha sniffed at the ground. Kagome's scent was there. She had gone this way! He jumped up onto the building Kagome's grandfather had described as an "airport" and ran along it, looking for the boat Kagome would be riding in. There wasn't any water, but the old man had explained how these boats used a magic to fly through the air. He scanned the ground. Hey, were those monstrosities what the old man had meant? They certainly didn't look like any boats he'd ever seen. They were thin, tubular, and metallic. They each had two arms...or fins, Inu-Yasha realized to himself, and a dorsal fin. Each arm also seemed to have a circular structure on its underside that looked strikingly similar to the character for "forbidden..." Were these supposed to be boats that used a forbidden magic to swim through the air?
Inu-Yasha examined each boat carefully. One smelled of Chinese herbs that made him sneeze. One had a sweet odor that seemed to draw him near, but it didn't smell of Kagome. He shook his head and moved on. The next smelled burnt, of ash and coals and things better left unsmelled. He gave that one a wide berth. Finally, after a few more failures, he came across one that smelled strongly of humans. He realized there was a barrier between this ship and the others, and that he was in a seperate section. He saw a movement out of the corner of his eye, and realized that it was indeed Kagome. She was going into the ship on his right.
Inu-Yasha started toward Kagome, to head her off, but suddenly a memory of the last time he tried to retrieve her bubbled into his mind. She had been angry with him for interfering and had made him sit. He grimaced. "Best leave her to her own devices for now," he thought. "I'll see what she's up to before I head 'er off." Inu-Yasha snuck off to the back of the ship Kagome had boarded and clambered up onto its dorsal fin. He pressed his claws into the steel of the ship. Maybe he wouldn't interfere, but he sure wasn't going to let her go off to sea by herself!
Rogue arrived in her room as quietly as possible and went to close the door, but her frustration made it slam instead. Those underclassmen...making her life difficult! She scowled to herself and sent a punch flying into her mattress.
"What is it, Rogue? Is something the matter?" her inquisitive roommate, Kitty Pryde, asked from the other side of the room.
"Oh, it's that stupid new schedule. The freshmen are really getting to me now. I mean, I almost blew up at Roger."
Kitty, who had been lazily lying on her bed, sat up with a start. "Roger...Maelholm? You mean Solar Ray?" She started snickering.
Rogue shot her a condescending glare. "Well, you go deal with him then. He got all angry because of some stupid gym class."
"I'd rather not." Kitty threw a pillow into the air and caught it. "So, what do you think this new student is going to be like? What grade is she going to be in? Will she hang out with us?"
Rogue flinched from the sudden onslaught of questions. "I'm sure we'll find all that out when she gets here tomorrow. I mean, if we're going to act like normal people, she won't have a reason to fear us mutants." Still frustrated from the mob of adolescents, frustrated by Kitty's constant questioning, and considerably tired of being around other people, Rogue walked out of the room again without bothering to close the door.
Kitty continued asking questions out loud, more to herself than anyone else. Finally, she got stuck on one last, pressing question. "What if she finds out we're mutants?"
(1) Sengoku Jidai is the feudal era of Japan, characterized by the presence of samurai and general warfare throughout the country.
