Author's notes: thank you so much to the people who actually reviewed! I'm so happy some people like the story thus far! Anyway, here's the next chapter.

Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and Bleach belongs only to Kubo. Do I have to say more?


"Nervous?" Kagome's mother asked from the door of her daughter's room.

"Just a little, actually." Kagome stood in front of her full length mirror to carefully scrutinize her appearance. "It looks a lot like my old school uniform." She fingered the red bow tie at her neck. Kagome twirled around to inspect the back of her new uniform for any imperfect creases on the skirt.

"Hmmm." Her mother agreed. She clapped her hands together and smiled as Kagome turned around. "Well, you wouldn't want to be late, Kagome, and I'm sure you'd want to be there early to meet Orihime so that she can show you around."

"Right, mama, I better get going." Snatching her new grey shoulder bag (that came with the school uniform, of course) Kagome hurried down the stairs to zip past her younger brother and nick his piece of toast from right under his nose.

Being a boy, and obviously being very grouchy in the morning, Sota grumbled, "Onee-chan's a big meany!" he rubbed at his tired eyes with a clenched fist as he halfheartedly aimed a sore punch at his sister's running figure.

"Ittekimasu, Sota! I'm leaving, mama!" Kagome said over her shoulder as she pulled on a pair of brown loafers with her white knee-high socks. The piece of toast was clamped in between her teeth as her hands were busy with her shoes.

"Itterasshai…" Sota called after the sliding shōji door pointlessly. Wearily, he poured himself some cereal.

Outside, Kagome was walking by herself on a sidewalk crawling with many other teens wearing the same uniform as her. "I hope Orihime-chan won't be angry with me for being a little late to meet her," Kagome thought to herself, crossing the street to wait at the bus stop that would take her to her new school. Many other students were waiting there, as well.

"Ah, ohayou, Kagome-chan, sorry I'm late!" Orihime bounced to Kagome's side with a shoulder bag hanging off her. She was a little out of breath, but was otherwise okay. She had made it in time, also; the bus had just arrived.

Loading in with the other students, the two girls found a seat near the back. "Nah, I thought I was late, so it's fine." Kagome and Orihime exchanged some small talk and laughter on the ride to school, and after a particularly good joke from Orihime-chan later (that had something to do with futuristic robots hell bent on destroying the world), Kagome had found herself standing in front of an entirely new building she'd never seen before. She felt nervous watching other people getting back together after the weekend and exchanging stories. If Orihime-chan had a clue to how Kagome felt now, she didn't show it because she kept poked her on the back to continue moving to the front doors.

"Ah, I want to introduce you to a lot of people, Kagome-chan!" the other girl continued her giggling when the two had made it into their class. "This is great, Kagome-chan, that you're in the same room as me! I wouldn't know what to do if I left you in any other room! It's so scary to not know anyone!" Kagome managed a polite smile.

"Orihime! Hey, Orihime, over here!" both girls turned around to see another girl with black spiky hair waving at them to come over.

"Tatsuki-chan! Ohayou!" Orihime said grabbing Kagome's hand and dragging her over to Tatsuki's desk.

"Eh? Who's that, Orihime? I've never seen you before." Tatsuki eyed Kagome. "You new or what?"

"Ano, yes I am. I just moved from my other school here." Kagome bowed lightly and smiled. "I'm Higurashi Kagome."

"A pleasure, Kagome-san. I'm Arisawa Tatsuki." The two exchanged friendly grins.

"Kyyyyyaaaaaa! Hooray for new friendship!" Orihime bounced up and down excitedly when Kagome told Tatsuki 'Kagome' was just fine and vice versa.

"Inoue-san, what's all the noise for?" a thin boy with dark hair and square glasses made his way over to his friend. "And who's that?" he spotted Kagome chatting quietly with Tatsuki.

"That's Kagome-chan, Ishida-kun, and she's new." Orihime explained calling her new friend over to meet the Quincy. "Kagome-chan, this is Ishida-kun."

"Nice to meet you, Ishida-san." Kagome bowed politely. Uryuu nodded back. The ebony haired girl turned back to Orihime and Tatsuki, seemingly going back to a previous conversation they were having before his arrival.

The Quincy was neither ignorant nor stupid, for he was a great Quincy, first of all. He was taught how to fire spirit arrows when he was only a young boy and was disciplined in the art of combat to boot. One of the things that he excelled at was the detection and identification of different reiatsu. He was best at that; it was something Ishida boasted about constantly around Kurosaki; someone who didn't even know how to contain his own spirit force.

That was why Ishida was certain that their new classmate was different; he could feel her unusual spiritual power, and it was rolling off of her in waves.

That, as well as her weird spirit threads. Did such a thing as multicolored spirit threads really exist?

He decided to ask Orihime because it seemed to him that she was close enough to the new girl. "Inoue-san, may I speak to you in private for a moment please?" his buxom classmate nodded and followed him to the other end of the classroom where no one else was there.

"What is it, Ishida-kun?" Orihime asked with a trace amount of worry on her face.

"About our new classmate, Inoue-san…" he began, his eyes boring down into her own. The effect was totally ruined when he extended a bony hand to adjust his glasses. "Have you noticed anything…off about her at all?"

"About Kagome-chan? If you don't like her, Ishida-kun, you don't have to be all hush-hush about it all." Orihime explained this while cupping her mouth with her hands and darting her eyes to the sides. "If you don't think she's pretty, or if you think her breath smells, or if-"

"No, no, it's nothing like that, Inoue-san," Ishida resisted the urge to sigh loudly and roll his eyes at the childishness of his friend. Sometimes, he wondered… "It's just… can you see her mixed spirit threads?"

"Mixed spirit threads, huh?" Their private conversation was interrupted by an orange haired friend.

"Kurosaki-kun! Ohayou!" Orihime cried.

"Mornin', Inoue." He said back. He turned back to Ishida. "You talkin' 'bout mixed spirit threads?"

The Quincy boy nodded his head. "Yes, mixed spirit threads-"

"Kurosaki-kun, this is Kagome-chan, Kagome-chan, this is Kurosaki-kun." Orihime had dragged Kagome to her side to stand in front of Ichigo. The two stared impassively at the other until Kagome remembered her manners and dipped her head to a small bow.

"It's good to meet you, Kurosaki-san, I'm Higurashi Kagome." Ichigo continued to openly gawk (but still managed to maintain his bad ass image by keeping his mouth shut) at the shorter girl. It didn't take him long to snap out of his self induced stupor.

"Ichigo's just fine," he said off handily, while he waved a hand in front of his face. He stuffed his other hand in his pocket. "Have I seen you before?"

"And…what would you mean by that, Ichigo-san?" Kagome asked suspiciously. She was a little taken back by the boldness of his question; not to mention that intense glare he was sending her way. Orihime-chan was right; he did glare hard!

"I'm just-" Ichigo was cut off when an obnoxiously high pitched sing-song voice rang in everyone's ears. Ichigo refrained from convulsing as Kagome looked around stupidly for the source of the voice.

"IIIIIIICCCCCCCHHHHHHIIIIIIIGGGGGGOOOOO!" there was a loud BAM as Ichigo's back hand made contact with Keigo's face. Kagome looked down to see a twitching boy with brown hair. Another boy with black hair was suddenly standing beside Ichigo shaking his head as if this happened often.

"Waaah, Ichigo, you're so mean!" Keigo was up and about once more, seemingly unhurt after the fatal looking blow he had just taken to the nose. He puckered his lips, crossed his eyes and arms, and wiggled his lower body as he continued to rant about Ichigo's cruelty.

"Keigo, you asshole, what did I tell you about associating with me?" came Ichigo's witty reply to the other boy's consistent whining. The orange haired yankie hadn't changed his facial expression the entire time, keeping his frown in place while he glowered at his classmate.

"You don't care anything of what happens to me, don't you?" Keigo cried out, anghst. "My friends have no heart!" he then proceeded to cry pathetically into the boy with black hair's uniform sleeve. The other boy, in turn, rolled his eyes.

"Ano, I doubt what Ichigo-san says, so don't take it so hard." Kagome tried awkwardly to talk to the emotional boy. She laughed somewhat nervously.

"Ah, and who is this fair maiden that has just so suddenly stolen my heart and ran away with it??" Keigo cried out dramatically. He held her hand out in front of him, his eyes half lidded as he said in his most suave voice, "Grace me with your name, oh sweet-"

"Kyyaaaa, its Keigo-kun!" Orihime just suddenly popped out of no where and smacked the brown haired moron with her bobbing breasts. "This is Kagome-chan, Keigo-kun! She's a friend of mine, so don't get all kissy-kissy around her 'cause she's not like that!" the well endowed high school girl giggled pleasantly, totally unaware of the almost terrified faces of Ichigo and Ishida. Tatsuki just shook her head.

"Eh?" Kagome said intelligently. She dismissed the whole event as an "Orihime" thing and hoped to never ever see anyone maul anyone else with their chest. Ever. And with breasts like Orihime-chans, it ought to hurt, too. Kagome shuddered mentally.

After that affair, Keigo decided that his friends needed the 'cold shoulder', so he dragged Mizuiro (the boy with black hair that Kagome had then come to know and like immediately for his pleasant behavior) away with him to sulk so he wouldn't be alone.

No one really noticed or cared (excluding Kagome who didn't know the douchebag well enough yet).

Kagome, for the most part, was liking her new school already for the diversity of her classmates and fellow peers. There was Orihime-chan and Tatsuki-san who were fun people, and with Ishida-san, Keigo-san, and Mizuiro-san around, school wouldn't be quite so boring anymore.

Ichigo-san was another different matter entirely. Glaring and glaring, was that all he ever did? His brows were always knotting together on his face as well; it was as if he was constantly angry or something. And when he asked if they'd ever meet before, Kagome had suddenly had a weird feeling. Brushing it off as first day's nausea, Kagome got up and out of her seat when sensei called her to the first to introduce herself to the class formally.

A girl with light brown hair and glasses was eying her rather openly (and was drooling, she added with a quirk of her brow), and Kagome couldn't help but spot a dark skinned giant sitting at the back of the room beside Ichigo (she also remembered the tall boy to have came to class late). Kagome deducted this day to be a very weird indeed, and took her seat again beside Orihime. This would make an awesome story for when she got back to the warring states era.


Terms:

Onee-chan: big sister

Ittekimasu: "I'm taking off!" or "I'm leaving now!"

Itterasshai: "See you later!" or "Have a safe trip!" usually followed after "Ittekimasu"

Ohayou: morning

Ano: um, ah, eh ect.

Author's notes: m'kay, so not much action in this chapter. I hoped I portrayed everyone correctly. It absolutely sucks when someone's out of character. Constructive criticism is welcomed and reviews would be lovely!

Note: a yankie is a Japanese 'gangster' in a way. They're often showed to be rude, unkind, and overall a troublemaker. They could be related to the American kind of gangster, but not really. Ichigo's referred as a yankie because of his orange hair and constant frown, yup :)

Food for thought: Most fools think they are only ignorant. –ironically, my really dumb friend 3