Wow, glad you guys liked the story. Makes me so happy!

Of course, one reviewer pointed out that Sora had mary-sue qualities. And she's right. The first point can't really be helped since that's what I intended in the first place. And yeah, the girls reasons for hating Sora seem pretty shallow but Sora doesn't exactly portray herself as being likeable either. Though I'll delve into why she's so hated by her peers later. However, she also brought up a very good point so I've went back to the previous chapter and made some changes to explain why she isn't liked very much.

Ah, and there's a variety of twists that will differentiate the three main girls (Sora, Arisa, and Kasumi) from the others in terms of the Flames being the main power, but it is well within the rules of the KHR realm.

I think.

Anyways... on to the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR. I do, however, own Sora, Arisa and Kasumi.

Chapter Two

Time passed and soon enough the students of Namimori Middle found themselves occupied with studying for the Final Exams. Much to Arisa's exasperation, Sora had shut herself away in her room about a month before the Finals to begin preparing for them. It wasn't until her mother had barged into her room and literally threw her out into the streets after a quick dressing down that Sora finally got the message that she should get out of her room once in a while.

However, she had forgotten about that little detail when she holed herself up in her bedroom during summer vacation in favor of doing her summer assignments early so that she didn't have to do anything else until school started up again.

Which was why she had a very rude awakening one day when she was in the middle of her math assignment and her cousin had dropped in for a visit.

"Sora!" Her mother called from downstairs. "Ieyasu-kun has come to see you!"

The brunette in question looked up from her assignment and towards the door, debating whether she should reply or not. She hadn't seen her cousin for a month since he had been away on business of some sort (though what kind of business that a man in his early twenties needed to be away for was beyond her imagination). This was nothing unusual as Ieyasu being away for long periods of time had become more and more frequent over the years.

While she still sat by her desk still contemplating on going downstairs or not, her bedroom door suddenly slammed open. Sora jumped in her seat, but her door nearly being cracked in half by her mother wasn't what startled her.

No. It was the pissed off expression on her mom's face that had her inching back as far as she could from the angry woman until her seat backed into her desk.

Her mother may have been the perfect ideal Yamato Nadeshiko and Sora may have been the Ice Queen of Namimori Middle, but there was no contest as who was the one who held the power in the Sawada household.

"Sawada Sora!" Her mother said in the scolding tone that had her daughter scurrying to do whatever she wanted within seconds if just to get the woman off her back. "It's been a long time since Ieyasu has come over! Go downstairs and see him right now!"

Actually, it was a month and several days. That was short compared to him being away from Namimori for four months at one time. But Sora wasn't going to point that out to her mother when she was so ticked off at her.

Sawada Nana was generally an easy going person who had a lot of patience, but she wasn't someone you wanted to make angry either. Sora of all people knew better than to try her mother's patience, but that was easier said than done since she couldn't predict what would fly with her mother and what wouldn't.

"Fine." Sora growled. "Can I at least get changed first?"

She was still in her summer pajamas, which consisted of a pair of loose shorts that came down to her knees and a t-shirt that was one size too big for her. Sora may have had an impeccable image at school, but she had a sloppier appearance whenever she was home.

Nana eyed her daughter critically for a few seconds before sighing and putting her hands on her hips. "Alright. But you better come down otherwise I'll come up here again and bring you into the living room myself."

Sora did not doubt her mother's words so she promised that she would be downstairs in ten minutes or so. Once the woman was out of the room, the girl began rifling through her dressers to find a decent outfit to wear. She found a pair of jean shorts and soon paired it up with a blue tank top and a white summer jacket.

Quickly running a comb through her hair so that it wasn't so messy, she went downstairs to greet her cousin. Just as Sora got to the bottom of the staircase, she overheard her mother and cousin's voices coming from the living room.

"...so how is she?"

Even though it had been a while since she heard it, she instantly recognized Ieyasu's voice.

There was silence and then an exasperated sigh. "It's the same. She's gotten a little better when Arisa and Kasumi came into her life, but other than that, as soon as she gets home, she locks herself into her room until it's dinner time."

No doubt they were talking about her.

Sora wondered if she should walk into the living room and make herself known or remain in place and listen in on her family talking about her. She chose the latter when she heard what else her mom had to say.

"...I'm happy that she's at the top of her year and that she's the the President of her class, but..." Nana paused in her sentence.

She had an inkling to what her mom was going to say next. Or would have anyways.

Sora was perfectly aware of the fact that she was no better than an automaton that did the same thing day after day. In the morning she got up, got dressed, ate breakfast, went to school, came home, did her homework, eat dinner, did some more homework and then finally went to bed. The next day, she would repeat those series of events again. The only time she ever got out of the house was when Arisa or Kasumi made plans for the three of them without telling her about said plans in the first place.

Yes, it got tedious. But the last time she had listened to her mother's advice on getting out of the house and doing something other than her homework had resulted in her going out for a night long walk. A night long walk that lasted till 2 AM in the morning and would have lasted even longer had it not been for her mom freaking out at why her daughter hadn't returned after six hours and contacting her cousin who in turn asked for his friends' help in searching for Sora.

Boy was it fun when she had finally been found by Ieyasu's friend who not only acted like a creep but laughed like one too (nufufufu).

Knowing that she was unlikely to get any more information in the conversation between them, the brunette decided to get things over with so she could go up to her room again and stay there for the remainder of the day.

"So where did you go off to this time?" Sora didn't bother with introductions as she was planning on skipping out on him after she was done saying hi.

"Sora!" Nana sounded exasperated by her daughter's rudeness, but Ieyasu didn't mind so much.

"Italy. And America." He answered.

The girl rolled her eyes. "It's always Italy."

Ieyasu just smiled at her.

"Well, if that's it I'm going to be heading up to my room now." Sora sighed. And she got dressed for nothing too...

"Ah, Sora-chan." Her cousin's voice snapped her attention back to him. "I was wondering if you wanted to do something today?"

Sora simply stared at him before turning on her heel and walking right out of the room.

Or at least she tried to. Her mother followed her, grabbed the back of her shirt and promptly dragged her right back in.

[~~~]

She didn't know who she should be mad at: Ieyasu for suggesting the idea in the first place, her mom for shoving a shoulder strap bag into her hands and then literally throwing her out of the house, or herself for giving into her mother's demands of going downstairs and greeting her cousin, starting the whole chain of events that got her here in the first place.

"So where do you want to go?" Her cousin asked.

Sora glared at him, hoping that he got the message that she wasn't in the mood to do anything with him.

"Ah, how about we go get some ice cream?"

Sora twitched, her fingers flexing as she contemplated punching Ieyasu.

"Er, frozen yogurt?"

"Fine." It was better to head him off at the beginning. Her cousin would have just continued suggesting places they could go until Sora finally gave in due to annoyance.

As they walked to the store that sold frozen yogurt, she took notice of the stares they were attracting, particularly from the female population. Sora snorted lightly, before directing her stare straight ahead of her so that she didn't have to acknowledge her cousin's admirers.

Her cousin, Sora hated to admit, was very handsome. He had soft spiky blond hair and eyes that were a light shade of orange and if it could be considered a bonus, he was also a very kind person. Ieyasu "Giotto" Sawada was the dream man of every female out there in search of a prince. She didn't know if it was a good thing that he was unaware of this fact or not.

Unfortunately for all the single girls out there, he was already taken.

He was dating Tsukuyomi Rie.

Arisa's sister.

Sora had accidentally found out when she had been over at her cousin's place one day and Rie had called. She had beat her cousin to the phone only to hear the voice of her friend's sister. When Rie realized that it had been her younger sister's friend who had answered, she pleaded with Sora not to tell Arisa that she and Ieyasu were going out.

Sora promised she wouldn't say anything. She already knew what Arisa's tendencies towards Rie's boyfriends were and it usually involved the boyfriend, a metal baseball bat, and a three hour long chase around town. Sora had to admit that Arisa had a very good for scaring off her older sister's boyfriends like an over protective dad- and it just so happened that their father was exactly that and he encouraged his younger daughter's habit of threatening the boys who went out with her older sister.

Rie's dating history was, well, horrible. For some reason, her friend's older sister always picked the worst kind of boys to go out with. A player, a jerk, a guy who was overly controlling... ect.

So against her better judgement, Sora promised she wouldn't say a word about it to her friend. Despite Arisa's tales, she decided to keep her mouth shut on the issue. She chalked it up to family loyalty since Rie was going out with her cousin. And Ieyasu was ridiculously nice, so Rie's luck could be turning around with Ieyasu. Though if he hurt Rie in anyway, Sora wasn't going to hold Arisa back when she went on a rampage.

After Ieyasu grabbed their yogurt, they headed... somewhere. She didn't bother asking where they were going because she didn't really care as long as it used up time and she could go home again.

Unfortunately, the universe liked torturing her once she was outside the confines of her own room because they met up with his friends about half an hour later.

There was nothing wrong with Ieyasu's friends. In fact, hanging out with them was probably a girl's dream come true because like her cousin, they were all very attractive specimens of the male gender. Except in Sora's case there were the factors that one) Sora was not the type of girl who obsessed over hot guys like a good portion of other girls her age did and two) they were her cousin's friends and about five years older than her.

"Oi! Giotto!"

Sora tensed when she heard the voice and slowly turned in the direction it had come from. It was from the outside dining area in one of Namimori's restaurants. At a table of six, one of the men was waving at them. She inwardly cursed and reluctantly trailed after Ieyasu as he went over to greet them.

"Giotto" was another one of Ieyasu's names, something his friends often called him. It was his Italian once since not only was he Japanese, he was also half Italian thanks to his mother and Sora's aunt, Felicia.

Sora stood a little ways away from them and hoped that they didn't see her.

No such luck.

"Well if it isn't Sora." G., Ieyasu's best friend, said as he leaned back in his seat and eyed her critically as if to confirm if it was really her. "I haven't seen you for a while."

'That's because you guys were abroad for a month. AGAIN.' Sora wanted to say, but wisely kept her mouth shut. She coughed when the scent of cigarette hit her nostrils and glared at the red haired man who had a cancer stick between his lips. How in the world could he inhale that poison into his body?

G., whose real name was practically unknown to everyone except maybe Ieyasu, had pale red hair that bordered on being pink and red eyes that were a shade darker than his hair. He wore a white long sleeved dress shirt that had some of its top buttons unbuttoned. It was accompanied by a green tie that hung loosely around his neck and black pants. As usual, his clothes were rumpled, giving him a sort of bad boy look that all the girls fell for. His most noticeable feature though was the red tattoo on the right side of his face that pretty much screamed he was the rebel type.

"If I get lung cancer and die because of you," Sora coughed. "I promise that I will come back and haunt you."

G. rolled his eyes, but put out his cigarette anyways. If he dared to smoke when Kasumi was around, Sora would hurl him and his precious packet of cancer sticks into whatever nearby solid object thar was closest to her.

"That's better." Another one of Ieyasu's friends rolled his eyes at G. when the man started to pout. He gave Sora a thumbs up. "Thanks. That was his third one and he wouldn't put it out until you got here."

Kiyotaka, or Knuckle as he was commonly known to others, was the boxing enthusist of the group. As such, he valued his health and strength and disliked anything that put it in danger such as G.'s chain smoking ways. He also happened to be the older brother of the well known 'extreme boxer' at Namimori Middle Sasagawa Ryohei and the cute School Idol Sasagawa Kyoko.

In contrast to the loud third-year Sora had smacked several times in the hallway for running down Arisa twice and nearly running into Kasumi, Kiyotaka's hair was black and he had a much more calmer personality than the silver hot head who was constantly screaming at people. And like Ryohei, he had a white bandage plastered over his nose.

"G.," The youngest of the group, a man with curly green hair and green eyes, leaned back in his seat lazily and sighed. "It's okay if you want to slowly kill yourself, but please think of the other people around you."

Sora snorted at that and had to cough several times to contain her laughter. The man who said the comment winked at her and she smirked back at him in return. Lampo may have been the youngest of the group, but he was also the most sarcastic and the one who Sora got along with the most since they were often complaining to each other about a variety of things, especially when it concerned their respective group of friends.

"What did you say?" G. glared at him.

"I said-"

What would have likely escalated into an argument was interrupted by the mediator of the group. Yamamoto Ugetsu was the son of the owner of the best sushi shop in town as well as the older brother of her classmate, Yamamoto Takeshi. He had black and equally dark eyes, but unlike his father and brother he had much paler skin. No doubt something he inherited from his mother.

"Now, now." He said in a soothing tone. "Let's not start."

There was a barely detectable subtle tone in his voice that stated that if they took the argument further, he would take his wooden sword and crash it down upon their heads. G. and Lampo got the hint and didn't bring up the issue any more.

"Hm." Oh no, that guy... Daemon was talking. "I was under the impression that hardly come out if your room any more."

Sora twitched, her hand flexing as if she wanted to punch him. Which she did, but there was a difference between actually punching someone and contemplating on whether to carry out the act or not.

"Actually, I do." Which was the truth. She didn't stay up in her room all of the time; she had to go downstairs for dinner and Arisa and Kasumi often tag teamed her and got her out of the house by force. She wasn't a hikikomori after all.

"Only if someone drags you out of your room." Daemon said playfully.

'Urge. To kill. Rising.' He might have meant it in a teasing way, but Daemon had a knack for annoying Sora to the high heavens.

As if sensing the killing intent radiating off of her, she saw her cousin give her a look that no one else but her could see. Sora looked away and attempted to ignore Daemon.

"Hmph." Sora's eyes flicked towards a man with blond hair and blue eyes before looking away again. It was the older brother of the delinquent Prefect who kept order at her school. The two of them looked so much alike that Sora could barely stand to look at him as well.

She had heard stories of Alaude being as much of a terror as his younger brother was when he was younger but thankfully for everyone in Namimori he had grown out of that stage and had a much calmer persona than the one who she often saw stalking the halls and beating random people up for some of the most ridiculous reasons such as 'crowding him'. Alaude didn't socialize much and he didn't like being surrounded by people, but he at least had the sense of getting out of the room instead of bashing the faces of the other people with a weapon.

"Hey, uh, we need to talk to you about something." G. glanced over at where Sora was standing and even without the familiar feeling of that twinge she had become accustomed to, she could already tell where this was going.

Rolling her eyes, Sora turned away from them. "Don't mind me. I'll be back in an hour or so. See ya."

And without a word of good-bye to her cousin or his friends, she began walking away. They had stuff to talk about and they were obviously not going to talk about it with her around.

[~~~]

The men watched Sora stalk off in silence, her body seething with anger as she walked away from them as fast as she could. G. turned guiltily towards his best friend who was staring forlornly in the direction his cousin had gone off in even though she was no longer in his line of sight.

"Were you two hanging out with each other today?" G. asked.

"...yes."

G. winced. Not good. It must have taken a lot of effort to get Sora out of the house and it had taken only a few seconds for her to go off by herself. Running a hand through his hair, he decided to make what he needed to say quick so that his boss could get back to tending to his difficult cousin.

[~~~]

Since she had quickly finished off her yogurt, Sora quickly bought a triple scoop ice cream and was devouring it as if she hadn't had lunch or breakfast. Considering that she hadn't, it would probably explain why she was so freaking hungry. It had nothing to do with the fact that she had been sent away like a little kid who didn't need to hear what the adults were doing.

In fact, it was always like that.

Whenever Sora came across Ieyasu with his friends lately, she would always be forced to go somewhere else.

Not that she particularly cared since she hadn't even wanted to go out with her cousin in the first place. Her mother, after all, had thrown her and her stuff outside of the house and made sure that Sora wasn't going to be able to come back until several hours later.

Making sure that her ice cream didn't drip on to her, Sora rifled through the hand bag her mother had tossed her. It took her a few minutes, but she was able to find her cellphone.

Using the same hand that had been searching for the phone, the girl turned it on and went to the contacts list. Arisa had gone to the United States of America for Summer Vacation with her family to visit her friends there and Sora had a feeling that Kasumi wasn't up for coming to the park Sora was sitting at, even though it was a ten minute walk for her.

Two minutes and a phone call later, Sora's theory of Kasumi not feeling well that day had been confirmed. Kasumi had wanted to meet up with her upon the her friend's suggestion of just meeting at the park since it was usually her and Arisa doing the inviting, but the housekeeper who looked after her had put that idea to a halt since Kasumi's health wasn't at its peak.

With a sigh, Sora tossed her cell back into the bag and finished off her ice cream. To her dismay, some of it had started dripping down her arm after the phone call so she used the napkins she had been given to clean up the ribbons of ice cream spiraling down her arm. She could have easily licked it off but in public, the action looked pretty... suggestive.

Several more licks of the three scoops and the crisis of having a sticky mess on her hands was averted.

She had managed to finish off one scoop of ice cream before her cousin found her again.

"You're going to ruin your appetite." He said, shaking his head.

"Meeting end early?" She asked in between eating her ice cream and ignoring his comment.

"Yes." Ieyasu hesitated a little and that was enough physical evidence for her to determine that he wasn't telling the truth... at least, all of it. As for her 'sixth sense', it told her right off the bat.

That was something Sora had noticed lately. She was able to tell if people were telling the truth, telling half-truths or just out right lying to her. At first, it started off as a sort of twinge in her gut, like an instinct, that only grew from there.

At first she thought it was just pure luck until her 'random guesses' turned out to be right all of the time. There were no 'wrongs'.

And it wasn't just lies; she was able to tell if someone was trying to sneak surprise attack her. It started when she first avoided Hibari's attack during his 'duty' of watching the students by the school entrance. He had, for some reason, decided to spring surprise attack her.

Though Hibari attacking students for no reason other than because they broke the rules or offended him in some way was nothing out of the ordinary.

Something in Sora's mind and gut at the time told her to move and she did just that... avoiding a tonfa to the head just seconds before it made contact.

Sora didn't know what was going on, but she could start seeing through things and people. One day, everything was normal and there was nothing out of the ordinary and the next... she had suddenly developed a sixth sense.

Or was it that it slowly started building up to that?

Sora knew this sudden 'ability' wasn't normal, but what exactly was she supposed to say to other people? 'Hi, I can suddenly see right through you and your paper thin lies and facade you put up when other people are watching'? Not only would she be offending people left and right, but she would looked upon as being some sort of freak.

Even more than she usually was, anyways.

But instead of confronting her cousin on the half truth he had told, she merely shrugged and asked him what he was planning next.

[~~~]

Early the next morning, Sora was abruptedly woken up by a loud shriek that came from downstairs. Quickly kicking off her blankets, Sora raced downstairs to see her mother staring at a letter with a happy expression on her face. It had been a long time since Nana smiled like that.

Ever since her long time and best friend had passed away in that accident two years ago.

Having not seen her mother look so joyous for so long, Sora blinked at her in confusion.

"What's going on?" She asked the woman slowly.

Nana smiled back at her and showed her the letter. "Sora-chan, look!" She shoved the letter into her daughter's face.

Sora slowly lifted the letter a safe distance away from her face and started reading it. A minute and hardly a paragraph later, she nearly dropped the paper while her mother was squealing over a second one.

According to the paper in her hands... her brother was coming home.

Whoo, finally done. Sorry, it might be a while before this story gets updated due to exams and lack of inspiration. But hopefully, the other characters that Sora meets will be enough to tide you over for a bit, eh?

As for Nana in this story, I'm sure some people think she's a bit OoC. From her canon version, she is but events from before and her daughter's attitude as of late has developed her personality into what you have seen so far. She's stern to Sora, but this is because her daughter is such a head case at times.

And can anyone guess what ability Sora has slowly started developing?

Don't forget to review! Reviews are love!