Chapter 4

"Good morning, students. Today we have a new student."

A young, blonde girl stepped through the door and was greeted by raised eyebrows and whistling (from the boys, of course). One boy was especially loud, as if he were just mocking everyone else. A girl to his left glared at him before turning her gaze back to the new student.

The girl spoke in broken Japanese, "Hello, my name is Kimiko Emi. I am come from England, Europe. I do not know Japanese much. It is pleasure to meet all you."

The teacher smiled down at her before saying, "I am the teacher, Yukimori-sensei. We all hope you adjust well to life here in Japan."

"Thank you, sensei. If me may ask, where are my seat?"

"Next to Toichi-kun. Toichi-kun, please raise your hand."

The loud boy from earlier raised his hand. Mentally sighing, Emi realized that it was just her luck that she got stuck next to the person who was probably the class clown. She sighed again, out loud this time.

"Hello, I'm Toichi. It's nice to meet you!"

"Likewise," she stared down at her desk with a small blush on her face. The boy, Toichi, was pretty good looking. Back at home in London, boys like that never paid any attention to her. This new treatment flattered her, and she suspected that the small, fluttering feeling in her chest was a new crush forming.

For the rest of the class, she decided to play hard to get. Toichi would keep looking over at her with a different, weird look on his face in an attempt to make her laugh. She was determined not to do so, as she was afraid the new feelings that she was trying so hard to keep bottled up inside her would burst out and she would never stop laughing.

The bell rang and the two seventeen year olds parted ways. The rest of the day was spent doing mindless work in history, completing random problems in mathematics class, and proving one hypothesis after another in science. Overall, it was a boring rest of the day, so Emi was unable to stop thinking about that one kid in her class.

When the final bell had rung, Kimiko rushed through the hallways, jumping up and down in attempt to find Toichi in the crowd that was so large she couldn't see past the person directly in front of her. To top it off, in the midst of all the searching excitement and over all the loud voices in the hallway, she heard her name over the loudspeaker. Joy.

"Kimiko Emi, please come to the main office."

Stopping as soon as she heard her name, she strained her ears to hear the rest of the sentence. Making out what she could of it, she began pushing her way through the huge crowd of people before stomping off to the main office. Whatever they had to tell her had better been good.

Walking in, she was motioned by the secretary to sit down; the principal would be with her in a moment. An uneasy feeling came into her stomach as she caught a glance into the principal's office and noticed the tired look on his face.

The man, Osamu Ryou, was in fact feeling very tired that day. He had just received a stressful phone call which put him in an uncomfortable position. Now he had a student sitting outside his office that knew nothing about what he was going to tell her. As much as the news disturbed him, he knew that the girl would be feeling ten times worse than he by the time they were through.

He stood and stretched before walking to the door. Pausing, he took some time to get his thoughts in place. Having his mind organized before this meeting would be helpful, not only for him, but for the girl – Kimiko Emi was it? – outside the door.

Inviting her in, she sat down cautiously, unsure of what the talk was going to be about. How would she know, anyway?

The news came out of his mouth in a fumble of words. Ryou didn't even try to sugar-coat any of it, though as he continued on, he realized that course of action would have been better. The tears poured out of the girl's eyes as she comprehended what she was being told; she would have no father to come home to that night, nor any night at all, for he had been killed while chasing down a dangerous criminal named Jackal.

Lowering her head to hide the tears and her running nose, she quietly spoke that her mother had died earlier that year. Her nearest relatives lived in Beika, so that meant she would no longer live within the area to go to school at Ekoda.

Walking back to her empty home sadly, she realized that her first – and last – day at Ekoda High School had just ended.

"Yes, that boy certainly is just like Toichi... what was his last name again?" She mumbled, staring absently out the window. What was Toichi's last name, anyways? Try as she might, the name never came to her, and as she stared at Kaito, she hoped that it was not "Kuroba".