Chapter 2: The Gang's All Arrived

"That certainly is a lot of luggage," Kurama commented.

The four had just arrived in Kennedy airport in New York after a very long and strength sapping plane ride from Japan. They had been immediately met by Thianadel, who was toting five extremely large trunks and two backpacks. At 4:00 in the morning, she was a sight to be seen. Shadows under her eyes, tendrils of hair escaping their bounds, and eyes barely open, she sat in the waiting room.

As they approached, she straightened up and held out her hand to them. In it were four gold octagonal pins bearing the inscription English.

"What're these for?" Yusuke asked. As soon as he said it, he realized that he said it in Japanese. Meaning, of course, that not only could Thianadel not understand, neither would any of the other students. "Oh... I get it."

After they had been pinned on, the girl asked, "What did you say Kurama? Yusuke?"

"That certainly is a lot of luggage," the red-head repeated. Yusuke just shook his head.

"Yeah, well you didn't have to carry it into the airport at 1:00 in the morning. Luckily it's not all mine. Yusuke's is the green one with the magnifying glass, Kuwabara's is the blue one, Kurama's is the dark green with leaf prints on it, and Hiei's is black one with the creepy eyes. This one's mine," she said, tapping her current seat. "You can keep them on the cart for now, but I'm sorry, I can hardly plod along never mind push something."

"What are those initials on yours? Charms or something? 'Cause they're really cool looking," said Kuwabara, speculating the different colored stickers on Thianadel's box. The girl sighed.

"We're wasting time. The flight is in two hours and we need to eat. The SP stands for Simple Plan, this S stands for Switchfoot, this other S stands for Sugarcult, the LP stands for Linkin Park, TDG stands for Three Days Grace, B-182 is for Blink-182, TC for The Calling, and the GC is for Good Charlotte. They're all only the best rock bands on Earth, especially Good Charlotte. Now can we please move on?" This, all spoken within the space of barely half a minute, was a little hard to take in and so they stared for a moment at Thianadel's retreating back.

"Hey! Thian- Thianana- Sherwood!"

"Oh, just call me Thia. It'll be easier for your scant brains," she called back. For some reason, seeing the Spirit Detective's crew again gave her just about the same rush as sugar. This was going to be awesome.

They had arrived in the London airport. Just about everyone was drooping, though they were making a valiant effort to seem like they weren't. And just when they all thought that they were going to drop dead from exhaustion, (which was just about when they entered the Leaky Cauldron) Thianadel fished out five white pills from a bottle in her backpack.

"What are those?"

"They're called modafinil. They're supposed to banish jet lag and that type of thing," was her response. This was a sort of trust-tester. Did they really accept her as a part of this mission? Or did they have doubts about her?

Kuwabara and Yusuke downed their portions in a second. Hiei... she hadn't really expected him to, anyway, first because his trust was harder to earn, second because this was a result of human efforts and doubted that even more than he doubted her, and third because he wouldn't admit he was tired. And Kurama was the tricky one. Almost trusting, a little suspicious, that was his nature, or so she'd guessed.

"Interesting. I've never heard of this drug before. Are there any side-effects?" Thia would have sighed in relief if she let herself.

"Only mild ones. They had it featured in the Science Times weeks ago. I figured that at least someone would need proof, so I brought a copy. I'm just ever so prepared, aren't I?" She laughed at herself, dug it out from a folder in her backpack, and after handing it to Kurama, knocked back one of the round tablets.

"Say, Kurama, what name are you gonna go by at this school?" Yusuke was curious to know. He, Kuwabara, and Kurama had come up with the cover story that they had been accepted into an English academy (free, of course) that was the best of the best. Shiori had been a bit surprised, though only that it was in London. Atsuko had barely believed that her school-skipping, ragamuffin son had been accepted into any school, never mind a prestigious London one! (They'd had to tell her that the school wanted Yusuke on their boxing team.) Still, the three of them had created false acceptance letters supposedly sent through their separate schools and had managed to fool the mothers (Kurama still felt a little bad about it). Shizuru had to be told the truth, though, as had Kayko.

"Suichi Minamino. That way, if anyone has the need to contact my mother, she'll know who they're talking about," came the reply from behind the newspaper. Yusuke snapped out of his musings.

"Hey, Thia, we four guys know each other. What's your story? Why'd Koenma pick you?"

This was what Thianadel had been trying to avoid. 'Getting to know you time'. But she couldn't run from it forever, now could she? A hint of sadness crept into her eyes and did not go unnoticed by any of the four who were sitting at the table with her.

"All right, all right..."

Author's Notes: You got through this second chapter! Yay! I'm sorry that I put that itsy-bitsy cliffhanger right at the end there... Please forgive me! But the third chapter is already written and being put up extremely soon... Don't forget me! Please review, though I'm not gonna beg.