She couldn't believe her eyes.

Her hands shook in absolute bliss, almost crumpling the paper in her hand in the process. She read the paper over and over again, her brains registering the information that was on the paper, before throwing her fist in the air in triumph, continuing with her victory-dancing. Her brother looked at her with confused expression with an arched eyebrow, disappearing into his thick long bangs, watching her having a time of her life.

"Nee-chan, you are scaring me," he commented dryly on her wild victory-dancing.

She stopped in midair at his comment, and fell into the couch with an irritated grunt. "You sure do know how to ruin one's moment…"

"You know nee-chan, what are you so happy about, anyways?" he asked her, gazing curiously into his sister's usual dull stormy azure eyes, which contained a rare sparkle.

"We're in!!!!!" she yelled, grabbed her brother's hands, and started to swing him around. "We're in!!!!!"

"You…you mean!!!!" his eyes sparkled with sudden realization, "YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He threw his fist in the air too, and the sibling started to do their victory dance, their movements exactly the same.

"What's going on?" their mother's soft voice was heard at the entrance of the living room, and the sibling immediately ran to their mother, yelling vigorously about the topic a few while ago. Soon, the sibling was yet again partying, doing their traditional victory dance while their mother arched an eyebrow at them.

While the girl and the boy danced and partied, a certain crumpled paper was just sitting on the couch, all forgotten despite the amount of attention it received like 2 minutes ago.

Higurashi Kagome-san and Souta-san:

We are glad to inform you that you've been accepted into the Tokyo Private High School (abbreviated TPHS), in response to your excellent grades you made in your previous schools. Please see the attached notes for requirements and materials needed, and more information will be told at the school auditorium.

If attending TPHS, you will be needed to be seen at the Tokyo Airport by 10:00 P.M., on February 14, 2005.

We thank you for your cooperation.

-Kaize Kagura,

Head of TPHS Staff

----

In the Same Room with a Dog

Chapter 1: A Step to Brighter Future

----

-TokyoAirport; February 14, 2005; 9:20 P.M.

"Well, that's it for me," I commented, dusting the imaginary dust on my hand, "Most of the heavy bags are shipped into the TPHS airplane… (Yeah, and it was only two big bags, including mine and my brother's.) And stop looking at me like that!!!" I said the last part in a little panicked way, since my friends were glaring at me as if I was the lowest roach crawling beneath their very own feet.

"You are a traitor," Yuka-chan, the tough one, said grudgingly, narrowing her eyes into an annoyed squint.

Oh, this again… I sighed exasperatedly, "Yuka-chan, I'm not a traitor."

"Traitor."

A groan. "Yuka-chan"

"Traitor!!!!!!!" she said this part out loudly enough for the people surrounding us stare at us with weird expression on their face. "You are a sissy traitor!!!! How could you!!!! You cannot leave us like this!!!!" Yuka-chan emphasized on the last part with grudge hanging onto every word.

Sighing and knowing that we were getting weird glances from the people for the hundredth time that day, I turned to my friends yet again. "It's not like I'm going to be gone forever…or get shipped to Mars," I raised an eyebrow, "Why are you guys so worked up about it?"

I knew why, but didn't decide to comment on that.

"K-Kagome-chan!!" Eri-chan, the soft and frail one, cried with a sad pout on her face, "We are getting separated after being in same school for our whole entire time! Of course we are very worked up about it!" she sniffled and rubbed at her eyes constantly, trying to stop the tears from flowing out.

I sighed. That was true… We were being separated after knowing each other for our whole entire life. I couldn't believe that I was the very first one to break out of our let's-be-together-forever bond when I was the first one to suggest it. I'll miss them like heck, but my choice was made even before the response came from the Tokyo Private High School, the school I was heading to right at this moment.

Oh, how I adore that school! Even surpassing Hogwarts from Harry Potter series, (and I did read the translated version of the book) that school had become the best high school in Asia!! (Even though the letter didn't say anything about being the best, it was true that it was the best high school in Asia. It was all over the news for quite a time.) It was also the newest school, so the cost was very high for the ones who attended it. My aunt somehow got me and Souta into the school, being the rich one in our mother's bloodline.

The school was absolutely hushed, and nobody, except the students, teachers, and workers of the school, knew what was going on in there, including what they do, the building structure, or any information about the school. The only thing knew about the school, was the name, cost for the fee, and the students' overall scores.

I worked so hard to achieve my place in that school, even though I was one year late for the registration. I didn't know they allowed transfers, but I didn't care as long as I was in the school. All thanks to my aunt, I mentally commented with a grin. She was young too… She did offer to pay for our fees.

"Nee-chan," a nervous and hesitant voice interrupted our heated (?) conversation. I looked down to find the source of the voice. Ah, yes…my younger brother Souta!! For some reason, his growth spurt acted very slowly, so he was only 6 centimeters shorter than me. But well, he did have two or possibly more years to grow taller, while I stay in this size forever…

"It's almost 9:25 P.M… They did say to wait till the signal comes, but I don't see any sign of signal…" Souta anxiously shifted with his sports bag slung around his shoulder. Ah, I see…he was nervous. He always was nervous every time he was about to do something new.

"Airplane for Tokyo Private High School is leaving in an hour… Passengers, please get ready to aboard in 30 minutes," a cool young woman's voice flowed out clearly from the speakers attached somewhere in the airport.

"That was our signal…" I mumbled, looking at my brother's instantly frightened looking eyes and his stiff figure, and then turned to my friends, "I'll call or write, okay?" I smiled genuinely, extending a hand out to them.

"Deal," Ayumi-chan, the calm one, smiled approvingly and we shook our hands in an honest and firm promise.

"Tell mama that I'll miss her-!" my voice faded into the crowd as Souta dragged me to the Gate 147, my friends waving at me while Eri-chan finally broke down in tears, drying her tears with her sleeve. Yuka-chan probably thought I didn't see it, but with my 10.0 vision, I was clearly able to see her wipe furiously at her tears. Ayumi-chan was smiling quietly, waving at me once more before I went through the gate when the guard checked our tickets.

It wasn't like I was going to be gone for forever, but I'll still miss this place, mama and jii-chan, and my friends. I silently glanced at their retreating back once more, before moving on with the line.


We passed through the gate and the young green ticket checker at another checking booth before the departing Gate gave us a very mean look, muttering something about "rich kids these days…" before handing us the ticket grudgingly. We were walking toward our destination silently when Souta, who was observing our tickets quietly, popped up a question. "Nee-chan, how come my ticket says my plane is XX039M when yours says XX039F? I thought we were supposed to go on a same plane?"

"Maybe we are being separated…" I crinkled my nose, "You know, maybe too much people…"

"Oh no, we get separated by our gender," came a cute voice, in mid puberty, from behind. We turned around to find a cute little boy around Souta's age, maybe around 16, with flaming orange hair in a high ponytail and stunning turquoise eyes. He was wearing a plain red t-shirt and beige khaki pants. "The M and F at the end of the numbers stands for male and female." He grinned a little nervously, "Sorry… By the way, I'm Kitsuobi Shippo, this upcoming freshman."

"Higurashi Souta," Souta grinned and shook Shippo's hand, "I'm a freshman too. And this is…" he gave me a hesitant side glance, "…my nee-chan, Higurashi Kagome… Sorry…she's not really familiar with any other foreign guys except me and jii-chan…"

True…except that I was more of disgusted with any other foreign guys rather than unfamiliar. It was my natural reaction to feel the goosebumps up my arms at the sight of any other foreign guys. But, Shippo was fine. He was very cute, and was younger than me. The only guys I couldn't take were guys that are older than me or around my age. I just went stiff and cold around them… It just was a natural reaction, after the accident that happened years ago…

"Nice to meet you Shippo-kun," I smiled politely at Shippo, trying to erase my last thought from my brain permanently, "I'm actually a year older than Souta, but I kind of…transferred…"

"That's perfectly fine," Shippo said with his turquoise painted round eyes, "They never said it was against the school law…"

"By the way," I looked around the waiting seats and the souvenir shops, "How do I get to the XX039F? It says that the gate number is 16, but over here, it's 24…"

"Not a problem," Shippo grinned, "You just go straight and turn left at the first hallway you see, and go straight until the Gate 16 pops up. Souta-kun will go with me to the Gate 23. Nice meeting you, Kagome-senpai!"

"See you later, nee-chan!" Souta winked, and turned around and went for his Gate, engaged in a friendly conversation with Shippo. I was glad that Souta made a friend before going into the school, since he was quite the shy one, even though his manly side kept well hidden behind his polite nature. I turned around and headed for my destination, too.

Passing by the hallway, I stopped at the odd sight of group of girls crowded behind the wall, spying something that I do not see…

"I told you that senpai would have his side-bag today!" a girl squealed, covered with excitement and triumph, "You better have those pictures of senpai with you."

"Ah, darn it," a girl grumbled gleefully, if that was possible, "How did you know?"

"I know everything about senpai!" the said girl exclaimed. "If I'm going to be his future girlfriend, then I should know everything about him, you know?" a sigh, "Those silky black locks and the gorgeous violet eyes… I long to touch his hair just once…"

"Even though he's kind of playboy," another girl popped up, "That's why I love my senpai so much…" she pointed at the brown and black blur walking with a black and red blur, and a black and purple blur. "I will swoon at the sight of him…and faint if he does call my name once…"

All the girls in the group sighed dramatically before heading toward the direction I was going. Strange people these days… I wonder what's so gorgeous about that group of guys… I bleched at the thought. A bunch of guys? GORGEOUS???!!! That was definitely wrong and sick. Guys were just a bunch of roaches in my eyes. There was this one guy who asked me out for the middle school graduation party, he, who looked like a roach before, literally turned into a puddle of urine in my eyes. I felt my face instantly scrunch up into a fierce scowl, an angry hue of red spilling across my face like a spilled ink, and I socked him, giving him a bloody nose while Yuka-chan held me back…or that's how she translated the almost comical scene and told me with amusement filling her voice and face, while Eri-chan tried really hard to stifle her giggle by stuffing a fist into her mouth.

Now folding away the thoughts about that gorgeous, notice the dripping sarcasm, group of guys (I once again bleched at the thought), I headed to the Gate 16 lazily, my gigantic yellow bag being dragged on the ground by my hand while shifting my sports bag closer to me.


I swear it's been 3 years ever since…that accident. I mentally flinched at the thought automatically. I unconsciously brushed my finger over my scar underneath the black hair that hung around it, and caught myself doing it. I slowly dropped my arm as images began to fly in my mind swiftly. I immediately shook those thoughts off.

It was only a minute later when I found Gate 16 for the airplane I was going to ride. I ran to the window and gawked at the airplane, not even giving any side glance to the waiting seats. Wow… My eyes slowly ran over its smooth silver head to its tail. At the side of the tail, was the little symbol of TPHS. It was a white cross with black background. Whoever owning this school was sure rich.

"You," said a stern and cool female voice, "I need your name."

I turned around and met a pair of cool crimson eyes. I "eep-ed" and focused on her face as inky black hair and high-cheek-boned face came clearer. I hesitantly studied her face when more details were audible for my eyes, noticing that her black hair was held up in Japanese traditional style with couple of white feathers. She seemed like an elegant and true traditional Japanese woman… I decided to tell her my name after I noticed a staff necklace that hung around her neck. "Higurashi Kagome…um…" I read her nametag a bit, "…Kaize-senpai…"

"Higurashi Kagome…" her fingers ran up and down her notepad, so I decided that she was looking for my name. "I need your ticket." I did what she told me to do. After couple scribbles and crossing-outs on her notepad, her eyes still focused on her note, she said, "Your seat will be W12, second floor, and your companion or partner will be Taihiratsu Sango."

"Taihiratsu Sango?" I cocked my head to the side, curiosity evident on my face, or what I think… "Who's she? I don't know her… How am I supposed stay with her for hours if I don't know her?"

Still with that cool expression on her face, she replied with her unique stern voice, "You don't like those gossipy and air-headed girls, correct?"

"Yeah…" I replied back at her with flat expression evident on my face. I didn't like those gossipy and air-headed girls, since all they talked about were related to guys in anyway. Like when they'd talk about a movie, they'd talk about their favorite hot actors…and when they'd talk about school, it'll gradually lead to their hot classmates… It's country known that a lot of Japanese girls love hot guys.

"Then quit complaining. Taihiratsu is a nice girl," she said with her usual straightforward cool voice. Without letting me reply to her last comment, she took out her walky-talky and talked into it, "Taihiratsu Sango, please come to the info booth." When she talked into the walky-talky, her voice echoed in the Gate 16 through the speakers.

Couple seconds later, I saw a girl with long and really dark inky black hair slowly advanced on us with bored expression on her face, "You called, Kaize-senpai?" she yawned slightly. "Sorry, senpai… I'm just very bored…"

The cold woman, or Kaize-senpai, nodded in approval before pointing at me with her pen, "She's with you, by the way…"

Taihiratsu-san blinked at me in confusion with her deep magenta eyes before turning to Kaize-senpai with curiosity evident in her deep magenta eyes, "She's new, eh?"

"Yes, she is," Kaize-senpai shrugged slightly, her cool expression still on her face, "Good day to you, Taihiratsu-san and Higurashi-san…. I'm off to find more girls…" and she left with gracefulness tracing her every move.

Taihiratsu-san turned to me with a polite, but cheery smile on her face, "Hi, I'm Taihiratsu Sango. I'm assuming that you are…" she slightly lowered the ticket in my hand, peeking at it curiously, "…Higurashi Kagome-san," she held out a hand, "Welcome to Tokyo Private High School."

"Thank you," I smiled politely back at her, "I'm Higurashi Kagome, Taihiratsu-san."

"Just call me Sango-chan," Sango smiled sincerely, "I like it that way…except when guys are calling me like that. It's gross…" she shuddered. "You look a lot like Minoko-senpai," she commented, looking at me with confused expression on her face, "You guys could surpass as twins."

Did I hear that right? I only knew one Minoko family which happened to be…

"KAGOME-CHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!" a squealing black and red blur was seen before I was crushed into somebody's space between shoulder blades painfully, stars clouding my eyes. "It's been a long time!!! I missed you Ba-chan never told me you were in!!!!"

The figure continued to squeal in a language I didn't understand and I was almost able to make up the confused face of Sango-chan's, even though I had my back to her… Wait a second… That voice sounded familiar, even though more mature…and that long shiny straight black hair…I fingered couple of strands between my fingers. Only one person I knew had these features.

"Kikyo-nee-chan!!!!" I squealed like a little girl opening a Christmas present and hugged her back. I heard Kikyo-nee-chan laugh, her voice like a marble rolling across a platform, before she detached herself from me, looking at me with that slight grin grazing her lip line. She didn't change much besides from the face shape, hair, and height. Last time I saw her, which was like 3 years ago, she was shorter, had rounder face, and had straight shorter hair, which hung gracefully around her shoulder blades. Now, she still had that same twinkling blue eyes, black straight hair, and a lot more mature looking.

Her azure eyes twinkled amusedly when she studied me politely, just like I did, "You didn't change much, Kagome-chan. You still have that…" she fingered my hair, "a little wavy hair down to mid-back. Your eyes are still stormy azure…" she smiled, "And we still look a little identical, don't you think?"

"You bet," I smiled at her even though my eyes were still that shade of dull stormy azure.

"And…" she looked at me with serious expression, "I can tell that you still didn't forget about the accident… Kagome-chan, your eyes are still dull… You rarely can find lively sparkles added to it…" Kikyo-nee-chan smiled a bit sadly.

I grimaced, and I was able to feel myself darken a bit, "It's been long, nee-chan… I'm over it." I noticed Sango-chan still standing 2 feet from us with confusion written all over her face, "Nee-chan, we'll talk about this later…"

"Ah… Alright," she smiled, admitting her lose, "We'll talk later with ba-chan, too…"

Ba-chan too? What did she mean by that? It was not like Kaede-ba-chan worked in TPHS or anything! She was rich to live freely until the end of her life…so…why would she even work? Cutting off my thought, a long twit of whistle was heard, and the speakers turned on once again.

"Students of Tokyo Private High School, please get on the plane before we take off in 10 minutes," Kaize-senpai's cool voice rang clearly and loud throughout Gate 16, "I repeat. Students of Tokyo PrivateHigh School, please get on the plane before we take off in 10 minutes. We thank you for your cooperation, and please hurry up. Thank you."

"Well, I'm off," Kikyo-nee-chan said cheerfully, "I got to go find Koiyou-san… See you later, Kagome-chan!" she left abruptly, waving a bit, before turning and began to search the waiting seats for that Koiyou-san.

"Are you two related?" Sango-chan asked hesitantly when Kikyo-nee-chan was out of sight.

"We are cousins," I smiled slightly, even though it didn't quite reach my dull eyes yet again, "Why? Is Kikyo-nee-chan famous around here or something?"

"Ah… The ever famous Minoko-senpai is quite famous in our school for her beauty and her relationship with this popular senpai," Sango-chan scratched her chin in a very detective like manner, "I won't tell you the name though… It's completely shushed around the school… Says that senpai will personally go after your throat with his ever famous sword if we mutter his relationship with Minoko-senpai…"

I was very tempted to push Sango-chan a bit more for more information, but I decided against it and kept quiet. I wasn't the type who would want to lose a throat for a gossip anyway. I was just curious… The guy did capture Kikyo-nee-chan's attention after all… So it was either he had a very amazing personality, or he was just…hot. Once again I shudder at the word. Kikyo-nee-chan always took her relationship seriously, so I guess she must've liked the guy a lot.

I personally didn't want any relationship with any guys. It wasn't like I was waiting for Prince Charming to sweep me off my feet and take me to the la-la-land. It wasn't like I was waiting for my soul mate or the right time to form a relationship. I immediately snorted at the thought. I wasn't that naïve. I knew what kind of creature the men are. They were all the same. Using women as their tools…just low as roaches…

My thought was interrupted when I found myself guided by Sango-chan to the Gate, Kaize-senpai standing at the entrance taking and tearing one portion of the tickets according to the spiral edge. Sango-chan gave another polite greeting to Kaize-senpai, receiving a curt nod in return, and made her way through the gate like a proud ancient youkai taijiya. I hastily gave senpai a greeting too, since Sango-chan was dragging me as if I weighed like a cube of Styrofoam.

I wonder how long it takes to travel to the school… Probably like an hour, right? I mean, it is called the Tokyo Private High School after all… I hope my year goes quietly without any guys hitting on me… I hope nothing happens to me during the school year…

I didn't know how wrong I was on those thoughts.


A/N: smiling nervously Uh… Umm… First time writing a fanfiction? holds a shield up Don't kill me!!!

Japanese Words: (I'm not a Japanese expert! I'm pure Korean!!!)

-Nee-chan: means older sister, used by both younger brother and sister, I think…

--chan or –san

-Jii-chan: grandpa

--senpai: term for older classmate

-youkai taijiya: demon exterminator

I know I got those air plane terms wrong! I made those up…