I didn't know who he was, but it was awesome to know another ghost. This black-haired, white-banged guy. Someone else who knew what it was like to be dead.

"You are!" I yelled. I was the only one who said anything but 'what,' and I was probably the one who knew this guy the least. It was sorta stupid of me, I'll admit, but that doesn't matter.

He nodded without saying anything. It made me kinda mad, but Hexias broke the silence for me.
"Why didn't you tell me, Auron? Why didn't you tell any of us?" She looked sad.

At least I knew his name now.

"I was afraid you wouldn't let me remain as your guardian, to be honest," he responded. "It's a common mistake for people to think that the undead are weak."
"But I know you're not weak!" Kagome said. Even I could tell he was pretty damn strong.

But that part about ghosts being weak pissed me off a little. "I'm /so/ not weak!" I said. "Dammit, I'm probably stronger than all of you put together!" I realize now that what I said was exaggerating, but…

"Yeah, right." Axel smirked at me. "You know I'm better with fire than you are."

I then noticed, sort of, that Axel was there. I mean, I knew he was there, but he was one of the people she'd called her guardians. That meant he knew what was going on.

"Hey, Axel, why do you guys call Hexias Kagome?"
He frowned at me like he'd wanted to argue about the fire thing. I'm better than him, anyway.

"Because that's her real name," he said proudly. Tch. Like that was something to be proud of.

"What, you didn't know that?" Steph said. She was kind of getting on my nerves. "Even /I'm/ not that stupid." Like hell she wasn't!
My eye flinched. "How did you expect me to know when she didn't tell me!" I shouted. It made Hexias – Kagome, I mean – look kinda scared. It made me feel bad.

"Sorry…" she muttered. "I thought you'd get mad at me…"

"Why would I get mad?" I asked.

"Because she's not just evil." That white-haired guardian of hers answered me. "She's also good."

That confused me. "How can you be good /and/ bad, Hexias? Oops! I mean Kagome!"
"Well, actually, it's literally in my blood. I have equal desires to be good and to be evil." She pointed to the star on her forehead. "See this? It's gray, right?" I nodded.

The blonde girl took over. Sakura. "That means she's half light and half dark. Half good, half bad."

"Oh…" I said it like I understood, because I really didn't. "How'd that happen?"

Then there was this big pause. Finally, Kagome said: "I don't know." I felt sorta bad for asking.
Kagome remembered she was supposed to be explaining something, but it made her think of Auron being dead, so she looked at him for a second and frowned, then continued. "Anyway, we all grew up in the same orphanage. There was someone else, too – my creator, I assume – but Sakura and I still haven't figured out who that is. All we know is that it was a boy, one year older than me, and some of his looks."

"Wait, you told Sakura?" The one with blue bangs said. I was frustrated then because I didn't know their names, so I promised myself that I'd learn them all.

"Yeah!" Sakura said. "She tells me everything! I'm her sister, for cryi—" but she stopped. Everyone except Kagome looked /really/ surprised. I don't know about me, but I know I was surprised, anyway.

Steph was the first to speak up. "You have a sister, and you didn't tell me!"

"Uh…" Kagome looked at her strangely. "How could I have told you? Until just a few minutes ago, I didn't even know who you were."

"Oh, yeah." Steph sweatdropped.

"So, you two are sisters?" Auron asked.

"You don't look anything alike," the blue-banged one added. "Sakura's much taller, for starters!"

Sakura glared at him. "Watch it," she said angrily. "I'm taller than /you, too, Soujirou."

Soujirou. Two down, one to go. That one white-haired boy.

"Stop it," Kagome said. "Unless you don't think it's worth it to be introduced to Miyako and Steph."

Both of us, like we were queued or something, shot death glares at Sakura and Soujirou. My eyes glow red when I'm pissed, and then I found out that Steph's glow black when she's pissed. Anyway, it made them sigh and stop arguing and listen.

Kagome went on. "Okay, Miyako, Steph, listen up." She gestured toward Axel. "Miyako knows who this is, but Steph, this is Axel. He's also an expert on fire, so they tend to argue a lot about who's better." She turned to Soujirou. "This is Soujirou. He's a water elemental, so he and Axel fight each other for the hell of it sometimes." Then Auron. "Auron is a lightning elemental, and as we all know now, deceased." You could tell she was putting exaggerated emphasis on that point. "He's kind of famous among guardians for having been Yuna's guardian. Yuna is the summoner who defeated Sin."

Even I know that.

Then, finally, Kagome motioned towards that white-haired guy. "And this is Ryou." Ryou. Dragon. "His element is earth. He and Auron can create dual-energy attacks that fuse into the spirit element. Soujirou and Axel could do it, too, but they're too stubborn." She laughed, and the other two kinda huffed at each other.

I thought Kagome was done, but she wasn't. She had a /hell/ of a lot more to say.