Chapter 1

"Hmm…"

Sunlight streamed into an otherwise plain room via an open window. A small, white cat was perched on the windowsill, basking in the sunbeam and purring happily. After a few moments the cat stretched and leaped gracefully down onto the bed, nudging her owner's cheek with her nose, meowing. No response came from the girl so she nudged harder, this time using a small white paw.

The alarm clock suddenly kicked to life and the cat's owner shot up, dusty blue eyes opened wide in alarm. The cat leaped to the side, bristling, before leaping into the girl's lap and meowing again. "Eh…?" The girl looked down at her cat, fondling its ears with a hand. "Gomen, Seika," she apologized. "You of all should know that I'm not a morning person." Seika mewed up at her as she climbed out of bed, stretching her small form. For a girl approaching fifteen years of age, she was surprising small, only around five feet two. Raven colored hair spilled down to the small of her back, which she simply ran a comb through to untangle it. "Let's see…" she murmured quietly, turned to the calendar on her wall. It sported a picture of a gray wolf on it, staring out into the room from its forest home. "Today is my first day at Seishun Academy," she told the bundle of white fluff on her bed. "Wish me luck. 'K?" Seika mewed happily as she left the room, and then followed to the kitchen to eat.

"Gu-tenmorugen, minasan," she murmured as she entered the kitchen, bidding everyone a good morning. Two of the four people in the kitchen acknowledged her existence; the other two just continued to eat. "I feel so loved," she sighed lightly as she slid into her seat.

A lady in a stylish business suit bent down as the white cat strode regally into the kitchen. This got the attention of the two smaller girls, who put down their chopsticks. Kurumi, the younger of the two, openly squealed. "She's fluffy!"

"And she sheds," the lady muttered, but patted her small head none the less, resulting in a deep resonating purr from said animal. "Fish?" she asked, placing a dish with the offering in front of the cat. Seika twined around the lady's ankles before settling down to nibble daintily at her breakfast. Straightening, the woman turned to Seika's owner. "How was your night, Asa-chan?" she asked kindly. "Did you like your room?"

Asa nodded politely. "Ah… it was nice. Thank you very much for your hospitality." Is she really my mother? She cast a quizzical glance at the professional looking haircut, the business suit, the studded pearl earrings and necklace that completed the executive look. Well, what do you expect from the CEO of a major company?

"How was your research?" The lady placed a plate of food in front of Asa and directed her attention to the man who was sitting opposite of her. Ebony colored hair that just refused to stay in one direction was fluffed up. Sea-green eyes behind half-rimmed eyeglasses glanced up from the paper he was reading.

"It's been coming along," he murmured. "They have me doing most of the paperwork. I don't work with the elements as much as I used to." A soft laugh escaped his lips at this point, and the lady looked relieved. "They have new fellows working with them. I supervise them constantly."

Asa smiled faintly. Her father was a nuclear scientist who worked a lot with radioactive materials. His main lab was located in Osaka, which was why he had taken her with him there. Her mother's company was located in Tokyo, so she stayed with the twins and kept everything running.

"I have a smaller lab here run by a few associates of mine," he was continuing. "Upper management wants a detailed report on a few… subjects." His unwillingness to elaborate meant highly confidential subjects. This was interesting. "If you don't have time to ferry Aa-chan to the hospital, I'll do that. I know work is busy. Of course, she could always take the bus there, too, seeing as there's a bus stop at the corner." Kurumi and Narumi glanced in curiosity at her, which she simply ignored and continued to eat.

"We'll work something out," the lady reassured him. She threw a glance at the clock and then turned to the girls. "You three had better leave now or you'll be late. Asa-chan, do you have a map?" Asa nodded and pulled it out. The route to school had been highlighted with an obnoxiously bright pink highlighter the night before, so her eyes wouldn't wander to other parts of the map and get hopelessly lost.

The twins got up, thanking their mother for the meal and running to get their backpacks. Asa followed suit, taking her empty plate to the sink and depositing it there before heading up to her room. Her school bag was on the desk, so she grabbed it. Upon reentering the kitchen, a homemade bento was handed to her by her father.

"I hope you didn't cook this," Asa murmured mischievously as she took the wrapped package.

He winked. "Of course not." Then, he shooed her out the door. When all three were outside he winked at his wife. "I hope you're prepared for a lively life," he cautioned.

She snorted. "Bring it, Ayumu," she retorted, using his given name like most couples did.

He smirked in response. "Of course, Chikako."

***

"Sometimes I wished I was named Chikako," Kurumi said happily as she walked down the street. Her older twin sister, Narumi, and her eldest sister, Asa, followed at a slower pace. "It's such a pretty name, isn't it?" She turned around and glanced at them. "It's better than being named after a walnut, at least," she grumbled moodily.

"Don't say that, Kurumi!" Narumi chided her twin. Kurumi's face adopted a comically cute little girl pout before it seemed to light up. This happened instantaneously, Asa noted.

"Syusuke-onii-chan!" she squealed, her right arm shooting to wave madly over her head. "Good morning!" Then the grade-schooler was running back up the street to throw herself into a hug around the boy who had been walking, obviously with no intention of being glomped that morning.

"Kurumi!" Narumi cried, exasperated, as she dashed after her twin. Heaving a sigh, Asa followed them. Narumi was apologizing, mumbling things about her sister being immature and that she should know better than to run down the street and forcefully hug people.

The boy disentangled Kurumi from around his waist and smiled kindly at Narumi. "Iie, it's fine," he said lightly, shifting the strap of his tennis bag to a more comfortable position on his shoulder. "I hope you two have enjoyed your weekend." Enthusiastic nods met his statement. Then his smiling gaze shifted to Asa. "Who's this?" he asked, letting the question simply hang in the air.

Kurumi turned and flashed a smile at the older girl. "This is Asa-onee-chan!" she said brightly. The boy cocked a brow and Asa spoke up.

"My name is Ijuuin Asa; I'm Kurumi and Narumi's sister, a third year in Junior High. And you are?"

"Fuji Syusuke, third year at Seishun Academy," came the automatic reply. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ijuuin-chan." Fuji stuck out a hand and she hesitated before shaking it. He glanced down at his wrist, where he had a wristwatch wrapped around it. "Ah! We'll be late if we stay and chat. And I promised Eiji I'd give him the directions to that store he wanted." Continuing to chat to himself, he walked down the street towards his original direction, followed by a quizzical expression from Asa. Kurumi tugged at her uniform sleeve and she snapped back to reality.

"I'm going! I'm going!" Then, for fear of getting hopelessly and utterly lost in the sprawling town known as Tokyo, she dashed after Fuji, her schoolbag swinging at her side, dark hair flying off her shoulders.

Kurumi glowered. "Wait up!" she cried and sprinted forward. Poor Narumi could only sigh. She could envision a lively family life from now on. Kurumi's upbeat personality just did not mix that well with Asa's more refined one. Oh, how confusing, she moaned to herself as she plodded forward, determined to show some level of maturity on her part. After all, someone had to show it.

***

"Good morning, Eiji!" Fuji said brightly as he slid into his seat besides the window. He had made it with two minutes to spare, partly thanks to the fact that he had thrown his schoolbag into his locker, sprinted to the tennis locker room to deposit his tennis bag there, then sprinted back to get to his classroom. Of course, being the tensai he was, not a trace of fatigue crossed his features. It would have looked like he had simply come back from a leisurely stroll, if people strolled leisurely around school.

"Morning, Fujiko." Eiji yawned loudly and moved from where he was standing in front of the window, plopping down into his seat with a loud thud. It went without saying that he was not a morning person.

Fuji reached into his folder and extracted a slip of paper. "Ne, Eiji. Here are the directions to shop you wanted to go to." He slid the paper onto his classmate's desk and the energetic redhead pounced on it, indigo blue eyes shining.

"Wah! Thank you so, so, so much Fujiko-chan!" Said redhead yelled happily for all in the classroom to hear and then promptly launched himself forward to glomp Fuji. "How about we go right after practice?" he said when he let go of his death grip on the genius. "That way, I don't have to pay for Ochibi's and Momo's burgers. They're making all my allowance money shrink; I was saving it to buy something nice – nya!" He continued whining in his special way for which Fuji could only smile at. It was always nice to have Eiji as a friend.

However, he never got the chance to reply as the teacher strode into the classroom and up to her desk. The class quieted down and sat attentively, although Eiji fairly quivered with excitement. "Today we have a new student who has transferred here from Osaka," the teacher announced after she had hailed them all a good morning. Blunt and to the point like always, Fuji noted, resting his chin on his hands. The classroom door slid open and Asa walked in to stand next to the teacher, who turned around and wrote 'Ijuuin Asa' on the chalkboard. "This is Ijuuin Asa-chan. Your seat will be behind Fuji-kun, the boy in the second to last row by the window." Fuji gave a faint wave of his hand to accentuate his position, and she walked forward to sit down.

"Sa… who knew we were in the same class?" Fuji asked lightly as the teacher then proceeded to write the lesson on the board. English lessons; he had forgotten his dictionary at home and was now mentally berating himself on his carelessness. He had stayed up late the night before to talk to Yuuta, much to his younger brother's annoyance.

She shrugged. "Who knew?" she echoed back, taking a look at the board and then extracting a new dictionary from her bag. It was heavy; there were too many English words to know.

And so her first day of class flew through in a tirade of classes, most of which was spent with her hurriedly scribbling notes onto any scrap of paper she had. When the bell rang for the end of school, she heaved a sigh of relief and stood. Fuji and Eiji were walking out the door so she slid out into the hall after them, turning in the opposite direction to head to the principal's office. Glancing out the window, she had a view of the tennis courts and smiled slightly. Seigaku had a strong tennis team. She would love to see them practice one day.

Her eyes wandered over to a clock placed conveniently between two classroom doors and she nearly dropped her bag in horror. "I'm late!" she squeaked and shot down the hall, disregarding the rule of no running in the halls. Her father had always said that first impressions count towards your overall person.

I need to invest in a wristwatch, she whined to herself as she turned the corner. And then stopped. Oh, crap. She had just realized that she had no idea of how to get to the principal's office.