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Class Act

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Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire. ~William Butler Yeats

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For a moment, no one responded to the strange, perky woman who was claiming to be their teacher. Sam and Tucker exchanged nervous glances before watching Danny carefully to see how he was handling the bizarre new twist of having the very woman he'd been hoping to investigate now teaching the class he had feared would expose him as a half ghost.

Tucker winced when Danny started to beat in head against his desk, muttering "Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID!" over and over again under his breath.

"Well at least we don't have to waste any more time trying to track her down!" Tucker pointed out with forced cheer. Danny stopped beating his head in and shot Tucker an ugly look for that. "What? I'm just sayin'!"

"Um... Miss Higurashi?" Valerie said bravely from the front row. "Not to be rude or anything, but exactly how are you qualified to teach us about ghosts? I mean, have you ever even seen a ghost before?"

"What, you think Amity Park is the only place where strange things happen on a near daily basis?" Miss Higurashi asked with a laugh, apparently not offended by Valerie's clear doubt in her skills. "As a matter of fact, I have seen and fought ghosts and other kinds of spiritual beings before coming to this town. And demons. And the undead. And deities. Um, I kinda had an encounter with a dragon before, too."

"You... have?" Valerie obviously had a hard time seeing this, and she was far from alone. Other then Danny and his friends, everyone else was now starting at the woman like she was crazy. "Okay then. Mind telling us how you managed to fight off all those different… monsters?"

"All in good time," Miss Higurashi promised as she began walking up and down the rows with an armload of papers. "For now though, let's start off with the basics before we dredge up a bunch of old war stories." Danny only just stopped himself from recoiling when the woman set a packet in front if him. Curiosity outweighing his wariness, the ghost boy turned the packet over so it was front side up to see what it was that the strange young teacher had given him.

It didn't take him long to figure out that the packet was something that Miss Higurashi wrote up and Xeroxed for the class, since the same writing from the board now stared back at him from the paper as well. Scanning over the front page, Danny couldn't help but wince at each item that he read.

Lessons Planned for the Year

1. How to Identify Supernatural Beings
2. How to Fight off Being Overshadowed or Possessed
3. Basic Protection Against Evil Spirits
4. Identifying and Exploiting Weaknesses
5. Treating Ecto-poisoning and Other Ghostly Ailments
6. Staying Armed and Fighting on the Fly
7. Spiritual Energy
8. Shields, Barriers, and Protective Charms
9. Fighting Back Against Spirits
10. Healing and Purification

Oh this is soooo not good. Danny thought grimly, glancing away from the sheet to look at his friends to see what they thought of the list. Sam was still reading it over when he looked her way, and seemed pretty intrigued at what she saw, but Tucker appeared a little baffled, and was shooting Danny a questioning look as if to ask 'is this stuff for real?'

That same bad feeling Danny had been nursing since he first laid eyes on Miss Higurashi was telling him that it probably was.

"Now then, I'm sure you guys have a lot of questions for me, and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability in a minute, but first I want to explain some things to you," Miss Higurashi said as she finished passing out the papers and returned to the front board, erasing her name to make space. "We'll be studying some of the modern techniques that have been known to stop or neutralize dangerous spirits, but my main focus will be teaching you kids about the methods that have been around for centuries and still work to this very day.

"Technology's great for a lot of things, but I try not to rely on it too much against supernatural beings. There's too much of a chance of something going wrong, and mistakes with machines are usually a lot harder to fix on the spot then the little human error stuff. Besides, the more complex something is, the more ways it can backfire on you. Most supernatural threats have usually been around for a lot longer then you, and in my experience, almost all of them are a few centuries or so older. When you've been around that long, you learn a few tricks. It's not hard to mess up a machine if you want to. Or even when you don't want to. Trust me on that one..." Miss Higurashi's grimace at that suggested that she had a long, ugly history with technology, which made Sam snicker quietly next to Danny. "So yeah, anyways, machines are useful, but they're not game changers. You guys, on the other hand, can be. If you learn to be smart and think on your feet, anyways."

Most of the other students seemed surprised and a little puzzled after Miss Higurashi's speech. Valerie, who was listening with rapt attention throughout the whole thing, immediately threw her hand in the air when it seemed the young teacher was done, stretching it as high as she could go.

"Yes, Miss...?" Stuck by the fact that she had yet to learn any of their names, Miss Higurashi trailed off questioningly.

"Gray, Miss Higurashi. Valerie Gray," Valerie answered. "I was just wondering if you were implying that there's ways to fight ghosts without advanced weaponry. I mean, I've been paying pretty close attention to the ghosts hunters and stuff for a long time now, and I've never seen them try anything that didn't rely on modern technology when they were fighting or capturing a ghost. And to be honest, some of this stuff you're talking about here sounds more like magic or something," Valerie motioned to the packet Miss Higurashi handed to them when she said this. Apparently, the ghost hunter had already read through the whole thing while Danny was busy being miserable. That was definitely a bad sign of things to come.

"Magic?" Miss Higurashi repeated, sounding bemused. "Not exactly, Valerie. These techniques are more like... hmm, let's see..." trailing off thoughtfully, the woman considered her words for a moment before her face brightened with an idea. "Oh, I know! What's one thing you guys know about ghosts?" The class exchanged confused looks at the teacher's question.

"They're evil," Valerie answered without hesitation making Danny flinch. Miss Higurashi raised an eyebrow at the venom in the girl's response.

"Sorry, Valerie, but that's not the answer I'm looking for," she said, glancing around the room as a few more hands rose bravely into the air. "Okay, how about you by the window?"

"Paulina," the popular girl introduced herself, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Like, they can fly and have powers and stuff?"

"A step in the right direction, but it's still not the fact I want," Miss Higurashi grinned apologetically at the pretty Latina before moving on through the crowd. "How abooout… you!"

"Dash Baxter," Dash said, somehow sounding like he was bragging even when he was doing nothing more than saying his name. "Aren't they all, like, super powerful and stuff?"

"Not necessarily, Dash." Miss Higurashi said, shaking her head to rebuke the jock's claim. "The power a ghost has can be very incredible, or it can be incredibly pathetic. It really depends on the ghost themselves. Okay, how about you in the back?" for a moment, the alarmed ghost boy thought that Miss Higurashi was talking to him, since her grayish-blue eyes settled on him for a moment before moving to his left. "Tucker Foley, right? We meet again."

"You remember me?" Tucker sounded insanely pleased by this fact, which made Danny roll his eyes in annoyance. "Anyways, ghosts are all originally from the Ghost Zone, and they have to come to the Mortal World through portals. And usually, they're looking to take over the world or something." Danny glared at Tucker for revealing such an important fact about the Ghost Zone to their strange teacher, no doubt in some sort of attempt to impress her. The Asian woman, however, didn't look at all surprised with what Tucker just told her.

"Again, that's not necessarily true." Miss Higurashi said, making Tucker's face fall. "The Spirit Realm—including the Ghost Zone you're familiar with—is a very mysterious place, but it's not where the ghosts are from. Rather, it's more appropriate to say that it's a world powerful ancient spirits like Pariah Dark created for themselves, since they didn't have a proper place in the traditional Spirit Realms and staying in the Mortal World too long weakens them unless they find a way to draw power from humans."

Danny, Sam and Tucker all went still at the woman's casual mention of the former Ghost King, as well as the fact that the teacher apparently knew things about the history of the Ghost Zone that they did not. Not noticing this, Miss Higurashi grinned to herself a bit before she continued with her rebuke.

"As for wanting to take over the world...well, some might, but I doubt it's the shared goal of every supernatural entity. Lots of them are just looking for attention, and there are more still who just want to have a peaceful afterlife." Clearly bummed that his answer wasn't the one that she was looking for, Tucker gave a depressed sigh as he put his head down on the desk. "Alright, how about you, then?"

"Sam Manson." Sam said briskly on Danny's right, impatient to get the introductions over with.

"Sam," Miss Higurashi repeated with a smile. "Thanks again for your help, by the way. So Sam, what can you tell us about ghosts?"

"They're dead," Sam answered bluntly, which made the rest of the class go still. Miss Higurashi grinned wider in response.

"Bingo! We have a winner!" the teacher sang. "The vast majority of ghosts are, in fact the souls of deceased mortals. People a lot like you kids, your families, your friends, people you've met in the grocery store.... The only difference is that they've died and refused to move on to one of the proper Spirit Realms."

"What's your point?" Valerie demanded with a frown, feeling a little uncomfortable with this subject matter. She didn't have to look around to know that her classmates weren't any more at ease then she was.

The fact that dead people roamed their town was something no one in Amity Park really liked to talk about. Instead, they preferred to look at ghosts as a pest problem or a safety concern, rather then think about the fact that they were once as human as the people they haunted. It tended to make people feel uncomfortable about their own mortality, otherwise. After all, what if when they died, they became one of those terrible ghosts who were always threatening the town?

"My point," a bemused Miss Higurashi said, apparently not as afraid of death or it's consequences as her students, "is that none of the ghosts you've seen gained any sort of special power when they died. They just became aware of powers their souls have always possessed."

Now everyone was listening with rapt attention.

"Wait... you not suggesting that ordinary kids like us can have ghost powers, are you?!" Tucker questioned with wide eyes, doing his best not to look at his now deathly still best friend. "Because that sort of thing is totally ridiculous!"

"Well, maybe not those things necessarily, but humans have many amazing abilities that most of us never learn how to access. Things like intangibility and invisibility are side effects of not having a mortal body, which is probably not something you guys want to lose any time soon, but there's plenty of other things you guys can learn. And there are ways to channel the hidden powers of a living soul to protect yourself from evil, weaken ghosts and even send bad spirits away into the proper afterlife," Miss Higurashi assured the tech geek. An excited murmur when up through the classroom at the teacher's promise, and Danny felt his stomach start to sink like a stone. Especially when he caught sight of Valerie's vicious grin.

"Isn't all that, like, dangerous?" Paulina worried, looking a little troubled.

"Not really. It's more dangerous to live in a town that's constantly being attacked by otherworldly beings and not know how to defend yourself against them," Miss Higurashi pointed out.

"But we got Danny Phantom protectin' us!" Dash protested, making Valerie scowl.

"The ghost boy of Amity Park can't be everywhere at once," Miss Higurashi said patiently. "It's not fair to him if you guys just put all the responsibility of your own protection on one person. Learning a little about how to look after yourself will be a big help to him too, I'm sure."

"Danny Phantom's been able to handle everything on his own pretty well so far." Sam and Tucker started a bit as Danny's sharp comment, the first time he spoke out loud since class started. "Why change things around if what we have is working?" Danny ignored the confused looks that he earned from his friends as he stared down the teacher, who gazed back calmly with those creepy, blue-gray eyes of hers, unfazed by the half ghost's outburst.

"It's definitely been working out for you guys pretty well so far, since no one's died yet, but the fact remains that Amity Park can still do better. If more people know how to protect themselves from spirits, then the city becomes that much safer. That way, maybe Mr. Phantom can concentrate on more than just protecting people." Danny didn't have a way to respond to that.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Miss Higurashi was right; Danny did want the chance to do things other than fight ghosts. He wanted a normal life, where he wasn't constantly missing classes and at risk of flunking; where he and his friends weren't in danger all the time, and he didn't have to lie to the people he cared about. Sometimes, he just wanted someone to give him a break. But the fact that this weird woman seemed to know that about him only made the half ghost even more wary of her and her presence in his school.

After all, if she was able to figure out that much about him already, then what else could she find out with a little more time?

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As he left Casper High's first ever Supernatural Studies class twenty minutes later, Danny Fenton was absolutely silent, and he remained so all morning long up until lunch. All his fellow Casper High students, however, were not.

"Man, all that stuff Miss Higurashi was talking about sounds kinda cool doesn't it?"

"Totally! Do you really think she'll teach us how to use some kinda special powers?"

"She's really young for a teacher, huh? Hot, too."

"I think she was checking me out. She smiled at me when I got up to leave, you know."

"Get real, man! A woman like that isn't gonna look twice at a dork like you. Not as long as I'm in the room, anyways."

"Where do ya think she learned all about ghosts, anyways? I mean, it sounds like she really knows what she's talking about, even though she can't be much older then us."

"What, you think I know any more then you do? There's probably a school for it somewhere or something."

"Danny?" Jumping at the sound of his name, Danny turned to see Tucker and Sam frowning at him in thinly veiled concern as they slid into their seats at the table he'd claimed in the most low-key corner of the cafeteria.

"You okay, man?" Tucker asked, noting Danny's paler then usual complexion and sudden case of jumpiness.

"Fine," Danny said briskly. "It's just that weird energy from that teacher. It gaves me the chills. Kinda made me feel like death's coming for me every time she walked by my desk."

"Don't worry, man, I've been pulling up information about Miss Higurashi all morning. We should be able to find out what it is about her that freaks you out so much."

"Other then the fact that she can be so cheerful when she's talking about the occult, anyways," Sam said with a dry snort. In the goth's opinion, the subject matter and the fact that the teacher didn't seem like a total idiot was pretty cool, but that Miss Higurashi was almost obnoxiously cheerful was kinda aggravating.

"That's great, Tucker," Danny said, relieved his friend came through for him. "What do you got?"

"So far? Her name's Kagome Higurashi. 25 years old, five foot one with long black hair and blue-gray eyes. She grew up in Tokyo, Japan, where her mom, little brother and grandpa still live. Her dad died in a car accident when she was a kid, so she and her family moved in with her grandpa at the family shrine. She seemed to have a pretty normal childhood, up until right after she started the ninth grade when she suddenly came down with a long line of freaky illnesses."

"Freaky illnesses?" Sam repeated curiously.

"Yep. Her family kept calling her in sick for stuff like sprained back, diabetes, leukemia, gout, rheumatism, beriberi, tuberculosis…" trailing off, Tucker grinned at the incredulous looks on Danny and Sam's faces. "Yeah, like I said; freaky. She's gotta laundry list of illnesses longer then Danny's dad is tall. Pretty sure she's had everything except the common cold." After scrolling down on his PDA's screen a few more times, Tucker paused for a moment. "Wait, no never mind. That's on here too."

"Do you have any information about her doctor, or which hospital she used?" Danny asked with a frown.

"No, that's the weird thing. All throughout the ninth grade, she was out of school sick more often then she was in class, but there's nothing about her getting checked out by a professional anywhere. Then when she went on to the tenth grade, suddenly she was all better again. She didn't miss anymore school, her grades improved and she joined a Gardening Club and the Archery Team. She must've been pretty good with a bow, since she got a ton of trophies and awards including something for some kinda horseback archery and two gold medals in the Asian Games. They tried to get her to represent Japan in the Olympics, but she turned it down to focus on school.

"She graduated high school in the top twenty of her grade. I guess she took a year off after high school or something, since it was a year later that she went on to study at Kyoto University. She was majoring in history at first, but then she switched over to education early last year. Did her student teacher work at some place called Seiyo Academy and as soon as she was good to teach on her own, she put in to come here to Amity Park and got hired to teach Supernatural Studies."

"That's all you could find?" Danny asked irritably. It sounded like a lot, but all they're really found out about Miss Higurashi that they didn't already know was that she got sick a lot when she was their age, practiced archery and hadn't originally planned to be a teacher.

"Hey man, that's all there is," Tucker said with a shrug.

"What can you find out about the shrine she lived at?" Sam inquired.

"I haven't looked into it yet," Tucker confessed with a curious look at the girl.

"Maybe there's something there? In Rashomon, there was this one scene where they called the ghost of a dead samurai back from the grave by using a shrine priestess as a medium."

"Or maybe it's just an old shrine where our new teacher grew up," Tucker shot back, rolling his eyes at Sam's logic. "You do know that those Akira Kurosawa films you like so much aren't based on facts, right?"

"Well, as long as there's a chance that her connection to the supernatural might come from there, we should probably check it out," Danny said, agreeing with the goth. It wasn't like they had anything else to go with, after all. "See what you can find for us, Tuck."

"Oh goodie," the tech geek groaned. "Surfing around Japanese sites and trying to translate them into English. My favorite thing to do."

"We need to find out how she knows about ghosts like Pariah Dark, too," Danny continued, ignoring his friend. "After school you two should head into the Ghost Zone and talk to some of the ghosts there to see what you can find. If she's been into the Ghost Zone before, then there's gotta be someone there who knows about her."

"Sure, we can do that," Sam agreed, looking a little curious. "Any reason you're not coming with us?"

"Yeah, because I'm gonna be going straight to the source of our problem," Danny confessed grimly, eyes narrowing on the young Asian teacher who had just entered the cafeteria with Mr. Lancer and Principal Ishiyama. Sam frowned in concern when she followed his eyes to see what he was glaring at.

"Be careful, Danny," she said quietly, drawing the half ghost's attention away from the woman to give the goth an inquiring look. "I know we need to figure out if she's up to something or whatever, but if she's really as dangerous as you seem to think she is then you should probably avoid drawing any attention to yourself. Either of you."

"Don't worry. I'm just gonna follow her home from school," Danny reassured her with a soft smile, a funny warmth blossoming in his chest when he realized how concerned the violet-eyed girl was for him. Sam colored a bit at the half ghost's expression.

"Yeah, well still. Be careful, okay?" Sam pressed, not willing to let the subject go until she got the promise she was looking for.

"I will," Danny agreed as his smile blossomed into a grin, which Sam readily returned.

"Ah-HEM!" Jumping a little at Tucker's pointed clearing of the throat, Danny and Sam suddenly realized they were acting strange and hastily put some distance between them. Faces burning, Danny and Sam avoided each other's eyes as Tucker gave the two of them a flat look.

"Anyways, um, I'll do that, then," Danny stammered out meekly.

"Yeah, me too," Sam said quickly. "Well not your that, but… you know, that."

"Yeah," Danny ran a hand through his hair, casting around for a way to dispel the sudden awkwardness between him and his best friend. "I'm gonna go find Jazz now. Give her those notes."

"Good," Sam nodded. "I'm gonna head to the library for the rest of lunch to see whatr I can pull up. Um… see you later, I guess."

"Yeah. Later," and with that, the two friends practically fled from one another, not even noticing the third friend who was left sitting there with an aggravated look on his face.

"Clueless," Tucker grumbled as he stood to follow the goth.

No one saw the blue eyed Asian woman who was watching them discreetly on the other side of the cafeteria, lips twitching with poorly concealed amusement.

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Though school let out at three, it was nearly seven at night by the time Miss Higurashi left Casper High. Danny almost jumped out of his skin when the strange tingle that alerted him to the teacher's presence woke him up from the spot on the roof where he'd chosen to wait for the teacher four hours earlier.

Grinning to himself, Danny whistled a few notes of the Mission Impossible theme softly to himself before going invisible, flying high above the teacher's head as he trailed her process from the school. To Danny's surprise, Miss Higurashi didn't get into any of the five or six cars that were still left in Casper High's parking lot, instead heading straight for the exit on foot.

She walked to school? Danny realized, eyebrow kicking up. Combined with her strange aversion for technology and complete lack of interest in video games, this was starting to make the woman look more like she was from the Middle Ages or something. Sighing, Danny steeled himself for a long, slow night of tailing the strange new teacher to wherever it was she hung her hat.

Twenty minutes later, Danny was sure Miss Higurashi was messing with him.

"Come on, you can't seriously plan on making this trip every day!" the half ghost growled, glaring down at the small form on the sidewalk below him that had earned his ire. It was pretty safe for him to vent out loud, since he was way out of earshot of the woman "I mean, who walks to work in this day and age? They made cars for a reason, you know!"

To the young hero's undying relief, the woman finally turned into an apartment complex a few minutes later, smiling and greeting a few people she passed and getting enthusiastic responses, which made Danny frown a bit.

She's not exactly making an effort to be discreet or anything. The ghost observed silently. Curiosity winning out over caution, Danny floated closer to hear what people were saying to his teacher.

"-have to admit I had my doubts, but it really worked! Thank you again for giving it to me, Kagome!"

"It's no big deal," Miss Higurashi dismissed the other woman's gratitude with a laugh. "Just remember to drink some of the tea I gave you tonight, it should help with the headaches and counteract the insomnia."

"I will. Thank you again, Kagome. Don't be afraid to stop in if you need my help with anything!"

"I'll keep that in mind, Mrs. Crowley," the teacher promised with a cheerful grin as she parted ways with the older woman, who continued on her way with a spring in her step, turning to talk to her companion as she went.

"She's so young. I'm surprised that she knows so much about medicinal herbs. A bit of an odd hobby for a teacher, though. I thought she was a doctor or something at first, she sounds so professional when she's explaining things-!"

Medicinal herbs? Danny thought, confused. Maybe that had something to do with all her illnesses when she was younger or something? That made some sense, but it didn't explain all of Miss Higurashi's weirdness.

Deciding that the only way to get answers was to keep tailing the woman in question, Danny floated silently after Miss Higurashi as she entered one of the complexes, heading up two flights of stairs before finally coming to a stop in front of a door labeled C-304. The half ghost grinned in triumph when the teacher slid a key into the door to unlock it, closing it behind her as soon as she was in the room. Pleased that answers were finally within his grasp, Danny went intangible and flew towards the door to see what the woman was hiding on the other side of it.

CRASH!

Stars twinkled in front of his vision for a moment as Danny collided painfully into the solid white door that barred the outside world from entrance. After peeling himself off of the seemingly normal door, Danny's hand immediately flew to his nose to check for bleeding as he kept a confused eye on the wooden barrier. There was nothing strange about the door, as far as he could tell, so why…?

All thought stuttered to a halt when the door he was glaring at suddenly opened and startled green eyes met with the knowing blue ones of Miss Higurashi, who was balancing precariously on one foot as she fought to remove a shoe, one hand against the door's frame in order to support her.

"You know, in Japan we usually knock before trying to enter someone else's house," the teacher said chidingly as she finally won her war with her footwear, straightening up to slide into a pair of green house slippers next to the door. "I'm sure that things can't be that different over here in America. Danny Phantom, I presume?" Danny flushed brilliantly at the pointed remark, even though the teacher didn't sound angry or upset when she said it. He'd gotten so used to just being able to walk in anywhere he wanted to go, that getting caught trying to break in to the woman's house was even more embarrassing then it would've been in normal circumstances.

In fact, Danny was so flustered that it took him a minute to realize he was still invisible.

"You can see me?" The half ghost blurted out in surprise, earning a cheeky grin from the teacher.

"My eyes aren't like most people, Mr. Ghost Boy. Seeing what other people can't is one of my many extraordinary talents. You can come in now, by the way." Danny hesitated momentarily before turning visible again and slowly stepping over the threshold into Miss Higurashi's apartment. When the teacher closed the door behind him, Danny gave a curious look back at the barrier, noticing the weird paper she'd stuck to it just below the peep hole which had some kind of Japanese writing on it. "I take it you didn't just come here to welcome me to the neighborhood, Mr. Phantom?"

"Not really, no," Danny confessed as he followed the woman further into the apartment, a little disappointed to see that the flat was surprisingly normal.

The room Miss Higurashi led him to seemed to be a combination living room/kitchen area, with a simple couch and coffee table off in one corner and a four person dinette set a few feet away from the stove, fridge and sink. There was no TV, but a small bookshelf wasn't far from the couch with a bow and quiver of arrows leaning against it. A little anxious, Danny casually positioned himself between the teacher and the weapon, as he tried to think of a good excuse for following the teacher into her home that didn't reveal his identity or make him look like some kind of pervert.

"I, um, was flying overhead when I saw you, and felt some kind of weird energy from you. I didn't recognize it and got curious, so I decided to follow you and see what you were." There! That was plausible, and it didn't make him look like a creeper. Just a concerned superhero.

"Liar," Miss Higurashi accused as she started digging around in her fridge, sounding bemused. "You're not the only one with supernatural senses, Danny. I felt you waiting for me outside of the school tonight before I left. For a good four hours, as a matter of fact."

…Well, shoot.

"Yeah, well I fly around Casper High sometimes. That's why I felt your energy, since I was there, and you were there and-" Great, now he was babbling. "Oh forget it. Look, are you going to tell me what you are or not?"

"You want a drink or something?" Miss Higurashi asked in lieu of answering Danny's question, holding up a can of soda for the half ghost to see. Well, apparently the teacher wasn't completely ready to join the Dark Ages, then. Though the lack of a TV was still pretty suspicious.

"Pass." Danny scowled, knowing better then to accept something from someone he didn't know. Especially someone with weird powers. Shrugging, The woman closed the fridge with her hip and cracked the can she was holding for herself.

"Believe it or not, Danny Phantom, I'm 100% certified human being," Miss Higurashi answered his question at last, settling herself down in one of the chairs in the dining room.

"Humans don't give ghosts tingly, creepy feelings when they walk by," Danny insisted stubbornly, glaring at the woman for daring to lie to him. Miss Higurashi arched an eyebrow in response.

"Oh? Are you sure about that? I mean, have you met every human in the world other than me?"

"Um… well, no but…"

"The world is a big place, Danny," Miss Higurashi reminded the half ghost patiently. "Ecto-energy isn't the only kind of power out there. It's not even the most dangerous, actually. People like me are out there to even the playing field a bit, give the human race a fighting chance against supernatural beings."

"Why is this the first I'm hearing about 'people like you,' then?" Danny asked suspiciously.

"Well, as creepy as my powers feel to you, this whole town gives me the heebie-jeebies," Miss Higurashi confessed, crinkling her nose a bit. "It's unnatural for a place where humans live to be so irreversibly connected to the supernatural realm. And frankly, it's dangerous for people like me, since our powers attract a lot of attention from creatures who would want to consume our souls, and our powers with it. I'm not surprised that you've never seen anyone like me before if you've lived in this town your whole life. Most people with any sort of sense of the supernatural would try and get as far away from this place as they can."

"So why are you here?" Danny asked briskly, curious and cautious at the same time.

"Let's just say I'm a risk taker and leave it at that, shall we?" Miss Higurashi said dismissively, making Danny scowl.

"You're hiding something," the half ghost accused darkly.

"Those in glass houses really shouldn't throw stones," Miss Higurashi said, her cheery attitude fading a bit as she frowned at Danny. "If I'm hiding anything, it's to protect myself and keep innocent people safe. I'm not here to pick fights or cause trouble, Danny."

"Yeah, well I don't believe you," Danny said bluntly. "You know too much about ghosts and stuff, and you still haven't told me anything about your weird powers." Miss Higurashi's frown deepened at Danny's observation. "Whatever you're hiding, I'm gonna find out what it is. And if you try to do anything evil or illegal, I'm gonna stop you, no matter what you can do with your powers!" Knowing that he wasn't going to get anything else out of the strange woman, Danny took to the air and flew towards the sliding glass door that led out to the veranda, where the woman had a number of potted plants.

BAM!

And promptly cursed himself a fool when he smashed into the glass. Right. Intangibility didn't work in here.

"You alright, Danny?" Miss Higurashi asked in concern, making the ghost's ears burn.

"I'm fine!" Danny said, avoiding the woman's eyes as he slid the door open and stepped out onto the veranda. Trying to regain as much dignity as he could, Danny took to the air again and flew off, doing his best not to look back at the teacher as he did so.

Shaking her head, Kagome pulled the glass door shut after Danny wasn't much more then a speck on the horizon, sighing quietly to herself as she did so.

Enthusiastic kid. A bit clumsy, but his heart's in the right place. Kagome thought to herself with a wry smile. Not all that unlike herself when she first stumbled down a well and into a world of jewels, demons and priestesses. He had some clear trust issues, but Kagome couldn't really blame him for that if half of what she suspected about him was true. Not that any of that should matter to her. She had her own reasons for coming to Amity Park, after all, and none of them had anything to do with the resident ghost boy.

At least not until I realized he was more than just an odd ghost, anyways. Kagome thought as she went back to her front door, strengthening the spell that kept her home safe from uninvited spirits. It was surprising, but it shouldn't make a difference in her plans. It wouldn't at all, really, if it wasn't for her curiosity and empathy.

After all, she had a feeling that not many people in this town had any idea that Danny Phantom was actually an odd blue eyed teen with a bad reputation as a slacker and a weirdo…

Description
Class Act

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Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire. ~William Butler Yeats

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For a moment, no one responded to the strange, perky woman who was claiming to be their teacher. Sam and Tucker exchanged nervous glances before watching Danny carefully to see how he was handling the bizarre new twist of having the very woman he'd been hoping to investigate now teaching the class he had feared would expose him as a half ghost.

Tucker winced when Danny started to beat in head against his desk, muttering "Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID!" over and over again under his breath.

"Well at least we don't have to waste any more time trying to track her down!" Tucker pointed out with forced cheer. Danny stopped beating his head in and shot Tucker an ugly look for that. "What? I'm just sayin'!"

"Um... Miss Higurashi?" Valerie said bravely from the front row. "Not to be rude or anything, but exactly how are you qualified to teach us about ghosts? I mean, have you ever even seen a ghost before?"

"What, you think Amity Park is the only place where strange things happen on a near daily basis?" Miss Higurashi asked with a laugh, apparently not offended by Valerie's clear doubt in her skills. "As a matter of fact, I have seen and fought ghosts and other kinds of spiritual beings before coming to this town. And demons. And the undead. And deities. Um, I kinda had an encounter with a dragon before, too."

"You... have?" Valerie obviously had a hard time seeing this, and she was far from alone. Other then Danny and his friends, everyone else was now starting at the woman like she was crazy. "Okay then. Mind telling us how you managed to fight off all those different… monsters?"

"All in good time," Miss Higurashi promised as she began walking up and down the rows with an armload of papers. "For now though, let's start off with the basics before we dredge up a bunch of old war stories." Danny only just stopped himself from recoiling when the woman set a packet in front if him. Curiosity outweighing his wariness, the ghost boy turned the packet over so it was front side up to see what it was that the strange young teacher had given him.

It didn't take him long to figure out that the packet was something that Miss Higurashi wrote up and Xeroxed for the class, since the same writing from the board now stared back at him from the paper as well. Scanning over the front page, Danny couldn't help but wince at each item that he read.

Lessons Planned for the Year

1. How to Identify Supernatural Beings
2. How to Fight off Being Overshadowed or Possessed
3. Basic Protection Against Evil Spirits
4. Identifying and Exploiting Weaknesses
5. Treating Ecto-poisoning and Other Ghostly Ailments
6. Staying Armed and Fighting on the Fly
7. Spiritual Energy
8. Shields, Barriers, and Protective Charms
9. Fighting Back Against Spirits
10. Healing and Purification

Oh this is soooo not good. Danny thought grimly, glancing away from the sheet to look at his friends to see what they thought of the list. Sam was still reading it over when he looked her way, and seemed pretty intrigued at what she saw, but Tucker appeared a little baffled, and was shooting Danny a questioning look as if to ask 'is this stuff for real?'

That same bad feeling Danny had been nursing since he first laid eyes on Miss Higurashi was telling him that it probably was.

"Now then, I'm sure you guys have a lot of questions for me, and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability in a minute, but first I want to explain some things to you," Miss Higurashi said as she finished passing out the papers and returned to the front board, erasing her name to make space. "We'll be studying some of the modern techniques that have been known to stop or neutralize dangerous spirits, but my main focus will be teaching you kids about the methods that have been around for centuries and still work to this very day.

"Technology's great for a lot of things, but I try not to rely on it too much against supernatural beings. There's too much of a chance of something going wrong, and mistakes with machines are usually a lot harder to fix on the spot then the little human error stuff. Besides, the more complex something is, the more ways it can backfire on you. Most supernatural threats have usually been around for a lot longer then you, and in my experience, almost all of them are a few centuries or so older. When you've been around that long, you learn a few tricks. It's not hard to mess up a machine if you want to. Or even when you don't want to. Trust me on that one..." Miss Higurashi's grimace at that suggested that she had a long, ugly history with technology, which made Sam snicker quietly next to Danny. "So yeah, anyways, machines are useful, but they're not game changers. You guys, on the other hand, can be. If you learn to be smart and think on your feet, anyways."

Most of the other students seemed surprised and a little puzzled after Miss Higurashi's speech. Valerie, who was listening with rapt attention throughout the whole thing, immediately threw her hand in the air when it seemed the young teacher was done, stretching it as high as she could go.

"Yes, Miss...?" Stuck by the fact that she had yet to learn any of their names, Miss Higurashi trailed off questioningly.

"Gray, Miss Higurashi. Valerie Gray," Valerie answered. "I was just wondering if you were implying that there's ways to fight ghosts without advanced weaponry. I mean, I've been paying pretty close attention to the ghosts hunters and stuff for a long time now, and I've never seen them try anything that didn't rely on modern technology when they were fighting or capturing a ghost. And to be honest, some of this stuff you're talking about here sounds more like magic or something," Valerie motioned to the packet Miss Higurashi handed to them when she said this. Apparently, the ghost hunter had already read through the whole thing while Danny was busy being miserable. That was definitely a bad sign of things to come.

"Magic?" Miss Higurashi repeated, sounding bemused. "Not exactly, Valerie. These techniques are more like... hmm, let's see..." trailing off thoughtfully, the woman considered her words for a moment before her face brightened with an idea. "Oh, I know! What's one thing you guys know about ghosts?" The class exchanged confused looks at the teacher's question.

"They're evil," Valerie answered without hesitation making Danny flinch. Miss Higurashi raised an eyebrow at the venom in the girl's response.

"Sorry, Valerie, but that's not the answer I'm looking for," she said, glancing around the room as a few more hands rose bravely into the air. "Okay, how about you by the window?"

"Paulina," the popular girl introduced herself, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Like, they can fly and have powers and stuff?"

"A step in the right direction, but it's still not the fact I want," Miss Higurashi grinned apologetically at the pretty Latina before moving on through the crowd. "How abooout… you!"

"Dash Baxter," Dash said, somehow sounding like he was bragging even when he was doing nothing more than saying his name. "Aren't they all, like, super powerful and stuff?"

"Not necessarily, Dash." Miss Higurashi said, shaking her head to rebuke the jock's claim. "The power a ghost has can be very incredible, or it can be incredibly pathetic. It really depends on the ghost themselves. Okay, how about you in the back?" for a moment, the alarmed ghost boy thought that Miss Higurashi was talking to him, since her grayish-blue eyes settled on him for a moment before moving to his left. "Tucker Foley, right? We meet again."

"You remember me?" Tucker sounded insanely pleased by this fact, which made Danny roll his eyes in annoyance. "Anyways, ghosts are all originally from the Ghost Zone, and they have to come to the Mortal World through portals. And usually, they're looking to take over the world or something." Danny glared at Tucker for revealing such an important fact about the Ghost Zone to their strange teacher, no doubt in some sort of attempt to impress her. The Asian woman, however, didn't look at all surprised with what Tucker just told her.

"Again, that's not necessarily true." Miss Higurashi said, making Tucker's face fall. "The Spirit Realm—including the Ghost Zone you're familiar with—is a very mysterious place, but it's not where the ghosts are from. Rather, it's more appropriate to say that it's a world powerful ancient spirits like Pariah Dark created for themselves, since they didn't have a proper place in the traditional Spirit Realms and staying in the Mortal World too long weakens them unless they find a way to draw power from humans."

Danny, Sam and Tucker all went still at the woman's casual mention of the former Ghost King, as well as the fact that the teacher apparently knew things about the history of the Ghost Zone that they did not. Not noticing this, Miss Higurashi grinned to herself a bit before she continued with her rebuke.

"As for wanting to take over the world...well, some might, but I doubt it's the shared goal of every supernatural entity. Lots of them are just looking for attention, and there are more still who just want to have a peaceful afterlife." Clearly bummed that his answer wasn't the one that she was looking for, Tucker gave a depressed sigh as he put his head down on the desk. "Alright, how about you, then?"

"Sam Manson." Sam said briskly on Danny's right, impatient to get the introductions over with.

"Sam," Miss Higurashi repeated with a smile. "Thanks again for your help, by the way. So Sam, what can you tell us about ghosts?"

"They're dead," Sam answered bluntly, which made the rest of the class go still. Miss Higurashi grinned wider in response.

"Bingo! We have a winner!" the teacher sang. "The vast majority of ghosts are, in fact the souls of deceased mortals. People a lot like you kids, your families, your friends, people you've met in the grocery store.... The only difference is that they've died and refused to move on to one of the proper Spirit Realms."

"What's your point?" Valerie demanded with a frown, feeling a little uncomfortable with this subject matter. She didn't have to look around to know that her classmates weren't any more at ease then she was.

The fact that dead people roamed their town was something no one in Amity Park really liked to talk about. Instead, they preferred to look at ghosts as a pest problem or a safety concern, rather then think about the fact that they were once as human as the people they haunted. It tended to make people feel uncomfortable about their own mortality, otherwise. After all, what if when they died, they became one of those terrible ghosts who were always threatening the town?

"My point," a bemused Miss Higurashi said, apparently not as afraid of death or it's consequences as her students, "is that none of the ghosts you've seen gained any sort of special power when they died. They just became aware of powers their souls have always possessed."

Now everyone was listening with rapt attention.

"Wait... you not suggesting that ordinary kids like us can have ghost powers, are you?!" Tucker questioned with wide eyes, doing his best not to look at his now deathly still best friend. "Because that sort of thing is totally ridiculous!"

"Well, maybe not those things necessarily, but humans have many amazing abilities that most of us never learn how to access. Things like intangibility and invisibility are side effects of not having a mortal body, which is probably not something you guys want to lose any time soon, but there's plenty of other things you guys can learn. And there are ways to channel the hidden powers of a living soul to protect yourself from evil, weaken ghosts and even send bad spirits away into the proper afterlife," Miss Higurashi assured the tech geek. An excited murmur when up through the classroom at the teacher's promise, and Danny felt his stomach start to sink like a stone. Especially when he caught sight of Valerie's vicious grin.

"Isn't all that, like, dangerous?" Paulina worried, looking a little troubled.

"Not really. It's more dangerous to live in a town that's constantly being attacked by otherworldly beings and not know how to defend yourself against them," Miss Higurashi pointed out.

"But we got Danny Phantom protectin' us!" Dash protested, making Valerie scowl.

"The ghost boy of Amity Park can't be everywhere at once," Miss Higurashi said patiently. "It's not fair to him if you guys just put all the responsibility of your own protection on one person. Learning a little about how to look after yourself will be a big help to him too, I'm sure."

"Danny Phantom's been able to handle everything on his own pretty well so far." Sam and Tucker started a bit as Danny's sharp comment, the first time he spoke out loud since class started. "Why change things around if what we have is working?" Danny ignored the confused looks that he earned from his friends as he stared down the teacher, who gazed back calmly with those creepy, blue-gray eyes of hers, unfazed by the half ghost's outburst.

"It's definitely been working out for you guys pretty well so far, since no one's died yet, but the fact remains that Amity Park can still do better. If more people know how to protect themselves from spirits, then the city becomes that much safer. That way, maybe Mr. Phantom can concentrate on more than just protecting people." Danny didn't have a way to respond to that.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Miss Higurashi was right; Danny did want the chance to do things other than fight ghosts. He wanted a normal life, where he wasn't constantly missing classes and at risk of flunking; where he and his friends weren't in danger all the time, and he didn't have to lie to the people he cared about. Sometimes, he just wanted someone to give him a break. But the fact that this weird woman seemed to know that about him only made the half ghost even more wary of her and her presence in his school.

After all, if she was able to figure out that much about him already, then what else could she find out with a little more time?

---

As he left Casper High's first ever Supernatural Studies class twenty minutes later, Danny Fenton was absolutely silent, and he remained so all morning long up until lunch. All his fellow Casper High students, however, were not.

"Man, all that stuff Miss Higurashi was talking about sounds kinda cool doesn't it?"

"Totally! Do you really think she'll teach us how to use some kinda special powers?"

"She's really young for a teacher, huh? Hot, too."

"I think she was checking me out. She smiled at me when I got up to leave, you know."

"Get real, man! A woman like that isn't gonna look twice at a dork like you. Not as long as I'm in the room, anyways."

"Where do ya think she learned all about ghosts, anyways? I mean, it sounds like she really knows what she's talking about, even though she can't be much older then us."

"What, you think I know any more then you do? There's probably a school for it somewhere or something."

"Danny?" Jumping at the sound of his name, Danny turned to see Tucker and Sam frowning at him in thinly veiled concern as they slid into their seats at the table he'd claimed in the most low-key corner of the cafeteria.

"You okay, man?" Tucker asked, noting Danny's paler then usual complexion and sudden case of jumpiness.

"Fine," Danny said briskly. "It's just that weird energy from that teacher. It gaves me the chills. Kinda made me feel like death's coming for me every time she walked by my desk."

"Don't worry, man, I've been pulling up information about Miss Higurashi all morning. We should be able to find out what it is about her that freaks you out so much."

"Other then the fact that she can be so cheerful when she's talking about the occult, anyways," Sam said with a dry snort. In the goth's opinion, the subject matter and the fact that the teacher didn't seem like a total idiot was pretty cool, but that Miss Higurashi was almost obnoxiously cheerful was kinda aggravating.

"That's great, Tucker," Danny said, relieved his friend came through for him. "What do you got?"

"So far? Her name's Kagome Higurashi. 25 years old, five foot one with long black hair and blue-gray eyes. She grew up in Tokyo, Japan, where her mom, little brother and grandpa still live. Her dad died in a car accident when she was a kid, so she and her family moved in with her grandpa at the family shrine. She seemed to have a pretty normal childhood, up until right after she started the ninth grade when she suddenly came down with a long line of freaky illnesses."

"Freaky illnesses?" Sam repeated curiously.

"Yep. Her family kept calling her in sick for stuff like sprained back, diabetes, leukemia, gout, rheumatism, beriberi, tuberculosis…" trailing off, Tucker grinned at the incredulous looks on Danny and Sam's faces. "Yeah, like I said; freaky. She's gotta laundry list of illnesses longer then Danny's dad is tall. Pretty sure she's had everything except the common cold." After scrolling down on his PDA's screen a few more times, Tucker paused for a moment. "Wait, no never mind. That's on here too."

"Do you have any information about her doctor, or which hospital she used?" Danny asked with a frown.

"No, that's the weird thing. All throughout the ninth grade, she was out of school sick more often then she was in class, but there's nothing about her getting checked out by a professional anywhere. Then when she went on to the tenth grade, suddenly she was all better again. She didn't miss anymore school, her grades improved and she joined a Gardening Club and the Archery Team. She must've been pretty good with a bow, since she got a ton of trophies and awards including something for some kinda horseback archery and two gold medals in the Asian Games. They tried to get her to represent Japan in the Olympics, but she turned it down to focus on school.

"She graduated high school in the top twenty of her grade. I guess she took a year off after high school or something, since it was a year later that she went on to study at Kyoto University. She was majoring in history at first, but then she switched over to education early last year. Did her student teacher work at some place called Seiyo Academy and as soon as she was good to teach on her own, she put in to come here to Amity Park and got hired to teach Supernatural Studies."

"That's all you could find?" Danny asked irritably. It sounded like a lot, but all they're really found out about Miss Higurashi that they didn't already know was that she got sick a lot when she was their age, practiced archery and hadn't originally planned to be a teacher.

"Hey man, that's all there is," Tucker said with a shrug.

"What can you find out about the shrine she lived at?" Sam inquired.

"I haven't looked into it yet," Tucker confessed with a curious look at the girl.

"Maybe there's something there? In Rashomon, there was this one scene where they called the ghost of a dead samurai back from the grave by using a shrine priestess as a medium."

"Or maybe it's just an old shrine where our new teacher grew up," Tucker shot back, rolling his eyes at Sam's logic. "You do know that those Akira Kurosawa films you like so much aren't based on facts, right?"

"Well, as long as there's a chance that her connection to the supernatural might come from there, we should probably check it out," Danny said, agreeing with the goth. It wasn't like they had anything else to go with, after all. "See what you can find for us, Tuck."

"Oh goodie," the tech geek groaned. "Surfing around Japanese sites and trying to translate them into English. My favorite thing to do."

"We need to find out how she knows about ghosts like Pariah Dark, too," Danny continued, ignoring his friend. "After school you two should head into the Ghost Zone and talk to some of the ghosts there to see what you can find. If she's been into the Ghost Zone before, then there's gotta be someone there who knows about her."

"Sure, we can do that," Sam agreed, looking a little curious. "Any reason you're not coming with us?"

"Yeah, because I'm gonna be going straight to the source of our problem," Danny confessed grimly, eyes narrowing on the young Asian teacher who had just entered the cafeteria with Mr. Lancer and Principal Ishiyama. Sam frowned in concern when she followed his eyes to see what he was glaring at.

"Be careful, Danny," she said quietly, drawing the half ghost's attention away from the woman to give the goth an inquiring look. "I know we need to figure out if she's up to something or whatever, but if she's really as dangerous as you seem to think she is then you should probably avoid drawing any attention to yourself. Either of you."

"Don't worry. I'm just gonna follow her home from school," Danny reassured her with a soft smile, a funny warmth blossoming in his chest when he realized how concerned the violet-eyed girl was for him. Sam colored a bit at the half ghost's expression.

"Yeah, well still. Be careful, okay?" Sam pressed, not willing to let the subject go until she got the promise she was looking for.

"I will," Danny agreed as his smile blossomed into a grin, which Sam readily returned.

"Ah-HEM!" Jumping a little at Tucker's pointed clearing of the throat, Danny and Sam suddenly realized they were acting strange and hastily put some distance between them. Faces burning, Danny and Sam avoided each other's eyes as Tucker gave the two of them a flat look.

"Anyways, um, I'll do that, then," Danny stammered out meekly.

"Yeah, me too," Sam said quickly. "Well not your that, but… you know, that."

"Yeah," Danny ran a hand through his hair, casting around for a way to dispel the sudden awkwardness between him and his best friend. "I'm gonna go find Jazz now. Give her those notes."

"Good," Sam nodded. "I'm gonna head to the library for the rest of lunch to see whatr I can pull up. Um… see you later, I guess."

"Yeah. Later," and with that, the two friends practically fled from one another, not even noticing the third friend who was left sitting there with an aggravated look on his face.

"Clueless," Tucker grumbled as he stood to follow the goth.

No one saw the blue eyed Asian woman who was watching them discreetly on the other side of the cafeteria, lips twitching with poorly concealed amusement.

---

Though school let out at three, it was nearly seven at night by the time Miss Higurashi left Casper High. Danny almost jumped out of his skin when the strange tingle that alerted him to the teacher's presence woke him up from the spot on the roof where he'd chosen to wait for the teacher four hours earlier.

Grinning to himself, Danny whistled a few notes of the Mission Impossible theme softly to himself before going invisible, flying high above the teacher's head as he trailed her process from the school. To Danny's surprise, Miss Higurashi didn't get into any of the five or six cars that were still left in Casper High's parking lot, instead heading straight for the exit on foot.

She walked to school? Danny realized, eyebrow kicking up. Combined with her strange aversion for technology and complete lack of interest in video games, this was starting to make the woman look more like she was from the Middle Ages or something. Sighing, Danny steeled himself for a long, slow night of tailing the strange new teacher to wherever it was she hung her hat.

Twenty minutes later, Danny was sure Miss Higurashi was messing with him.

"Come on, you can't seriously plan on making this trip every day!" the half ghost growled, glaring down at the small form on the sidewalk below him that had earned his ire. It was pretty safe for him to vent out loud, since he was way out of earshot of the woman "I mean, who walks to work in this day and age? They made cars for a reason, you know!"

To the young hero's undying relief, the woman finally turned into an apartment complex a few minutes later, smiling and greeting a few people she passed and getting enthusiastic responses, which made Danny frown a bit.

She's not exactly making an effort to be discreet or anything. The ghost observed silently. Curiosity winning out over caution, Danny floated closer to hear what people were saying to his teacher.

"-have to admit I had my doubts, but it really worked! Thank you again for giving it to me, Kagome!"

"It's no big deal," Miss Higurashi dismissed the other woman's gratitude with a laugh. "Just remember to drink some of the tea I gave you tonight, it should help with the headaches and counteract the insomnia."

"I will. Thank you again, Kagome. Don't be afraid to stop in if you need my help with anything!"

"I'll keep that in mind, Mrs. Crowley," the teacher promised with a cheerful grin as she parted ways with the older woman, who continued on her way with a spring in her step, turning to talk to her companion as she went.

"She's so young. I'm surprised that she knows so much about medicinal herbs. A bit of an odd hobby for a teacher, though. I thought she was a doctor or something at first, she sounds so professional when she's explaining things-!"

Medicinal herbs? Danny thought, confused. Maybe that had something to do with all her illnesses when she was younger or something? That made some sense, but it didn't explain all of Miss Higurashi's weirdness.

Deciding that the only way to get answers was to keep tailing the woman in question, Danny floated silently after Miss Higurashi as she entered one of the complexes, heading up two flights of stairs before finally coming to a stop in front of a door labeled C-304. The half ghost grinned in triumph when the teacher slid a key into the door to unlock it, closing it behind her as soon as she was in the room. Pleased that answers were finally within his grasp, Danny went intangible and flew towards the door to see what the woman was hiding on the other side of it.

CRASH!

Stars twinkled in front of his vision for a moment as Danny collided painfully into the solid white door that barred the outside world from entrance. After peeling himself off of the seemingly normal door, Danny's hand immediately flew to his nose to check for bleeding as he kept a confused eye on the wooden barrier. There was nothing strange about the door, as far as he could tell, so why…?

All thought stuttered to a halt when the door he was glaring at suddenly opened and startled green eyes met with the knowing blue ones of Miss Higurashi, who was balancing precariously on one foot as she fought to remove a shoe, one hand against the door's frame in order to support her.

"You know, in Japan we usually knock before trying to enter someone else's house," the teacher said chidingly as she finally won her war with her footwear, straightening up to slide into a pair of green house slippers next to the door. "I'm sure that things can't be that different over here in America. Danny Phantom, I presume?" Danny flushed brilliantly at the pointed remark, even though the teacher didn't sound angry or upset when she said it. He'd gotten so used to just being able to walk in anywhere he wanted to go, that getting caught trying to break in to the woman's house was even more embarrassing then it would've been in normal circumstances.

In fact, Danny was so flustered that it took him a minute to realize he was still invisible.

"You can see me?" The half ghost blurted out in surprise, earning a cheeky grin from the teacher.

"My eyes aren't like most people, Mr. Ghost Boy. Seeing what other people can't is one of my many extraordinary talents. You can come in now, by the way." Danny hesitated momentarily before turning visible again and slowly stepping over the threshold into Miss Higurashi's apartment. When the teacher closed the door behind him, Danny gave a curious look back at the barrier, noticing the weird paper she'd stuck to it just below the peep hole which had some kind of Japanese writing on it. "I take it you didn't just come here to welcome me to the neighborhood, Mr. Phantom?"

"Not really, no," Danny confessed as he followed the woman further into the apartment, a little disappointed to see that the flat was surprisingly normal.

The room Miss Higurashi led him to seemed to be a combination living room/kitchen area, with a simple couch and coffee table off in one corner and a four person dinette set a few feet away from the stove, fridge and sink. There was no TV, but a small bookshelf wasn't far from the couch with a bow and quiver of arrows leaning against it. A little anxious, Danny casually positioned himself between the teacher and the weapon, as he tried to think of a good excuse for following the teacher into her home that didn't reveal his identity or make him look like some kind of pervert.

"I, um, was flying overhead when I saw you, and felt some kind of weird energy from you. I didn't recognize it and got curious, so I decided to follow you and see what you were." There! That was plausible, and it didn't make him look like a creeper. Just a concerned superhero.

"Liar," Miss Higurashi accused as she started digging around in her fridge, sounding bemused. "You're not the only one with supernatural senses, Danny. I felt you waiting for me outside of the school tonight before I left. For a good four hours, as a matter of fact."

…Well, shoot.

"Yeah, well I fly around Casper High sometimes. That's why I felt your energy, since I was there, and you were there and-" Great, now he was babbling. "Oh forget it. Look, are you going to tell me what you are or not?"

"You want a drink or something?" Miss Higurashi asked in lieu of answering Danny's question, holding up a can of soda for the half ghost to see. Well, apparently the teacher wasn't completely ready to join the Dark Ages, then. Though the lack of a TV was still pretty suspicious.

"Pass." Danny scowled, knowing better then to accept something from someone he didn't know. Especially someone with weird powers. Shrugging, The woman closed the fridge with her hip and cracked the can she was holding for herself.

"Believe it or not, Danny Phantom, I'm 100% certified human being," Miss Higurashi answered his question at last, settling herself down in one of the chairs in the dining room.

"Humans don't give ghosts tingly, creepy feelings when they walk by," Danny insisted stubbornly, glaring at the woman for daring to lie to him. Miss Higurashi arched an eyebrow in response.

"Oh? Are you sure about that? I mean, have you met every human in the world other than me?"

"Um… well, no but…"

"The world is a big place, Danny," Miss Higurashi reminded the half ghost patiently. "Ecto-energy isn't the only kind of power out there. It's not even the most dangerous, actually. People like me are out there to even the playing field a bit, give the human race a fighting chance against supernatural beings."

"Why is this the first I'm hearing about 'people like you,' then?" Danny asked suspiciously.

"Well, as creepy as my powers feel to you, this whole town gives me the heebie-jeebies," Miss Higurashi confessed, crinkling her nose a bit. "It's unnatural for a place where humans live to be so irreversibly connected to the supernatural realm. And frankly, it's dangerous for people like me, since our powers attract a lot of attention from creatures who would want to consume our souls, and our powers with it. I'm not surprised that you've never seen anyone like me before if you've lived in this town your whole life. Most people with any sort of sense of the supernatural would try and get as far away from this place as they can."

"So why are you here?" Danny asked briskly, curious and cautious at the same time.

"Let's just say I'm a risk taker and leave it at that, shall we?" Miss Higurashi said dismissively, making Danny scowl.

"You're hiding something," the half ghost accused darkly.

"Those in glass houses really shouldn't throw stones," Miss Higurashi said, her cheery attitude fading a bit as she frowned at Danny. "If I'm hiding anything, it's to protect myself and keep innocent people safe. I'm not here to pick fights or cause trouble, Danny."

"Yeah, well I don't believe you," Danny said bluntly. "You know too much about ghosts and stuff, and you still haven't told me anything about your weird powers." Miss Higurashi's frown deepened at Danny's observation. "Whatever you're hiding, I'm gonna find out what it is. And if you try to do anything evil or illegal, I'm gonna stop you, no matter what you can do with your powers!" Knowing that he wasn't going to get anything else out of the strange woman, Danny took to the air and flew towards the sliding glass door that led out to the veranda, where the woman had a number of potted plants.

BAM!

And promptly cursed himself a fool when he smashed into the glass. Right. Intangibility didn't work in here.

"You alright, Danny?" Miss Higurashi asked in concern, making the ghost's ears burn.

"I'm fine!" Danny said, avoiding the woman's eyes as he slid the door open and stepped out onto the veranda. Trying to regain as much dignity as he could, Danny took to the air again and flew off, doing his best not to look back at the teacher as he did so.

Shaking her head, Kagome pulled the glass door shut after Danny wasn't much more then a speck on the horizon, sighing quietly to herself as she did so.

Enthusiastic kid. A bit clumsy, but his heart's in the right place. Kagome thought to herself with a wry smile. Not all that unlike herself when she first stumbled down a well and into a world of jewels, demons and priestesses. He had some clear trust issues, but Kagome couldn't really blame him for that if half of what she suspected about him was true. Not that any of that should matter to her. She had her own reasons for coming to Amity Park, after all, and none of them had anything to do with the resident ghost boy.

At least not until I realized he was more than just an odd ghost, anyways. Kagome thought as she went back to her front door, strengthening the spell that kept her home safe from uninvited spirits. It was surprising, but it shouldn't make a difference in her plans. It wouldn't at all, really, if it wasn't for her curiosity and empathy.

After all, she had a feeling that not many people in this town had any idea that Danny Phantom was actually an odd blue eyed teen with a bad reputation as a slacker and a weirdo…