I'd always assumed what you had about the main house, especially that Kyo lived "inside" as a child. (It would explain how Kagura so easily stumbled upon Kyo, why Kyo's childhood home looked so gated and was landscaped so similarly to vol 2's inside, and Kagura's comment that they would "sneak out of the house" to be play in the field near the main house. Also Kagura's comments that Kyo might be upset that the "Sohma main house is right over there.")

Now that I look at volume two, in the little map of the estate it says this: Main house (inside) when referring to everything inside the gate.

I like your explanation. The whole thing has ALWAYS confused me. A while back I wondered the same thing about Kyo going to the estate during New Years. I think I wondered if he was planning on sitting around Shishou's house by himself for three days, but it being Kyo, I'm sure he A) didn't think that far ahead and just caved to Tohru or B) really was planning on doing that.

And when Kyo says it was only the second time he'd been inside the main house, maybe KYO meant the building itself. If Kyo did live inside the gates as a child, I doubt his parents let him leave the yard, which was gated. He and Kagura snuck straight out, so Kyo really would be lost on the inside. Plus Kyo has this general denial of that period of his life, and I'm really not sure he would count it since he was so young. Of course I'm super tired and I have a killer migraine, so I'm pretty sure I'm not making sense.

But I like your theory!

I really need to look at vol. 12, because I'm sure there are more clues there, but it's on loan to my bro right now. I keep going back and forth about it now. :(

Ah, that actually makes sense to me. I always just assumed Kyo wasn't usually allowed in the "main house" (Akito's private quarters), but that he was accepted, if not exactly welcome, on the rest of the Sohma property. I'm fairly sure there's actually a reference to where Kazuma lives in one of the volumes where Kyo and Tohru go to visit him (I think it's the time he tells Tohru about the stain on the wall in the kitchen and how Kyo was always afraid of it). Tohru starts heading towards the dojo or something, and Kyo tells her she's going the wrong way, because Kazuma doesn't live near there. Whether there's any references to either the dojo or his home being anywhere near the Sohma estate, I can't remember. I'm curious now, and I'll probably go check the manga :)

When they visit Kazuma--it's in vol. 9--Kyo says that the house and dojo are separate, but I don't think it says where either is in relation to the main house. Hmm...but there's an earlier visit to the dojo, I believe, in the chapters where Hiro first shows up. Need to check that.