Hailie I know you miss your mom and I know you miss your dad When I'm gone but I'm trying to give you the life that I never had I can see you're sad, even when you smile, even when you laugh I can see it in your eyes, deep inside you want to cry Cuz you're scared, I ain't there? Daddy's with you in your prayers No more crying, wipe them tears Daddy's here, no more nightmares We gon' pull together through it, we gon' do it Laney uncles crazy, aint he? Yeah but he loves you girl and you better know it We're all we got in this world When it spins, when it swirls When it whirls, when it twirls Two little beautiful girls Lookin' puzzled, in a daze I know it's confusing you Daddy's always on the move, mamma's always on the news I try to keep you sheltered from it but somehow it seems The harder that I try to do that, the more it backfires on me All the things growing up his daddy that he had to see Daddy don't want you to see but you see just as much as he did We did not plan it to be this way, your mother and me But things have gotten so bad between us I don't see us ever being together ever again Like we used to be when we was teenagers
But then of course everything always happens for a reason I guess it was never meant to be But it's just something we have no control over and that's what destiny is But no more worries, rest your head and go to sleep Maybe one day we'll wake up and this will all just be a dream…

"Does she have to play that so loud? It's depressing!" Keiko shouted, hands over her ears.

"Hey, I have to listen to this every day! Don't complain!" Yusuke shouted, undisturbed by the music.

"I still can't believe you had an younger sister and none of us have ever met her! What's wrong with you Urameshi?" Kuwabara shouted over the song.

"Not my fault that she's a loner!" A pillow came from out of nowhere and hit Yusuke straight in the face. Another one followed that, nailing Yusuke in the stomach.

"What the… " Yusuke and everybody else looked up to see a 15-year-old girl standing at the top of the stairs. She had long black hair down to her waist tied back into a ponytail and was wearing a pink midriff halter and a black denim mini.

"I heard that! And just because I'm a year younger than you don't mean I can't listen to the music I want," she said, shooting a look at Keiko, "or that I have to hang out with a bunch of your little friends when they come. Got it?" she asked, glaring at her 16-year-old brother.

"Whatever, twerp," Another pillow came hurtling down and hit Yusuke in the head.

"Chikara!" Yusuke looked up in time to see the girl running down the hallway to her room.

"She's stubborn," observed Kurama.

"Have you told her about, you know…?" Botan trailed off. Yusuke shook his head.

"Why not, man? She's your sister after all. She deserves to know about your job as…" A pillow thrown by Yusuke hit Kuwabara before he could finish.

"Shut up! She can hear us in her room, even with that music playing!" Yusuke hissed.

"Her hearing is that acute?" Keiko whispered. Yusuke nodded.

"I can hear you!" Chikara's voice came from her room.

"See?" Yusuke said.

Meanwhile, in Chikara's room, Mockingbird had ended and Like Toy Soldiers was playing. She sprawled out on her bed and rested her head on her pillow. It was silver and had a wolf picture on it. Her room was filled with wolves. Her walls were silver with wolves painted on, though there were so many pictures hanging on the walls, so it was hard to see the wolves. Her ceiling had a gray wolf picture painted on and her blankets were black with howling wolves decorating it. Her carpet was hot pink with a wolf pack running. Chikara was fascinated with wolves ever since she was five, when she had gone to a zoo and seen a wolf exhibit. Her armoire was black and sat in the corner across from her bed. But her clothes weren't in the armoire; they were in a closet across the room from her bed. In her armoire were many different swords and daggers. She had taken sword classes for two years and kept all the weapons that she had been given, collecting her own as well. She opened her armoire and took out the sword that had been given to her by her father when she had graduated her first year. It had a black hilt with sapphire on the bottom and a sharp, straight blade. Chikara had painted a wolf on the blade with washable dye. The sword felt light in her hands and she began to swing it around, getting used to holding a sword once again. This was her first time in two years touching the weapons in her armoire since her tousan passed away. Like Toy Soldiers ended and the CD stopped playing. Somebody knocked on her door. Startled, Chikara dropped the sword and it hit the ground with a thud!

"Chikara, what's going on in there?" Yusuke asked as he tried to pick the lock.

"Nothing's going on! You'd better not come in!" Chikara snapped as she hastily put the sword back in its place and closed the armoire. She opened her door and found Yusuke standing there, about to knock again.

"What do you want?"

"Hey, chill. We were just heading…"

"No,"

"Would you let me finish at least, Chikara!"

"Fine,"

"We were heading to that new club by the arcade and…"

"Club Nova?"

"Yeah, but anyways, do you want to come?"

"How'd you get in? Why do you suddenly want to go? If I remember correctly, you said that you wouldn't go there if it was the last place in the world,"

"Yeah, well, there's special circumstances like now, for instance," Yusuke stammered.

"You have a mission there, don't you?" Chikara smirked.

"How did you…" Yusuke stumbled over his words. Chikara smirked, enjoying every minute of it.

"I have my ways. Fine, I'll go. But only because Club Nova is the coolest place in town,"

"Whatever, just be ready in five minutes or we're leaving without you," Yusuke turned to go.

"I'd like to see you try," Chikara whispered loud enough for him to hear. Yusuke flinched and Chikara shut the door. She pulled on a black denim jacket and slipped into silver strappies. In the bathroom of her room, she let out her ponytail and streaked her hair pink, drying the dye with her hair dryer. She put a pair of silver dangles with a wolf on the end in her ears and chose five black chokers and 20 pink bracelets, ten for each arm. Chikara applied lip gloss, black mascara and black eye liner and she was ready to go. Botan and Keiko and Yukina, an ice apparition who appeared out of nowhere, went to freshen up in the bathroom at the end of the hall. Chikara walked to the top of the stairs and looked down at the guys, who had been ready without changing. She was the first girl to be done and now she wished she had taken longer. All the guys were staring up at her, speechless, except for Yusuke.

"What are you thinking, Chikara? You are not going out dressed like that! That is way too much cleavage!" Chikara, while her older brother was screaming his head off, had gone back to her room to get extra lip gloss, eyeliner and mascara. When she got back to the top of the stairs, Yusuke was still blowing his top. Chikara, annoyed at her overprotective brother, jumped over the railing of the stairs, much to Yusuke's disliking and everybody else's surprise. She landed on her feet perfectly fine and was glad her little stunt shut him up.

"You can scream all you want, but I'm not going to change, got it?" Yusuke grumbled and fell on the couch to Chikara's delight. She and the guys waited for hours before the other three girls were done. By then, Chikara caught Kurama and Hiei eyeing her so many times, she was about to change her mind and go back upstairs.

It was around 6 pm when they got to Club Nova. Koenma, Yusuke's boss, had gotten them VIP seats. Yusuke and Kuwabara had to punch a few guys because they kept hitting on Keiko and Yukina. Somebody has a little crush, thought Chikara slyly.

"You just figured that out? Amusing and pathetic," Hiei appeared by her side.

"You read my mind?" Hiei smirked as a reply to her question, "Hello, do you know what privacy is?" Chikara snapped, annoyed. Hiei said nothing but glanced away, a slight pink creeping into his cheeks. Chikara looked away as well but didn't move a muscle. Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams came on and Chikara began to hum. Hiei was still staring out into space so Chikara slipped away and danced by herself. One guy came up to her and started to flirt with her at the end of the song, but Chikara punched him in the stomach and walked away. She went back to the table Koenma had reserved for the group and ordered a root beer. It came a minute later and was half gone in 30 seconds. As Chikara sipped her drink, Hiei silently sat down across from her. Why does he keep following me around! Chikara thought frustrated.

"If I left you alone, then your baka detective brother would never let me hear the end of it," Hiei said simply.

"I told you to keep out of my thoughts!" Chikara snapped, irritated.

"You asked me if I knew what privacy was, which I do. You never told me to keep out of your thoughts, which I won't. You have an interesting mind and its fun to poke through your thoughts," Hiei replied with a smirk. Chikara quickly ran to the dance floor, leaving her half-finished drink and a surprised Hiei sitting at the table. She weaved her way through the crowd, trying to get as far away from the annoying mind reader as possible. Chikara bumped into a guy wearing a forest green shirt and jeans, who looked somewhat familiar. He had short, even, dark brown hair that stood up and green eyes.

"Would you like to dance?" he offered as Britney Spear's I'll Never Stop Loving You came on. Chikara nodded, entranced by the stranger. He pulled her close to him, so her head rested on his chest. Chikara flushed. They danced two songs straight, both of them slow. It was about 11:30 now and Chikara was getting drowsy. The stranger was holding her tighter and tighter and she smelt a faint odor coming from him. It was pleasant and it reminded her of her first sleepover, where she had accidentally sprayed too much perfume and her friend's bedroom retained the scent for a week. Chikara could hardly move; she was so tired. Her body was going limp in the stranger's arms. A menacing smile spread across his face as Chikara didn't move and her eyes shut. What he didn't know, however, was that Chikara was still partly conscious, enough to hear and open her eyes partly. She heard screaming and the song that was playing, Simple Plan's Welcome to My Life, stopped. She opened her eyes as much as she could to see that the stranger was growing larger and uglier. Hair grew all over his body and he grew tusks out of his mouth. His green eyes turned into beady black ones and he roared, shaking the ground. Chikara couldn't get up; her body was numb and she felt as though the life had been drained right out of her. The ground shook more violently and the lights hung on the ceiling fell, many of them landing mere inches away from Chikara. Suddenly, a black blur appeared in front of her and picked her up. Chikara had no strength to protest or to say anything for that matter except to moan. She was laid down on the stage where no damage had yet been caused. Somebody propped her up and poured water down her throat and laid a wet towel on her forehead. Deafened by the sound of crashing lights, monstrous roars, frightened screams and the clashing of weapons, she relied on her sight to figure out what was going on. However, Chikara's vision was blurred since she could still only open her eyes a little. She saw flashes of yellow, red, black, blue and brown, and then passed out.

"Is she going to be okay?" A hushed voice asked. Chikara, recognizing Keiko's voice, shifted and groaned, trying to open her eyes and sit up at the same time.

"Yes, she's regaining consciousness and should get her strength back quickly," Chikara heard Botan say and opened her eyes. She was still drowsy but she could at least move her body and open her eyes fully. Everybody was gathered around her on the stage, faces filled with concern. Looking up, she saw Hiei and realized that she had been lying in his lap the whole time. Flushing, she quickly tried to sit up on her own, but didn't have the strength. She collapsed back into Hiei's lap and put up no effort to try and get up again. All the boys, including Hiei, were battered and bruised and had cuts all over their arms and a few gashes on their faces. Yukina was in the middle of healing Kuwabara, who had a huge, stupid grin on his face, but stopped when Chikara came to. Chikara groaned again and Botan gave her a glass of water. She sipped a bit, set it down and tried to get up, falling back again. Hiei shifted so she sat upright and Chikara gave the tiniest smile. Hiei looked away, a slight pink coming to his face again.

"What happened? My head feels like it exploded into thousands of pieces," Chikara moaned.

"Lucky for you, Hiei got you to the stage before that demon did crack your head into a thousand pieces," Yukina said. She got no reply. Chikara was looking at the massive brown lump in the center of the dance floor. Yusuke followed her gaze and grimaced.

"Of all the guys on the floor, you had to choose the demon we were after, huh, sis?" Yusuke smiled, pointing over his shoulder. Chikara felt herself flushing.

"Hey, it's not my fault. I didn't know that he was going to be a demon. It's not like he chose to dance with me on purpose," Chikara retorted. Yusuke suddenly fell quiet and so did the others. They avoided Chikara's curious gaze.

"Did I say something?" Chikara asked innocently.

"No. We shouldn't have had you come, Chikara. Especially if it was going to put you in so much danger," Yusuke replied, shaking his head. Everybody else was staring at the ground.

"What do you mean? I told you, it wasn't my fault that…" Chikara began.

"I know what you said and I wasn't talking about that," Yusuke cut her off sharply.

"After the guys beat the demon, Koenma came and told us that somebody sent it after you. He had gotten a message from a strange figure who told him to surrender you to the demons, before you got attacked. The figure also said that if Koenma didn't hand you over, then the demons would take you by force," Botan explained sadly. Chikara was paralyzed with shock as Botan continued, "That's why that demon was capturing girls for the past few days. The only thing that the demons know about you is that you're around 15-18, like the girls that were captured. But now, they know what you look like, thanks to Yusuke over there, who shouted your name out when you fell limp in the guy's arms," Botan glared at Yusuke, who shrugged.

"Bottom line, they're going to be back for another attempt at capture and you're in serious trouble," Yusuke said, finishing up. He looked at Chikara, who stared at him, her face expressionless. Her eyes darted from Yusuke to Botan to the demon and back.

"So…what you mean to tell me…is that…the demons…" Chikara murmured at Yusuke.

"Is that the demons in Demon World are after you, baka onna!" Hiei snapped out of his quiet mood and glared at Chikara. Chikara, startled by Hiei's sudden reaction, shifted off of Hiei and fell onto the stage. Yukina rushed to Chikara's side and helped her back up as Yusuke began to yell at Hiei. All the noise was making her head hurt, not to mention the news as well.

"Shut up, both of you!" Chikara screamed, covering her ears. Everyone fell silent and tears started to slide down her cheeks, ruining her mascara and eyeliner. Yukina tried to calm her down but Chikara pushed her aside and ran out of Club Nova, out into the forest behind it. Yusuke, Botan, Yukina and Keiko yelled after her to come back while Kuwabara and Kurama ran after her. Hiei sat motionless on the stage, face filled with concern and surprise. Eventually the five still in Club Nova ran after Kuwabara, Kurama and Chikara as well. They caught up with the other two boys, but couldn't find Chikara anywhere. They looked for her till midnight, when they headed back to the Urameshi residence, in hope that Chikara would have returned lock herself up in her room. To their disappointment, Chikara was nowhere to be found and they decided to call it a night. Although one person stayed awake and, at 1 in the morning, slipped out the front door, back to the forest, to look for the girl.

Chikara sat in the tree, crying her heart out. It was mid-December and she was freezing in her halter and mini, but she didn't move. Her thoughts went through her head so fast; she didn't even know she was thinking them. All she knew was she was the target of demons, perhaps all of them in Demon World. Her head spun and dizziness overcame her. She shifted on the tree branch and fell off, clutching her head. Landing in bushes relieved the pain, which Chikara pondered over. She climbed back into the tree and rested on the thickest branch she could find, about 50 feet from the ground. The branch was also covered in leaves, providing her with shelter from snow, which had started falling, and a covering. Chikara huddled into a small ball, trying to keep herself warm. But she still felt the cold stinging her skin no matter how hard she tried to keep warm. She sighed miserably and then angriness flashed through her eyes.

"It's their fault I'm stuck out here!" Chikara shouted to herself, the images of everybody else flashing through her head, "If they had told me the truth in the first place, I wouldn't have gone out and danced with the demon! And if Hiei would just respect my privacy, I wouldn't have danced with the demon still!" She screamed out in frustration and buried her head in her hands.

"And if you didn't have such an interesting mind, I wouldn't poke through it; therefore you wouldn't have danced with the demon. So it's partly your fault, baka onna," A dark shadow appeared on the branch above her and Chikara recognized the taunting voice.

"What are you doing here? Nobody's supposed to know about this spot except me!" Chikara stood up angrily and slipped, crashing down into the bushes below. Hiei jumped down from his branch and landed on his feet by her.

"You know your baka detective brother is worried sick, right?" Hiei asked as Chikara stood up and brushed the leaves off her jacket.

"Who cares? It's his fault I left anyway. Why should I go back after what they put me through?" Hiei stared silently at Chikara, which made her feel nervous and frustrated.

"Will you quit staring? It's annoying!"

"You have a lot of energy for someone who just got drained of their strength," Hiei rebuked. Chikara stared at him.

"The odor you smelt was a strength draining potion hidden in his jean pocket," Hiei shrugged and pulled out a tube with a small amount of purple liquid inside from his pocket. The clearing they stood in suddenly filled with the aroma Chikara had smelled before. She crumpled to her knees while Hiei stood undisturbed.

"Botan gave us an anti-draining potion when we got back to your house from the club," Hiei pulled out another tube, this time filled with a silver powder. He poured a bit over Chikara, but she still didn't get up. "Get up, baka onna! I know that you're invulnerable to the odor right now!" Hiei snarled. Only then did he realize that Chikara was weeping. His face softened.

"Is something wrong, onna?" Hiei asked gently, kneeling next to her. Chikara merely shook her head, sobbing too hard to answer. Hiei, not knowing what else to do, pulled Chikara's hands away from her face.

"Tell me what's wrong now, onna, or I will get your baka brother out here," Hiei stared at her emerald green eyes as he probed through her mind for a clue. All he could see were flashing images: a young woman who looked almost exactly like Chikara, only older; a tombstone, engraved with R.I.P. Carmarilla Urameshi 1973-2004; the tube of strength draining potion and a crying Chikara being held by Yusuke, both younger than they were now. Hiei staggered and fell back on the grass, shocked by the power and emotion in the young girl's mind and thoughts. Hiei stared at the still weeping girl, forming guesses in his mind.

"Carmarilla Urameshi is your kaasan, huh?" he asked gently. Chikara nodded and gulped for air.

"I…thought…I…told…you…to stay…out of…my thoughts!" Chikara gasped, wiping the tears from her face. Hiei looked away, then back at Chikara. Chikara stared at him for a minute then turned away.

"My kaasan was killed by this when I was five," Chikara managed after a second. Hiei met her gaze, which was filled with sadness and anger. "She worked late into the night and was driving home. I was with her because it was Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. Then we decided to go into a small diner. A guy was sitting next to us and we both smelled the potion. But because I was so young, I wasn't affected. My kaasan wasn't so lucky, though. Se went limp and fell into the guy's arms. He threw her against the far wall," Tears ran down Chikara's cheeks as she reminisced the dreadful day, "I remember running to her and falling at her side. She told me that I was in grave danger now that he had found her. Blood was spilling from her mouth as she said that and I was crying and screaming. All the other customers had fled the diner so my kaasan, the guy and I were the only ones there. The guy was walking closer to us, a knife in his hand. He slapped my face and I flew against the wall, then he took the knife and killed my kaasan. He murdered her! I was crying and screaming and I ran to her. The guy still had the knife in his hand and raised it to kill me. Then the police came in. The guy stopped, looked around, then threw a smokescreen grenade and disappeared. The police chalked my kaasan's body and took her away in an ambulance, taking me as well. I remember crying over her the whole way there and then me being interrogated by the police. Yusuke and my tousan came to pick me up a couple minutes later and they were both crying," Tears now streamed down her cheeks as Hiei sat there quietly, thinking how good his life had been compared to hers. After all, his kaasan committed suicide, which didn't exactly impact his life. Her kaasan, though, had been a victim of murder and, by the sound of Chikara's story, a purposely committed murder. Hiei scooted next to the girl and held her in his arms, waiting for her sobs to die down.

"Shh, shh, it's ok now," Hiei said soothingly as Chikara stopped crying, "It's past you now; you have to put it behind you. You aren't so different from me, the Forbidden Child of Makai. Both our kaasans are dead now and we both only have our siblings," Chikara remained trembling in his arms.

"You have a sibling?"

"Yes,"

"Who is it? Do I know them?"

"Yes, you do know her. Yukina is my younger sister, though you must never tell her," Hiei murmured.

"Yukina is your sister? Come to think of it, you two do look alike," Chikara whispered.

"But this is irrelevant. Onna, you need to put your past behind you now. Do you understand? You may still remember it, but you cannot dwell on it forever; you need to move on," Hiei urged.

"I understand. I know I must put it behind me and I will. But you cannot forget things like this so easily," Chikara replied.

"I know. One day, perhaps I could take you to Reikai and see if Koenma can do anything about your kaasan, like perhaps letting you talk to her spirit. But for now, we are all we have in these mixed up worlds. At least we understand each other,"

"Hn,"