Hello readers! Welcome to Chapter 4! (dun dun duuuun!) First of all, a shout out to my beta-readers, Ryan and Paoro. They have been helping me get my act together and keep this thing exciting. I'm stoked to say that we get to see Kuwa-chan again in this chapter; he's tough to write but such a fun character.

Special thanks to LunarWanderer1420: Oh my goodness you are too sweet stop before I get a big head you flatterer ;) But seriously thank you so much for the review! You're wonderful - stay cool yo 3333

PS I love this song it's by Vampire Weekend (who I saw last weekend omgsh so amazing waaat) Anyway: Enjoy the show, unbelievers ;)


Chapter 4 (Unbelievers)

Got a little soul, the world is a cold, cold place to be
Want a little warmth, but who's gonna save a little warmth for me?
I'm not excited, but should I be?
Is this the fate that half of the world has planned for me?

Hopping off the bus, Amai tried not to trip over her own tired feet. She'd somehow managed to ride her bike back home after that amazingly strange occurrence the night before. Her hands had gripped the handlebars and her feet had pedaled her home but her mind was back on that field.

She'd also been able to fall asleep, thanks to exhaustion and her brain's ability to compartmentalize what she'd seen. Those two guys with the weird hair – Jin and Touya - were they even real? When she woke up, incidentally missing out on the last piece of toast and running late for practice, Amai had decided that what had happened the night before was true. It was also weird enough that she needed to investigate.

Now, Amai was not exactly the type of person to just run around playing detective (rather, she was becoming that type of person but normally had never thought of herself that way). However, something seemed off about the whole event and she was most certainly not the type of person to just let that sort of sleeping dog lie.

Checking her watch now, Amai calculated how much time she had to complete her search and get home to prepare for her date with the delectable Toru Arashii. If she found who she was looking for and didn't run into any trouble, she should be fine.

With that cheery thought in mind, Amai walked through the gates of Saryashiki High School. She turned to a group of chatting girls, all preparing to walk home. The bell had just rung, but Amai had skipped her last class to make sure she was able to find who she was looking for.

"Uh, hello," Amai started. The girls stopped and stared a moment, noting Amai's foreign uniform. "I'm looking for someone named Kuwabara? Or, um, Yusuke?"

She asked very hesitantly, the names strange to her. She wasn't quite sure if they were first or last names, and she still wasn't sure she had been on the right track. The girls looked at her very curiously, eyebrows raised high.

"I don't know why you're looking for them, but I suggest you don't." One girl with blonde pigtails and a long face informed Amai. "They're trouble."

Amai nodded, "Yes, I'm sure. But a friend asked me to give them a note, so I'm just trying to be a good friend."

That part was all made up. Trouble, huh? No wonder those two weirdoes on the soccer field knew them. They all seemed like a heap of trouble to her. She might have been better off asking if there was a Keiko at the school, but it had seemed like such a popular name and the other two not.

"Oh, a note?" a shorter girl with ear-length black hair snorted. "Like a love note? For those guys?"

Amai shrugged, trying not to frown. Not a lot of love lost between the other students and these two guys, it seemed.

"Just a note. Dunno what's inside. So I'm guessing they're here at least. Do they usually stick around? Have a club or something?"

The last girl in the group snorted. "Urameshi's barely here. Kuwabara might be around though. He's been holing up in the library trying pass English. I guess he wants to graduate, after all."

"About time," the pigtailed girl added grumpily.

"Well, thanks. I'll find it on my own." Amai quickly rushed passed them.

After her questions about what had happened the night before, she'd have to ask why these guys were so unpopular. The school was small and steadily emptying. Her red and white uniform stood out among the blues and yellows. Amai hurried through the hallways, pausing occasionally to ask for directions to the library. It wasn't long before she found it, and she shuffled inside with a sigh.

"Finally," she muttered to herself, searching the library for a person who could be named Kuwabara.

It would be too easy if she had super-sensitivity to people, and far too easy if someone had described Kuwabara to her. However, she began by scouting the library for students who looked "other", like the people she'd met last night. Crazy hair, strange clothes… the lot. However, everyone was wearing uniforms. And the only strange hair she saw was a yanki pompadour which, in reality, wasn't super crazy.

But, it was the craziest hair in the nearly empty library. So she started there. She would later congratulate herself on her amazing intuition (or, as many would call it, dumb luck).

Amai stomped over to the table where this boy with the pompadour sat. Books were piled up in disarray all around him and the notebook he was reading from had papers sticking out of it, notes in poorly written English. Amai slapped her hand on the wooden table, startling him.

"What the-" the startled student stuttered, biting off a curse word as he saw who stood before him. "Uh, excuse me, did you need somethin'?"

Amai was surprised. He had the look of a delinquent but he seemed pretty harmless. That, and he'd apparently decided not to curse in front of her. That was respectable.

"Yeah, I need something." Amai pulled a chair out and plopped into it. "I've got, like, a ton of questions for you. And unless there's another Kuwabara walking around here, you're the only one who can answer those questions."

Kuwabara squinted at her curiously, "Do I know you or something?"

Amai shook her head before crossing her legs. "Not directly, no. But we have something in common, I think. Tell me, do you know any gingers who would hang around soccer fields at night?"

She tried not to be embarrassed at the particularly queer look her gave her. She managed to stuff down the embarrassment but was unable to harness the frustration so well.

"Okay, you want me to say it straight? There were some weirdoes hangin' out at my soccer field and one of them was ginger and the other one had blue hair and they were both super freaky, and they talked funny, and they were completely unreal –"

Kuwabara reached across the table, making a shushing noise and slapping his large hands over her mouth. He looked around suspiciously. Amai was shocked into a stupor for a moment before she began steaming. Clenching her fists into her skirt she impatiently waited for him to remove his hands and explain himself. When he realized where his hands were, he pulled them back as if he were touching fire, smiling embarrassedly, his face a little pink. Amai narrowed her eyes at him, her eyebrows scrunching together in a rather dangerous manner. The look was also highly unflattering.

"Okay, I think I know who you're talkin' about," Kuwabara said in hushed tones, gathering up his things quickly. "But we can't talk about it here, okay?"

Amai continued her pout but nodded understandingly. She knew the guys she'd met on the field were beyond normal, unnatural in some way. Amai nodded again before checking her phone, uncrossing her legs, and standing while sending a text message.

She felt Kuwabara looking over her shoulder and she hit the send button very quickly, without spellchecking or making sure her text wasn't overly crazy sounding. Amai snapped her phone shut and glared at Kuwabara. He looked abashed and grinned.

"That was a pretty cute lookin' text," he commented, turning and walking through the library doors, expecting Amai to follow. "Sure wish I got that type of text from girls."

He began to giggle like a schoolgirl and blushed a mighty red. Amai watched with wide eyes as he said to himself, "Well, I sure wish Yukina could get the hang of a cellphone… maybe I should show her how to use one…"

Amai trotted to catch up, her ears perking up. "Yukina, huh? That your girlfriend? I never peg you yankis for the girlfriend type. Well, not the 'giggle over your girlfriend' type, anyway."

Kuwabara nearly choked as he turned to look at Amai, walking backwards a bit as he told her off. "Yukina's not my girlfriend and I'm not a yanki! I'm a warrior for peace and love, alright?"

Amai bit her lip in order to not chuckle. "Alright, I get it. Sorry for sticking my nose in."

She didn't sound sorry at all.

Kuwabara seemed to accept the apology however and finally broached the subject Amai had been waiting for.

"Do you know the name of the guys you met on your, uh, soccer field? What school do you go to, anyway?"

"Oh," Amai looked down at her uniform. "Shino High. And I think it was Jin and Touya? Jun and Tayo? Something like that. But they said all sorts of weird things, and I don't even know where to begin on the crazy plant that nearly crushed my soccer-loving bones!"

Amai let out a loud grumble of frustration, drawing some odd looks. Kuwabarra picked up his step as he attempted to get them both off school grounds.

They passed through the school gate, where some girls were hanging around and chatting and some students meandered around the grounds. Amai picked up from where she left off.

"Anyway, the two weird guys said something about how I smelled like these other people- you being one of them- and I knew there weren't any Kuwabaras at my school, and I know we have a Yosuke but I wasn't sure about a Yusuke. And the only Keiko I'm aware of wasn't dating a Yusuke. I mean, there's people at my school I don't know, but not many. I figured that there was only one other place I'd been that a bunch of other people their age –our age- would have been, since all I do is school and soccer." Amai concluded by smacking her hands together and narrowing her eyes at nothing.

Saying it out loud made it sound a lot vaguer than she had decided last night, and the doubt was clear on her face. Kuwabara had peeked back and seemed thoughtful.

"That's pretty smart," he commented, adjusting the piles of books in his hands. "I mean, there could have been other places you'd come into contact with people from another school, but what better place to check first than the school itself?"

Amai grinned exuberantly, glad her detective work was being recognized. She hadn't read a stack of well-translated Nancy Drews for nothing. She continued trotting to keep up with Kuwabara, not worrying about where they were headed.

"Anyway," Kuwabara continued hesitantly, as if unsure where to begin or what to say. "Anyway… Well, I guess what I can tell you is that you should for sure stay off soccer fields by yourself for a while. And I'm not sure what more to tell you other than that. I guess I can talk to-"

Amai smacked his arm as hard as she could, causing him to drop some books and startled a yelp from the orange-haired delinquent.

"Talk to who! Those two guys? If you talk to them, I wanna talk to them too! I wanna know what attacked me and I wanna know why!"

"Alright, alright!" Kuwabara jumped back from her, in case she decided to strike again. Amai found it easy to forget his yanki status when he was cowering from her bare hands. A rather self-satisfied smirk settled on her face, but Kuwabara continued speaking. "I dunno what attacked you but honestly, you were probably in the wrong place at the wrong time. I mean, nothing else weird has happened to you, right?"

Amai sucked in her breath painfully. Weird… that would include the mysteriously-deflected ball, right? Her silence was long enough to cause concern and Kuwabara raised an eyebrow. He bent to pick up the expelled books, restacking them precariously. Amai stared down at her toes and Kuwabara sighed.

"Listen," he said, balancing the books in one hand and pulling a battered cell phone out of his uniform pocket with the other. "Gimme yer number so I can get back to you on what to do."

Amai raised her eyebrows now and smiled sheepishly when he looked morbidly embarrassed and began sputtering about how he was not just trying to get her number.

"I mean, I sense something about you but not much. And I'll just let you know what I find out, okay?" Kuwabara continued rather nonsensically to Amai but she checked the time on her phone once more and reluctantly nodded.

"I better not get any chain mail from you," she muttered and told him her telephone number. "And what do you mean, sense something? Can you read minds or something? I'm not disbelieving anything after last night. I wanna believe, ya know?"

She managed to grin at her joke though it seemed lost on Kuwabara. She nearly jumped when she realized how rude she had been for their entire conversation. With a startled look, she bowed haphazardly and recited the usual.

"I'm Amai Nagori! Sorry I knocked the books out of your hands, and sorry I interrupted your studying! That was pretty rude," she straightened and tried her best to look sorry, which wasn't too difficult as it was pretty sincere. "I just want to sort this thing out. You know?"

The smile he gave her was startling. It was very clear that he knew exactly what she meant. It was also clear that he knew a hell of a lot more than he was saying, but Amai was somehow unable to hold it against him. She began walking again, Kuwabara's long strides easily matching in a jaunty walk. Looking embarrassed, she started to speak but Kuwabara interrupted her.

"Listen, just don't go anywhere by yourself for a while. There's bad stuff going around anyway, no one should be going out alone. And just, uh, wait for a text, okay?" he seemed a bit rusty around ladies, but Amai was starting to find him extremely endearing.

She nodded agreeably and smiled, "Okay. I think I can manage that. Well, I gotta get ready for a date-"

Kuwabara abruptly stopped walking and Amai stopped as well. She looked up at the sign she had nearly walked into; the bus stop sign. Kuwabara had walked her straight to the bus stop she had needed to go to. Amai whipped around to stare at him, but he seemed exactly the same as before.

"Well, I'm gonna go now. Have fun on your date, and it was nice to meet you, Nagori." Kuwabara grinned before walking off.

"Nice to meet you too!" Amai shouted as the bus pulled up behind her, rustling her skirt and hair.

Boarding the bus and swiping her bus card, Amai slumped into a seat towards the front. It seemed that every day was ending with a major episode of confusion. Rubbing her temples as she contemplated all that she'd learned, Amai decided to push her worrying aside and think about her makeup for the date. It was, after all, only a few hours away.

Her cell phone buzzed in her pocket and she clicked it open quickly. It was just Kazuma Kuwabara sending a text so she'd have his number as well. She looked out the windows as the bus turned down a road and she caught sight of his orangey hair. At first she thought he was smiling but as they drove by she saw he was deep in thought, his brows furrowed. Amai was immediately hit with a sense of foreboding that didn't leave her until she arrived home some time later.

We know the fire awaits unbelievers
All of the sinners the same
Girl you and I will die unbelievers
Bound to the tracks of the train


Eheheheee I love writing this fanfiction it makes me so pleased... leave a review or rate it or what have you, that would also make me so happy :) General commentary and updates about the story are on my tumblr, which is on the main page if you're curious.. just sayin 3 Thanks for reading!