DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the original Yu Yu Hakusho characters, or Evelyn Hunter. The latter is the sole property of Gina Leone, and the former belonging to Yoshihiro Togashi. Also, Kumiko Yenma belongs to Nicole Summers...Thanks for reading!

Chapter Four:
"Everyone's pointing their fingers, Always condemning me. Nobody knows what I believe….I believe."

Fuko sighed and took a deep breath. She reached into her messenger bag and retrieved her CD player. She slipped the headphones around her neck. The others gave her questioning glances.

"Background music is always needed." She explained. They exchanged more glances, though these seemed to be ones more or less questioning her sanity. She opened the CD player and popped in a mix. She switched through the tracks.

"Ah, I think this'll be sufficient." She said, stopping at track nine. There was a techno-y beginning as her headphones blared "The Hamster Dance". She blinked and sweat-dropped.

"Eh…Hehe. My bad. Track ten is what I want." She switched to ten. You could make out the lyrics of the song "45" by Shinedown.

"Send away for a priceless gift
One not subtle, one not on the list
Send away for a perfect world
One not simply so absurd."

Fuko smiled quietly. A smile noted by Kurama as strange…at peace she seemed. She paused the song.

"Perfect. That'll suit the situation fine. Alrighty. I think it's best if I were to show you instead of tell you." She said. The others blinked.

"Show us…?" Kuwabara asked. Fuko nodded.

"Can you do that?" Koenma questioned. Fuko laughed musically.

"Of course I can. I learned a little something about LiveCams." She said, waving a hand nonchalantly. Yusuke blinked.

"Live…Cams?" He asked.

"They're like little cameras everywhere recording every moment of time. They can't be seen by anyone, nor touched, but they are there nonetheless. It's impressive to find anyone with knowledge of how to use them." Kurama explained, rather awed. Fuko shrugged.

"Is nothing." She said with a strange faux European accent.

"How did you learn about them?" Koenma inquired.

"That shall be explained. Now do ya' mind if I use your big TV screen?" Fuko asked, jerking a thumb in the direction of the monitor behind Koenma's desk.

"Um…feel free." He said, hopping out of his chair and walking over to the rest of the team as Fuko headed over. The girl, Kumi, walked over as well to get a better view. Fuko hit a few buttons in sequence on the side of the monitor, and she stood back as it went black for a moment and then to static. She reached into her messenger bag and also brought out a set of speakers. She plugged the CD player to it and reset the song.

"There. Now we got ourselves a music video." She said with a grin as the first couple lines from before were repeated. The static cleared up on the TV.

"Now this, is why I am so screwed up." She explained as they all sat back.

"

†◊†

"And I'm staring down the barrel of a .45.
Swimming through the ashes of another life.
No real reason to accept the way things have changed…
Staring down the barrel of a .45!"

On the screen, they could see a girl, the age of fifteen with medium-length brown hair and gray eyes running after a boy roughly the same age with black hair. Her footsteps made dull thuds on the sidewalk except for the occasional crunch of an autumn leaf caught beneath her dull Adidas sneakers.

"Hey Yusuke, get back here!" The girl laughed. The younger-Yusuke turned around.

"Fuko, we have to get home." He said.

"Don't be such a wuss! Look what I got." Fuko reached into her pocket and brought out two lollipops.

"See? One for me and one for you. That is, if you haven't out-grown your sweet-tooth." She said, smiling. Yusuke smiled, forgetting about getting home as he took the lime one as she unwrapped the cheerful purple cellophane off of the grape one.

"Me, lose my sweet-tooth? Never." He grinned, tearing off the green cellophane and popping it into his mouth.

"You wouldn't believe how easy it was to get 'em too! That clerk is so dense, reading magazines all day. I probably could have taken twenty of these and she wouldn't have noticed!" Fuko laughed. Yusuke suddenly stopped and took the lollipop out of his mouth.

"Fuko, did you steal these?" He asked. Fuko looked down and kicked at the pavement sheepishly.

"Um…not no?" She said with a silly smile to try and throw him off. Yusuke shook his head.

"Fuko I don't want this if you took it." He said, handing it back to her. A sour expression crossed Fuko's face.

"Oh come on Yusuke! First off, what am I going to do with a half eaten lollipop?! And two, so what if I took it? That clerk is mean to us anyway! She called us 'miscreants', Plus I don't see what's so bad about taking LOLLIPOPS, for Christ's sake!" Fuko stated, defending her position. Yusuke shook his head.

"I'll see you at home. Then I have to get my stuff and leave, so if you could just behave yourself for once and get back in one piece, that'd be great.." He said. He turned around and walked off. Fuko scowled.

"Stupid Yusuke…he's always going places nowadays…and so what if I took 'em? He's just as bad, if not worse! He smokes, he drinks, and he cuts class, gets into fights .basically everything I do!" She ranted to no one in particular. She sighed heavily.

"But he's always giving me a hard time with my stealing lately." She said, contorting her face into a grimace.

"Maybe he's gone soft or something." She muttered. She continued walking until she arrived at a lot with an old building on the far side of it. She sat down with her back to a dumpster, gazing at the building, eyes swimming with all sorts of thoughts.

"What are you thinking about?" Came a man's voice. Fuko leapt to her feet, banging her head against the dumpster. After quite a colorful string of curse-words, she looked around.

"Who are you!? Hell, WHERE are you?" She demanded. A figure appeared out of nowhere as she turned her back. She whirled around as he tapped her shoulder. He had long glistening raven hair and a silver mask. His skin was a milky white and he wore a black coat and pants. The recording stopped for a moment as did the music. The reason was Kurama, standing, and looking livid. Everyone else in the room seemed tense as well.

"Karasu!" He snarled. Fuko blinked.

"So I take it you know him?" She asked calmly.

"Yes…I fought him in the dark tournament."

"Well then I guess you guys won't be so in the dark for this. Can we continue??" They nodded, and Fuko started the recording again.

"Who are you?!" Fuko queried again.

"…You're a curious little fox." He said with his icy cool voice. Fuko scowled.

"What do you mean 'a curious little fox'?! You'd better not be hitting on me dude." She stated, taking out a switchblade from her jeans pocket. He snickered.

"I will tell you in due time. But for right now, you cannot stay in this city." Fuko blinked.

"What do you mean??" She asked.

"You couldn't possibly think of staying with your brother and mother." He hissed. Fuko's blood froze, and it was quite obvious from the pale expression on her face.
"How did you know about them!?" She demanded. He laughed again in such a chilly tone, there may well have been icicles in the air.

"That's not of importance. What is, is the fact that you just committed arson." Fuko blinked.

"What are you saying…."

"You have a lighter in the same pocket as the switchblade in your hand, yes?"

"…How did you know that?!"

"Also not of importance. What I do know is that your fingerprints are all over your lighter."
"And?!" Fuko did not like where this was going. He looked over at the old building. He walked over and somehow created an explosion. Fuko watched, eyes wide as the whole building caught fire. He then walked back, stuck his hand into Fuko's pocket and shoved the lighter into her hands.

"Rest assured, I didn't leave any fingerprints. I'll meet you again in due time. Oh, and don't try to defend yourself. Your brother is coming, and he won't believe you." He vanished as quickly as he had appeared. Fuko blinked and looked around. Yusuke ran around the corner.

"Fuko are you-" He broke off as he saw the building ablaze.

"Yusuke, I didn't do it." She told him, eyes entreating him. Yusuke looked at her, hurt in his eyes.

"Then who did?!" He shouted at her.

"It was a man! He appeared and-"

"Bullshit Fuko! This is going too far." He shook his head. Bitterness hung heavy in his tone. Sirens could be heard screaming, cutting through the brisk autumn air like a knife.

"I won't turn you in. But I'm sure as hell not staying here." Yusuke shook his head and ran off.

"Yusuke! Yusuke please!" Fuko shrieked hysterically, tears in her eyes. He ignored her. The police cars came into view.

"Everyone's pointing their fingers,
Always condemning me.
Nobody knows what I believe,
I believe…."

◊†◊

Everyone in the room was quiet. No one seemed to even want to dare and breathe.

"Seven days later I was taken to court and found guilty. I was an adolescent, with only minor prior infringements, so no prison. It was Juvie for me, but I managed to get off with going to a prep school that made 'miscreants' like me into proper young ladies. I figured it was better than both Juvie, AND pleading insanity so I took them up on it." Fuko continued. The others still sat in an almost dead silence.

"…It…wasn't you." Yusuke said, breaking it.

"Nope. Funny, how that works." Fuko sneered viciously.

"But…you…and the lighter….Jeeze." Yusuke ran his fingers through his hair.

"I seriously fucked up." He said after a moment.

"Ya' think?" Fuko asked, sneering even more now.

"I was so focused on other things…that was the day I was leaving for the dark tournament….Damn. That's no excuse." Yusuke sighed, remorse in his eyes.

"So that's why you hate Yusuke so much…" Koenma said quietly. Fuko nodded. Everyone seemed to be in reflection; all quiet with sadness in their eyes.

"Well that's not the whole reason." Fuko added after a moment.

"Ugh, what else?" Yusuke asked.

"You know Yusuke, I'm sure you were busy, doing…err…Yusuke Things, but I was away at that horrible borderline boot-camp for three damn years. Want to know the funny thing? In those three years, I didn't get so much as a post card from you. On my birthday? No call. Not even a card. Christmas? Nothing. You forgot about me for three years Yusuke. How do you think that feels?" Fuko asked bitterly. Yusuke leapt to his feet.

"No! Look Fuko, I understand why you were mad at me, but DO NOT dare and say I never tried to get in touch with you!" Yusuke shouted at her. Fuko blinked.

"Eh?"

"I sent you a letter every month. A card for your birthday and Christmas…well…I thought I did…I gave them to mom and…" Yusuke trailed off. Fuko looked down, a shadow cast on her face from the hair that fell on her face.

"So it was mom. She stopped us from talking." She said quietly. Yusuke nodded.

"I'm guessing, because I swear Fuko, I tried to talk to you. I stopped eventually because I figured that you didn't want to talk to me." He explained. Fuko sighed heavily, and sank back in Koenma's big leather chair.

"Well…this has been a most enlightening visit." Kurama spoke after another moment of silence,

"I think we should take our leave." He added. Yusuke and Kuwabara nodded. Fuko looked at Kurama with curious eyes. Hiei looked a bit contemplative, and Kumi looked sad.

"Right. Everyone report back here tomorrow so I can issue some tests to figure out Fuko's powers." Koenma said. They nodded, and dispersed, just as the song ended.

"And I'm staring down the barrel of a .45,
And I'm swimming through the ashes of another life.
There is no real reason to accept the way things have changed…
Staring down the barrel of a .45!"

†◊†