DISCLAIMER: All Yu Yu Hakusho characters are (c) Yoshihiro Togashi. Fuko is mine, and...that's everybody in the chapter methinks.
APOLOGIES FOR NOT POSTING IN A WHILE! T.T
Chapter Eight:
"No soul, no heart because I gave it away…No time for feeling sorry, I'll grieve another day."
It was nightfall and the usually vibrant halls of the castle were silent as a tomb. Fuko performed a quick survey of the area to see that no one was out of bed. She quietly slid back into the Phoenix Room and tossed off her old clothing. She went to her messenger bag and brought out an odd outfit with special significance. It was a short black Chinese style dress with gold lining and pink roses on it, scattering petals in the unseen wind that decorated the garment. She slipped it on, zipping it and tying the necessary knots. She reached again into her bag and brought out two soft white kung-fu-style shoes. She put them on as well. The third item retrieved from the patch-covered bag was a shorter katana; a wazikashi, the Kitsune Tsume. She tied the wazikashi to her waist tightly and walked over to the window. Kurama had taken the plant off of it with her promise of trust. Thankfully, the electric collar was taken off also, though she was assured that it was at the ready to be used again if she acted up. She winced as the window opened, creaking slightly. She held her breath, waiting for a reaction, heart pounding in her ears with such a volume, it was surprising that it disturbed no one. There was no movement in the castle. Fuko jumped out and clung to the tree in the similar fashion as earlier (luckily, once again, she caught hold of it). She slid down and made a break for it, she had to meet them. She wrinkled her nose and closed her eyes at the revulsion of the mere statement…"them". She opened her luminous gold orbs once more and focused intently on a song; she decided on Twiztid's "Afraid Of Me". She half-sang, half-panted,
"I'm so
Hidden and you're never gonna see…
I'm cold
Forgiven all because of my beliefs.
I'm no-
Body that you ever wanna' be,
Cause I know that the world is afraid of me…"
She gave a bitter smirk.
"How true," She thought, "I am nobody that you ever want to be…"
†◊†
Fuko slowed when she reached the clearing she was told to wait at. Lo and behold, she didn't have any waiting to do. They were all there.
"I thought it was you coming." Said Bui, leaning against a tree with the elder Toguro on his shoulders, sneering.
"Think? Of course it was her! Who else is dense enough to sing so off-key while running in the middle of the night??" He mocked. He always enjoyed trying to get a rise out of her. Fuko narrowed her eyes to slits in a death-glare; much more threatening than it had been as a human, she had noticed while practicing in the mirror earlier on that evening. Though, naturally, it still had no effect on the elder Toguro. Fuko sighed and wished the younger Toguro were still alive. He wasn't her favorite person, but he was always could keep his brother SOMEWHAT in line…now he had free-reign to do as he pleased, and this frightened Fuko profusely. She opened her mouth to reply when an arm slipped around her waist. She turned rigid and then relaxed as a familiar hand ran through her hair.
"Karasu." She stated.
"I suggest you silence yourself Toguro. You're no longer my superior." Karasu stated in his chilling tone. The elder Toguro glared at him with a gaze that chilled bones. Karasu remained stoic and unaffected. Karasu brushed his raven hair from his death-colored face and then firmly replanted the hand on her waist. Fuko gazed at it sadly for a moment or two, rather wishing it wasn't there.
"Now, with that said," Karasu turned to Fuko, "How goes the infiltration of Team Urameshi?" Fuko gulped, feeling rather as though she had swallowed a rather sizable golf-ball.
"It's gone swimmingly thus far. They seem to have a lot of trust in me." She said quietly, fiddling with the edge of her dress. An action that did not go unnoticed by Toguro.
"She's nervous…!" He pointed out. Karasu shot him an icy glare.
"She's fine." He retorted.
"I bet I know what happened…She's probably fallen for one of them!" Toguro laughed shrilly. Fuko's eyes widened.
"What?! No way in hell you scum-bag-bottom-feeder." She exclaimed. Karasu gave her an implacable look as the hand on her waist gripped painfully.
"Methinks the lady doth protest too much." He stated coolly.
"It's the truth. I'm merely incredulous that anyone would possibly associate me with that slime." Fuko replied eloquently. This answer seemed to please Karasu, seeing as his grip loosened.
"I assumed as much." He stated. It took everything Fuko had to hold in a sigh of relief. The meeting continued, the group discussing their assignments and objectives, but Fuko tuned most of it out, thinking. She sighed, and recalled the words of Jamie Madrox from the same song stuck in her head from before;
"I got problems and they stack like bills
And I relate to the broken, bleeding heart love killed,
And I awaited in the shadows, awake in the dark.
Hoping to talk to the passed on, I'm falling apart.
I'm such a mess and decisive, I'm fading away.
I'm out of touch with society and living today.
Never relying on my sanity, I threw it away
To become the maniac that's got your attention today…"
She was snapped back to reality with Karasu repeating her name.
"FUKO." His tone was annoyed.
"Oh, uh, yeah?" She replied. Toguro snickered.
"This is why women shouldn't be given responsibility." He stated. Fuko glared daggers at him.
"We asked if you had an estimate on when you'll have finished the bulk of Team Urameshi."
"You mean killed them by?" Fuko asked a bit anxiously.
"Yes."
"Um…I don't know if someone can really put a due-date on that…" She began.
"You have until the end of the week." Karasu declared.
"Wait, the week?!"
"We'll meet again next week. Dismissed." Karasu wrapped up the meeting. Fuko blinked.
"Karasu I can't…." Karasu raised his hand as he did a night earlier. Fuko fell to her knees again, choking as the strange x-mark on her upper right shoulder glowed purple.
"You can. And you will." And with this motivational statement out of the way, he left, as did Bui and Toguro. Fuko sighed, now alone in the clearing. She gazed upward at was truly a breathtaking sky; black velvet bedecked with silvery diamonds and a moon resembling a large gold coin. She closed her eyes as a wind kicked up. She hummed and then rapped/sang,
"Can you keep a secret?
Well I'm afraid of the world
Because they want me to die, can you believe it?
But I'm still alive... and been floating since '95
With my chin held high but I'm so dead inside…"
With another sigh, she turned her gaze back from whence she came and began to walk, the burden of her task weighing her down.
◊†◊
As Fuko walked back through the woods she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. Every now and then her gaze would dart behind her, or up to the branches of the numerous trees. When she couldn't take it anymore, she stopped.
"Show yourself! Now!" She shouted, rather hoping that someone was there, and that she wasn't just paranoid. For if it was the latter, she would have felt quite silly. Luckily, she was right on target, and out from the shadows stepped none other than Kurama. Fuko bit her lip and tried not to notice how attractive he seemed in the moonlight. She gave a groan as his green eyes pierced her in the darkness. He was following her. And he was mad.
"Oh…hey there." She said with a shaky laugh.
"Nice dress. Go out clubbing?" He asked sharply.
"Yeah, they got this great place not to far from here in the center of the forest with little squirrel dancers and everything." She retorted.
"It may just be me, but I don't see a wazikashi as a particularly attractive accessory to a night-club-ensemble." His eyes were colder than the dead of winter.
"Well, you know, all those wacky new-age-clubs…" Fuko smirked, knowing that sarcasm at least would make her feel better, even if she was screwed three ways toward the weekend. Kurama put a hand to his crimson-covered head.
"…We trusted you."
"You know, you're acting like I went out and committed a crime…" Fuko prayed to god (if there was one) that he hadn't seen everything that had occurred.
"And you didn't?" He inquired. A mental lumber was relieved as she realized that he didn't watch her at the meeting, just on the way back from it.
"Well no, not really. Plus, you have no proof!"
"Well you're still out after dark, in a mini-dress, with a wazikashi. Not exactly model behavior."
"Never said I was a model person." Kurama gave an exasperated shout and glared at her.
"You actually gained our trust…! And you just threw it all away! How stupid can you be?!" He exclaimed. Figuring that songs were always the answer, she rapped the part of "Afraid Of Me", despite its explicitness,
"I am my own worst enemy
I'm not the smartest mother-fucker and shit, I don't pretend to be…
And why I am the way I am is not a mystery.
My mind's not in proper working order or in therapy.
The brain's confused and mentally abused,
Life's been hanging on a string so what the fuck I got to loose?
And what the fuck I got to prove to you?
If you don't know me by now, you'll never know me…"
She smirked, knowing that it applied to the situation in every way. Kurama was taken-aback by the frequent cursing. He got a calculating look on his face. Fuko shrugged and left him standing in the forest. She whispered sadly as the castle came into view again,
"Took a look at myself and came to grips with what I found,
It was a vision of a child, disturbed and broke down.
No soul, no heart because I gave it away
No time for feeling sorry, I'll grieve another day…"
†◊†