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
Thirteen:
"I'm standing on a rooftop, ready to fall…!"
A soft rustling was more or less what woke Fuko up….that, or the fact that there was a face at an uncomfortably close proximity to her own. She opened her eyes to see Jin looking at her inquisitively.
"Ello lass!" He said cheerfully as he twiddled his fingers in a hello. With a sharp cry and a jump, Fuko landed smack on the floor. She got up, heart racing. All of her new "teachers" were standing in her bedroom. She panted.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!" She screeched shrilly. They looked at each other and seemed to converse, taking notes.
"You see, we are to observe you for a full day, and from those notes, we will derive a rigorous training schedule for you to follow." Suzuka "the beautiful" explained. Fuko looked at them, quite positive that pure fumes of hatred were being emitted from her eyes.
"Well, hop to it! You have to get dressed and down to Koenma for the team's newest mission!" Chu told her. Fuko nodded and headed to her closet. She retrieved a pair of jeans and a baggy black t-shirt. She turned around to see that they were all still there.
"That won't do." Suzuka "the beautiful" said, shaking his head with a "tsk tsk".
"What?" Fuko raised an eyebrow.
"Suzuka is going to be taking care of some aspects of your physical appearance, like clothing." Shishiwakamaru explained. Fuko's mouth dropped open in a mixture of shock and disgust as Suzuka "the beautiful" jotted notes down in a small spiral notepad. Fuko put a hand to her head and sighed, shutting her closet, clothing in hand. She looked at her "teachers" for a moment.
"Well? Aren't you going to leave?" She asked, irritated by their presence.
"Well, we are supposed to observe everything you do today…" Chu began. Those who happened to saunter by Fuko's door heard a massive explosion as five or six demon bombers were summoned and detonated. The door flew open and the five demons (Touya, who was much too respectable for that sort of thing, was elsewhere) fled from her room like bats out of hell, tendrils of smoke trailing from their singed hair and faces.
"She's mean!" Jin panted.
"She's psychotic!" Shishiwakamaru agreed.
"She's amazing." Rinku sighed.
◊†◊
Fuko sat at a large table in the debriefing room. She had found Kumi, who was pacing anxiously near Touya's door, and the two of them had gone together. Fuko yawned and looked over at Kumi, who anxiously fiddled with the sleeve of her kimono.
"What's got you so anxious?" She inquired, figuring if she was not anxious after having been awoken by a bunch of stalking-excuses-for-teachers, then very few people had reason to be.
"Well…." Kumi bit her lip in contemplation.
"Is it Touya?" Fuko inquired. Kumi started.
"What? But how did you? I mean, did I? What?" She rambled for a moment, distressed. Fuko waved a hand.
"Relax dearie. I figured it out myself. We're in a freaking castle full of guys, so I doubt any of them has figured it out yet." She stated. Kumi blushed and looked down, fiddling with her hands.
"Well…I really like him, but I don't know what to do…" She explained.
"Don't worry about it poppet. I'll take care of things." Fuko winked as Kurama walked into the room. A plan quickly unfolded.
"Oi, Fox-Boy!" Fuko waved a rather befuddled-looking Kurama over.
"Don't call me 'Fox-Boy'…and what is it?" He asked.
"I'm about to use you in an insidious-but-not-really plan." Fuko told him. He blinked, his emerald orbs full of a rather untypical confusion. He opened his mouth to protest when Touya walked in and Fuko seized her opportunity.
"Hey, Touya-sensei! Come here for a moment?" Touya walked over, expression unreadable.
"Yes?" He inquired coolly.
"Care to join me and Kurama for some frozen yogurt on Saturday?" The day of inquiry, being Thursday. Touya didn't look too keen on the idea. He was about to protest when Fuko added.
"Kumi, why don't you come too!" Kumi started.
"What?" She asked.
"Yeah, the four of us can go get some frozen yogurt." Touya averted his gaze and replied,
"Sure. I suppose it isn't a bad idea." Kumi, blushing faintly, nodded and quietly agreed.
"Perfect!" Fuko said with a foxy grin. Kurama took her arm.
"Pardon us; we're just going to have a sidebar for a moment." He dragged her elsewhere.
"What, pray tell, are you thinking? Touya and I have been enemies." Kurama hissed.
"Been is the key-word in that statement, Fox-Boy. Thus is the magic of language." Fuko retorted. Kurama twitched and was about to make a comment about the term "Fox-Boy" when Fuko cut him off.
"Look, Kumi really likes Touya. So what you and I are going to do is meet them for the frozen yogurt, then each just-so-happen to remember that we have somewhere else to be. It's brilliant." Fuko stated, crossing her arms. Kurama sighed and shook his head. The rest of the team members (and Fuko's new "teachers") filed their way into the debriefing room, thus signaling the end of their sidebar. Koenma, too, entered, and seated himself upon his large plush-looking executive chair.
"We have a new important mission." He announced.
"No. Really." Yusuke stated flatly, just as irked as his sister to be woken up so early. Koenma let this snide comment pass by, much to Fuko's irritation, who would have gotten a death-glare.
"The mission," He continued, "Is the capture of an important individual; a rare race we've never encountered before."
"Yeah! Bring it on! What is it? I'll take it down no matter what it is! Three-headed dog? Giant demons?" Kuwabara rambled excitedly.
"Acadian." Koenma stated. Kuwabara blinked blankly.
"A what?"
"Not 'a cadian'. An Acadian." Koenma corrected.
"What exactly is an Acadian?" Rinku asked.
"An Acadian is a certain being that would be most closely related to the human interpretations of angels." Kurama explained.
"You know what Acadians are?" Yusuke asked. Kurama nodded.
"Yes. Back in my Yoko days I ran into a few every so often who would try and slay me. They're demon slayers with wings." He said, not without an edge to his voice.
"A demon slayer with wings? You can count me out." Hiei stated.
"Likewise." Chorused the rest of the demons in the room (everyone, excluding Fuko and Kuwabara). Fuko blinked.
"Oi, Fishke, why are you against it?"
"…." Yusuke was silent.
"Your brother is a demon." Hiei stated. Fuko blinked.
"Oh." Was all she managed to say.
"This Acadian is in danger. She hasn't gotten full control of her powers yet, and demons are already after her." Koenma said.
"What a shame." Kurama stated bitterly. Fuko stood up and whirled around to all of the individuals in the room, glaring.
"You guys make me sick! For the love of god! You all are so pro-demon you've become anti-anyone-in-trouble-if-they-dislike-demons! Well NEWSFLASH! Humans hate demons too!" She turned to Koenma after her tangent.
"I'll go." She stated.
"You're too new at your abilities to go alone." Koenma told her. Fuko scowled.
"So what are we going to do? No one else'll come." She snapped.
"I'll go." Kurama said, standing from his seat. Fuko looked at him, gold eyes mistrusting. Wasn't he adamantly against it just a minute ago…?
"I will too," Yusuke sighed, "If you get yourself killed I'm screwed."
"I'll come too." Kumi piped up. Koenma regarded her with surprise.
"Are you sure Onii-san?" He asked with an almost adorable child-like quality. Kumi nodded.
"I suppose I'll offer my services." Touya said quietly. Fuko smiled, though she grinned mentally. Touya really did have a thing for her.
"Alright. Kurama, Kumi, Touya, and the Urameshis. Good luck." Fuko and Yusuke exchanged a look of disgust and horror.
"The Urameshis?" Yusuke asked incredulously. Koenma shrugged.
"It's got less syllables…oh, and one more thing."
"Eh?" Koenma turned to Fuko.
"The Acadian was discovered at your old boarding school." Fuko's jaw dropped as she groaned. She already would have to return to the hellhole that was the Osaka Academy For Young Women.
†◊†
The group was getting ready to depart, and Fuko was blasting music in her own, what she liked to call, "mental preparation". She thought the song most appropriate for the mission was "Ready To Fall" by Rise Against. The first stanza blared:
"Hold
on, slow down, again from the top now,
And tell me everything.
I
know I've been gone for what seems like forever,
But I'm here
now waiting
To convince you that I'm not a ghost or a
stranger,
But closer than you think.
She said 'just go on she
wants you
And same does your life by
Please don't die on me'…"
There came a rapping on her door as she opened it.
"Yesh?" She inquired.
"We're leaving." Kurama told her.
"…Just one moment….after the chorus." She replied. Kurama opened his mouth to protest when the chorus came on and any hope of reaching her was dashed.
"Now
I'm standing on a rooftop, ready to fall!
I think I'm at the edge
now, but I could be wrong!
I'm standing on a rooftop ready to
fall…."
Kurama stood and listened.
"A suitable song for our Acadian charge." He commented. Fuko paused the CD and placed it into her CD player.
"Yup.
That's why I was playing it." She said with a smile. Kurama stood
for a moment, just looking at her, before he turned away.
"Come
on. Let's go."
◊†◊
The five of them stood outside of the gates of the hell. Or the Osaka Academy for Young Women. Whichever you prefer, though hell has a bit more of a punch to it.
"Okay….so where do we start to find this Acadian?" Fuko asked. Yusuke turned to Kurama.
"Got a whiff of anything?" Kurama nodded.
"A large concentration of demons due northwest." He replied. Yusuke turned to his sister.
"You know, you're a fox too. Why can't you do any of that useful stuff?" Fuko gave him a flat look and a swift kick in the shin as response, making Kumi chuckle. A loud 'CRASH!' was heard in the distance as a tree fell.
"Well, using my 'useful' keen powers of observation, I'd say that she's over there." Fuko stated. They all ran in the direction of the noise. Sure enough, there was a figure fighting off a massive horde of demons. Fuko couldn't hold in a grin as she cracked her knuckles.
"This is going to be fun." She said. The five of them ran directly into the fray. Yusuke fought them off with his fists, Kurama with his rose-whip, Touya with a blade of ice, Kumi with tongues of fire, and Fuko with wind-manipulation.
"I never knew you could use fire…!" She called to Kumi.. Kumi nodded with a quiet smile and ran one through with a flame sword.
"Yes…I'm a fire-cat, you see." The figure that was being chased stopped dead in their tracks, but no one could pay them much heed due to the battle. The winged figure took off, perhaps in some sort of attempt to lure the demons away. They sped to and landed on the rooftop of the Academy. The demonic crowd followed. Fuko groaned.
"Running is a pain in the ass." She stated. The five of them ran back and then to the side of the building.
"How do we get up there?" Fuko asked. She then stopped as everyone gazed at her as though she had just asked whether chicken of the sea was chicken or tuna. She smacked her head.
"Oh. Right. Duh. Demons. My bad." Kumi and Touya leapt upward first, followed by Yusuke.
"Will you need help?" Kurama inquired. Fuko scowled.
"No, I will not need help." She stated curtly. She used her wind to leap upward…and end up missing the ledge.
"Oh damn." She stated. Her descent was cut short, however, by Kurama, who caught her in one arm on his way up. He smirked at her when they reached the rooftop.
"Shut up." She hissed.
"I said nothing." He shrugged. Fuko death-glared and then turned to the demon horde that Yusuke and the others were fighting off in front of the winged figure, who seemed rather fatigued at this point. Fuko ran over to them, and assisted them with Kurama. She sighed, disliking the general repetition of the task.
"Okay, yeah. This is getting really old really fast. Everyone get back!" She shouted to all of them. They obeyed, much to her delight. Fuko whirled back to the impending multitude of demons. She cracked her knuckles again with another grin. She summoned about twenty demon bombers and sent them flying into the mass of apparitions. With a snap of her fingers, they detonated and scattered pieces of demon corpses and innards this way and that. Fuko, much to her disgust, was hit with most of this. She staggered back, coated with some sort of unidentified green-orange goop.
"This is so gross. This is so gross. This is seriously gross. This is grosser than Yusuke's sock drawer…" She repeated, her legs wavering dangerously near the edge of the rooftop. She suddenly fell backwards in her drained state, the last line of the chorus of "Ready To Fall" resonating in her head.
"Now I'm standing on a rooftop, ready to fall!"
Suddenly someone caught her, mid-air, disgusting goop and all. Fuko looked up in shock, to see the face of none-other than her close friend and former roommate Evelyn Hunter, large fluffy white wings keeping the two of them suspended in the air.
†◊†