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 Fuko's mine though. :D Thanks for reading!
Chapter Sixteen:
"Where is your boy tonight? I hope he is a gentleman…"
The strange saga of dreams continued that night for Fuko, though it seemed to be about an earlier time in her strange alter-ego's past. She found herself sitting primly on a weathered stone bench, hands folded in her lap as she sat with a straight spine…quite the contrast to how she would usually sit, slouching or sprawled out like marionette with severed strings. How Fuko's other-self could be so natural was utterly beyond her….She heard the rustling of grass approaching, so her gaze snapped upward. The same lanky, attractive, silver-haired fox was making his way toward her…though he seemed a bit anxious…it was odd. She waved politely with a giggle. Fuko gave an internal groan. Did she just giggle?...how utterly nauseating… The fox walked over and cleared his throat.
"You had to tell me something?" Fuko found herself asking. The fox took a deep breath and nodded.
"Listen…Kazehime-san…" He began.
"Call me Moriko." Her alter-ego corrected.
"Kazhime Moriko, eh? Well at least I know other-me has a name…dear god I hope having an alter-ego doesn't make me addicted to card-games and freakish hair-styles…" Fuko thought to herself.
"Moriko…" The fox yokai said with a smile.
"Continue."
"Moriko, I just…I have to tell you…"
"Spit it out, Yoko Kurama!" Other-Fuko, Moriko, said. Fuko blinked, mind reeling. Yoko Kurama?! That was…Kurama, Kurama…!! Oh, boy, did he have some "'splaining" to do... The fox sighed and looked up.
"Moriko…I…" Then, all at once, things became fuzzy. It was like she was getting interference….the memory became full of static, like when the cable goes out, or how DirecTV acts on a slightly windy day. Pretty soon, she found herself unable to discern anything from the scene before her eyes; it was all white static. The static then began to gradually dwindle. Fuko looked around, utterly bewildered. She stood in a dark room, from what she could gather…the lack of light made seeing things a bit difficult.
"Hello there." She whirled around, and her muscles tensed in surprise. Karasu stood before her, his entire mien freakishly cool.
"Karasu…what do you want?!" She demanded, though at the back of her mind, she continued to tell herself that it was only a dream…
"You're still mine, you know." Karasu told her, in his same freakishly cool manner.
"Don't I get enough of you when I'm awake?! Get out of my dreams…" Fuko shouted at him, sounding a bit braver than she felt. Within the blink of an eye, Karasu had sped over to her.
"What the—?!" She was cut off by Karasu making a clean slash at her arm. She staggered back, holding her arm. It was a superficial cut, just above her elbow. Not serious, but still certainly able to bleed. She winced…it hurt like a bitch, even if she was dreaming…
"I'll be back soon." Karasu said tauntingly. The scenery began to melt away, and Fuko felt herself waking up.
◊†◊
Fuko groaned and opened her eyes, relieved to not be greeted by the sight of her "teachers" for once. She sat up, but immediately regretted this, becoming dizzy from doing the ascending motion, especially so early in the morning. She flinched slightly. Her arm hurt, probably from the way she was sleeping on it…but when her eyes glanced to the spot, she was shocked to see a cut; the exact one Karasu had inflicted on her in her dreams. She bit her lip to keep from shouting.
"Okay…don't panic…I'm sure it could be explained tons of ways…." She thought to herself in a vain attempt at keeping herself calm. There came a rapping at her chamber door. She ran around the room, grabbing a tissue from a multi-colored polka-dotted box, and blotting at the blood that trailed from her eerie cut. After wiping most of it off, and trying vainly to brush her hair to make herself look halfway decent, she heard,
"It's me, you don't have to freak out." It was Eve on the other side of the wooden door. Relieved that it was only her friend, Fuko ceased any and all attempts to look presentable.
"It's open." She replied. Eve entered, looking rather at home in a cerulean shirt with long almost wing-like blue sleeves; appropriate, considering her newly discovered race. The shirt went rather nicely with her blue jeans, even if they were full of song lyrics and doodles.
"Sweet outfit." Fuko commented, not remembering it from her friend's wardrobe back at the academy.
"I know, isn't it?? I found it with a note in my closet over in the Hawk Room…It was from that Suzuka the Beautiful guy. He told me that he revamped my wardrobe…but he did it well! There should be a change in yours too." Eve told her. Fuko turned paler than usual and ran to her closet, her stomach tied in knots. She prayed that he didn't fill up her wardrobe with girly pink things with bows, and threw open the doors. She blinked. There was no pink…no pink at all. In fact, peering into her closet rather felt like being sucked into a black-hole…well, a black-hole with spots of red. She ripped off a note that had been pinned to one of the articles of black clothing; it read,
"Dearest Urameshi-chan,
I
took the liberty of going through and altering your wardrobe. I
figured, given your rather pessimistic demeanor, that these clothes
would suit your fancy. Please note that there are mostly GIRL clothes
in here, quite the contrast from your former
baggy-boy-clothing-dominated-excuse-for-a-wardrobe. I trust you'll
just love my selection!
XXOO!
-Suzuka The Beautiful. "
After reading it, Fuko handed the note to Eve.
"Got a feeling that Suzuka may be a bit on the fruity side?" Eve asked, tossing the note back after reading it.
"That would be a safe assumption." Fuko replied with a shrug, "Though he may just be really really vain and girly. That's a pretty safe assumption too."
"Mm. We'll find out. If he is though, he's totally going to be our new gay best friend."
"Agreed, every girl needs one." The two laughed at their typically-them conversation. Eve peeked into the closet.
"Hmm…very dark. I think he was right…so what are you going to wear?" She asked, leafing through a few of the black items.
"Well something comfortable, I guess…though I need a dress for tonight." Fuko told her. Eve immediately paused in looking through the new wardrobe.
"Say what?" Eve asked, turning to face her.
"Well Hiei asked me to dinner and told me to wear a dress." Fuko said with a shrug, "I don't see the big deal…"
"Ha! Well I'll be damned. Only about a couple of weeks and you already have a date!" Eve laughed. Fuko paused, heart stopping completely for a moment.
"A what?" She asked, not sure she had heard her short blond compatriot correctly the first time.
"A date. You know, it's when one person likes another person, then asks them out for food or entertainment so they can spend time together??" Eve defined. Fuko blinked dumbly.
"Ah…well um…I don't know if it was that. I figured it was just a friendly thing." She said in her own defense. Eve rolled her eyes.
"Alright. We'll go via a scientific method. If you apply to any of these terms, then it's a date." She said.
"Okay." Fuko agreed.
"Did he use the word 'out'?" Eve asked. Fuko thought, and then recalled Hiei saying,
"You aren't used to being asked out, are you?" Ugh. The sentence itself should have been a dead-giveaway…
"Yes." Fuko replied.
"Did
he ask you to dinner?"
"Yes." Fuko again replied, her
voice getting slightly squeakier.
"Did he tell you to wear something nice?"
"Yes…" Fuko said again, her voice now nothing but a squeak.
"Well then, ding-ding-ding! You got yourself a date." Eve told her bluntly. Fuko gave a garbled moan and walked over to her bed, collapsing back on it, messy hair becoming even more tangled.
"I can't believe I said yes…I think he's an okay guy as a friend, that's it!!" She groaned.
"Yeah, that wasn't very bright. For one of the smartest people I know, you can be pretty dumb sometimes." Eve chided.
"Don't I know it." Fuko bitterly replied.
"Well what can ya' do? You'll just have to go out with him." Eve shrugged.
"But…but…I don't want to…"
"Why not?" Eve's question caught Fuko off-guard. Yeah, why not indeed? Hiei wasn't bad looking at all, he was being nicer to her as of late….but…she just didn't feel like she could click with him.
"Do you like someone else?" Eve asked. Fuko automatically replied,
"No." As soon as an image came to her head…
"You sure?"
"Yah."
"You really sure?"
"Yah."
"You really really—"
"Eve, I play this game all the time, I know you know I'm sure." Fuko sighed. Eve pouted, the game ending and sat next to her on the bed.
"Well, what are you going to do then?" Eve queried.
"Blah… I don't know." Fuko groaned again.
"I wish there was some sort of I don't know…magical love genie who could help you or something." Eve said, falling back next to her fox-eared-friend on the bed. Fuko suddenly got an idea and sat straight up. She strode to the door.
"Where you going?" Eve asked as Fuko paused, taking the time to tie her rat's-nest of hair back.
"To find the magical love genie." Fuko replied, opening the door, and exiting.
†◊†
Fuko groaned, the person who was supposed to be her savior and "love genie" giving her a rather hard time.
"I don't even know why you came to me, I don't claim to be the expert on things like this." Kurama told her as he walked around his room, pruning some of his various plants. Fuko had never been inside of the Fox Room before, but it had the same layout as her own; a large fox in stone in the center of the white marble floor (the fox was made of dark green stone, though, and not red like her phoenix), with various articles of furniture. Kurama had certainly gone out of his way to make his room his own, though. Various plants spotted the room, clustered together on the window sill, or in the darkest corner. A few of them writhed with minds of their own. Fuko walked over to the plants on the sun-soaked sill as Kurama turned his attention to the ones that preferred the dark.
"But you have to help me. I can't think of anybody else who can!!" Fuko persisted. Kurama sighed, irritated. He seemed to be a bit edgy that morning…
"All you've told me is that someone asked you out, and you didn't know it was a date until this morning…so to do something you, yourself, are so fond of doing;
Where
is your boy tonight?
I hope he is a gentleman."
Fuko's jaw dropped. He had just sung Fall Out Boy to answer a question, just like she did. She couldn't decide whether she was impressed or pissed off by this. She settled on pissed off, and her expression darkened.
"Hiei, if you must know." She told him curtly. Kurama didn't seem too surprised by this.
"I see." He said, returning to his pruning.
"WHAT CAN I DO??" Fuko entreated once more for his assistance. Kurama stood primly and turned to her.
"Nothing. Go out with him. Have fun." Kurama told her coolly before leaving his room. Fuko groaned. What was his problem?? Shaking a clawed fist, and not really caring all that much as to how ridiculous she sounded, she shouted after him,
"Some genie you turned out to be!!"
◊†◊
Fuko sat cross-legged on her bed with Eve and Kumi, a third to their little brain-storming party. Eve and Kumi had hit it off quite nicely, and the three of them were thoroughly considering what Fuko should do about her predicament. Deciding that pajamas hindered her thinking process, Fuko donned a black and red corset top from her closet with a pair of baggy, deep-pocketed, black pants, heavily laden with pointless straps and chains; Tripp pants, according to a small tag that stuck out from the side. Kumi wore a kimono, as per usual, though the one in particular for that day was pink with small clusters of sakura blossoms bedecking it. Fuko lay back, a stick of pocky sticking out of her mouth like a Cruella Deville-style cigarette. She sighed,
"Alright…I got nothing." She told the two of them.
"I'm quite sorry Fuko-chan…but I don't know either." Kumi apologized.
"You mean we were supposed to be thinking?" Eve asked, taking off an ear-bud. Kumi and Fuko gave her flat looks as she put her hands up with a sheepish laugh.
"I kid, I kid…jeeze." She rolled her cerulean eyes. The three of them sighed in unison.
"We could say you got leprosy. Leprosy would definitely discourage anybody from asking you out." Eve suggested. Fuko rolled her own eyes.
"Yeah…and it would discourage anybody from coming within a four-foot-radius of me too. Plus leprosy is kind of hard to fake." She stated. Eve shrugged and snagged a stick of Pocky from the box.
"Well, I gave it my best shot."
"Maybe you could just give the relationship a chance? Perhaps it could get better over time?" Kumi proposed. Fuko shook her head.
"Nah…it's an idea Kumi, but this isn't, like, fine wine, or cheese, or, like,.Jax or something. You can't get into a relationship you don't want and expect it to get better as time goes on." She rambled somewhat. Eve and Kumi blinked, and exchanged a look.
"You like stale Jax?" Eve inquired with an incredulous look. Fuko shrugged.
"So? They aren't that bad."
"Dude, you're a freak."
"So am not." This debate continued for a while, and Kumi giggled, deriving great amusement from watching the two of them.
"You guys, we should return to the problem at hand…you're getting a bit distracted." Kumi advised. Fuko blinked, ceasing at once her defense of stale Jax.
"Kumi, you're brilliant! That's it!" Fuko laughed, glomping the unsuspecting cat yokai.
"Eep?" Kumi squeaked in a query.
"Yeah, I'm a bit lost too." Eve said.
"We need a distraction! If something big, bad, and important happens, then we can totally make Hiei forget about the date!" Fuko explained triumphantly.
"Hm…not a bad idea…" Kumi mused.
"No, but we're kind of, say, lacking in the distraction department right now." Eve pointed out. Fuko gave her a flat look.
"Eve. We are in SPIRIT WORLD, which is, I'd assume due to the all-too-apt-name, full of SPIRITS."
"So what are you getting at?"
"I'm getting at this; in a world full of spirits, demons, and who-knows-what-else, a distraction isn't going to be hard to find."
†◊†
After Fuko collected an assortment of atypical items in her messenger bag, she and the others made use of her window, and were making their way, slowly but surely, to the tangled wilderness that lay beyond Koenma's walls. They meandered deeper and deeper into the heart of the wood, resolve somewhat weakening with each step taken.
"Maybe this wasn't such a great idea, Fuko-chan…" Kumi said, looking around at the dense, dark, and downright dreadful flora that they were surrounded by; or, at least they hoped it was only flora they were looking at…any fauna would have been a most unwelcome surprise.
"Yeah…I'm kind of with Kumi on this one…" Eve said, swatting at a mosquito roughly the size of an American half-dollar, "What is our idea, anyway?"
"What we're going to do is go find a spirit, or demon, or whatever, and ask it to help us in return for a payment…a boon or something." Fuko told her two traveling companions as she jumped over a sizable hole, landing wobbly, and thanking her lucky stars that she decided to stick with her red converse for foot-wear. It was huge, and she couldn't see the bottom…she didn't want to even think about what could have made it, and for what purpose…Eve made her way across the pit too, in a less clumsy manner than Fuko, who was not so athletically-inclined. Kumi, though, was about to make her way swiftly over (being a demon, the jump would have been nothing), but halfway over the hole, a tree branch seized (at least, that's how it appeared) a sleeve from her kimono. Her jump was cut short with a tearing side as the branch jerked her back. The sleeve ripped entirely, and Kumi fell, just barely clinging to the rim of the hole.
"Hold on Kumi!" Fuko exclaimed, taking hold of her friend's wrist.
"We got you!" Eve reassured her, taking her other hand. The two of them began to pull her up, when suddenly, a teasing voice laughed behind them.
"Need a hand?" Eve and Fuko were shoved forward, and, with Kumi, plummeted down into the darkness of the abyss. Fuko smacked hard into the ground, pain shooting through her body as Eve landed on top of her and Kumi beside her. Everything began spinning…where were they? On a positive note, their absence would most certainly serve as a distraction…she thought as to whether or not Team Urameshi could find them…They would, of course…they had to…Kurama would track the three of them down, at any rate….Fuko speculated with mild irritation as to why she thought of him at such a critical time...She groaned, the earlier chorus echoing around her head,
"Where
is your boy tonight?
I hope he is a gentleman…
Maybe he won't
find out what I know;
You were the last good thing about this part
of town."
Slipping out of consciousness with another soft moan of pain, she wondered, in spite of herself,
"Where is my boy tonight…?"