By the time they reached the house, it was dark. EVERY light in the house was on. It was amazing that none of the girls were sitting on the front lawn waiting for her to get home.

"Thank you for walking me home. And for the coffee. And the cake. And for not laughing at me when I fell down." Raya stuttered shyly.

"You're welcome. Though I hardly think I did anything out of the ordinary." Shuichi stated matter-of-factly.

"Yes you did," she assured him, "most guys would have made themselves fall over from laughing so hard at me when I fell down." She had to stifle a laugh as she thought of him laughing uncontrollably then falling with a thud to the ground crossed her mind. By this time, they had made to the front porch, and Rayanna was thankful her sisters had not yet attacked them.

"Will I get to see you again?" Was the only thing he asked.

'OHMYGOSH! How much more clique can you get! And duh! You'll see me again! We have the same classes! What are you gonna if I say no? Move to another city so we never see each other again? And here I had been told you were a genius! Is okay, I still like!' It was times like this when Raya was glad not everyone was a telepath!

"Yes you will. Hopefully soon." She added with a smile.

"Till we meet again." Was his eloquent reply as he took her hand and kissed it gently.

Raya was awestruck. Who was this man? He seemed to have stepped out of an old romance novel. As she watched him leave, they sprang from the house.

"Rayanna Minamino! Where the HELL have you been?" Was Izzabelle's oh so lovely greeting.

"Yeah Raya! What have you been doing?" Amaya commented upon seeing Rayanna's male companion coming back up the walk.

"Run! Run NOW! While you still have the chance!" Raya mouthed at him, but it was too late. They had already pounced.

"Who are you?"

"Why did you make her late?"

"What exactly are your intentions with my sister?"

"Why have we never met you before?"

"Why did you come back? Did you think you were in trouble?"

"What is your name?"

"What are you?"

"Enough!!" Raya screamed silencing her sisters before they said enough to make him question the sanity of them all. "His name is Sh--" she was cut off.

"Shuichi Minamino. I am very pleased to meet you." He bowed as he addressed the girls. "She was late because she was sharing coffee with me. My intentions… are still unclear to me. You have never met me because this is my first true introduction to your sister. I came back to meet you, that is all. I don't think I'm in trouble, but if I am, I'm sorry. I believe I already gave you my name and as to what I am, I really do not know how to answer that." He seemed to be confused, apologetic, and amused all at the same time.

"Nice." Akira seemed genuinely surprised, "No one has ever actually answered all the questions. And in order too."



"Okay. You can keep him." Izzy stated matter-of-factly.

"What?" Raya shouted.

"You know I know you want to. He wants to stay, you want to keep him. No problem."

Rayanna stared, dumfounded by both her sister's stupidity and lack of tactfulness. After a moment, she regained her composure. "Big Problem! I just met the guy and you're saying I can keep him? What if he turns out to be an axe murderer and kills us in our sleep? Bet you'd be sorry about that one!"

"Axe murderer?" Shuichi was completely confused.

"We should Burn him at the stake." All other conversation stopped as what Amaya said sand in.

"WHAT?!"

"Just a thought."

"Maya," Izzy put her hands on her hips, "He's not a witch, so why would we burn him?"

"Do' no. Seemed appropriate."

'OHMYFREAKINGGOSH!' Raya silently screamed as she shoved her sisters back into the house, slamming the door.

"You might want to leave before you find out so much about us that I'll have to kill you."

"Kill me?" he laughed as he checked to see if she seemed serious. Once he saw her expression, his laughter died. "You are a strange one" he sighed, sounding almost frustrated. "It'll be fun figuring you out." With this, he turned and began to walk away.

When Raya believed him to be out of earshot, she opened the door. "You four are SODEAD!" She shouted as four less-than-surprised girls ran toward their respective rooms.

As she was about to race after them, there was a knock at the door.

"How could this day possibly get any worse?" Raya groaned as she reached for the doorknob. "Damn." She quietly hung her head at the irony of her last statement, for standing in the doorway was none other than … Koenma.

"Hello Rayanna. I need to speak with you." Koenma smiled.

Raya inhaled sharply, as if to protest, but instead sighed heavily and gave in. "Come in and sit down. You too George." She added upon seeing the large blue figure in his customary "human" disguise, a large, incredibly conspicuous trench coat.

"What do you want Koenma?"

"Well, as you should know," he looked at her, no doubt alluding to the fact that she had not been 'home' in quite some time, " a tournament is about to take place in the Demon Realm. It's called…" he paused for dramatic effect, "The Dark Tournament." He looked again at his sister, trying, very obviously, to be mysterious.

"I remember. You are the teams 'owner', I believe he called it." She had a gleam in her eye that said 'I know more than you think I do.', "Let me guess. You don't know what to do with them now that you have them."

He shot back a look of dislike, made almost adorable by his child-like features. "It's not fair! I'm older than you, but you always know about things before I do! Even when it's about me! It's not fair!" he whined with a very pouty look, "And yes. I'm not sure what to do now. Will you help me?" He asked much too sweetly to be sincere.



"What are you going to give me for it?" She had a look that said this was really going to cost him.

The look he gave back made him seem much older than the toddler he looked like, "What do you want, Rayanna?" the inquiry sounded as much fearful as it did curious.

"You hand over ownership of the team."

"WHAT?" he yelled with such force that his pacifier was flung into the wall opposite him.

"Not publicly, of course." Raya replied coolly, "I get to train them and make sure they win. You get to take all the credit."

"What's the catch?" was his suspicious reply.

"One – you answer my question." She held up a finger as she spoke. "Two – when we win, you don't yell at me for a month. No matter what."

"Deal. But don't you mean if you win?"

"No. We WILL win. I'm sure of it." Raya smiled as she picked up his lost passie and returned it to him like the good baby sister she was.

"What is your question?" he asked in a very cheery mood.

"I want to know everything Spirit World has on Shuichi Minamino." She said, blushing lightly.

Koenma's eyes became very large. "You're not serious?"

"Yes I am. I know it's probably paranoid, but I want to know." As she spoke, her blush grew brighter.

"You mean I know something you don't?" He was now holding back laughter.

"What?"

"Shuichi Minamino," he said in his most authoritative voice, "A.K.A. Yoko Kurama, the 300 year old fox spirit from the Makia."

Rayanna slowly sunk to the couch with the realization of truth weighing on her.