[FFML] [yyh][ry][xover] Demon Sword Chapter 30: Homework Never Ends (Part 5)

[Chester Castañeda]

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Demon Sword
A Yuyu Hakusho/Rurouni Kenshin Crossover Fan Fiction
By Chester Castañeda
chester.castaneda at gmail.com
gabriel_gabdiel at yahoo.com
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/223441/
Original concept by Chad Yang
chadjill at ms3.hinet.net
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/56473/

It was interesting writing this arc. It wrote itself most of the time.


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Chapter 30: Homework Never Ends (Part 5)

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Inside the cafe near the all-girls school of Oumi Academy...

To Yusuke, the slap he received was nothing more than a surprising
pinprick or mosquito bite in light of the fact that he could now face
down bullets or tank rounds and survive.

However, the shock of getting slapped by a female other than his mother,
Botan, or Keiko had enough impact to make him reel. In fairness to
Yukimura, her slap remained the most painful one he'd ever experienced,
even after he powered up to godly proportions.

"Yusuke-niichan! Who is this girl? Are you two-timing Keiko-neechan or
something?" came the "ever-faithful" and "trusting" questions of his
assigned shinigami trainee for the mission, Sayaka the former earthbound
spirit. Did the little girl even know what two-timing meant?

"How dare you date Natsuki-chan behind Keiko-chan's back now that your
girlfriend is in a coma! That's lower than low!" the double pony-tailed
girl berated the half-demonic Urameshi, which to the patrons of the
store looked like a love spat.

"Uh, and you are...?" asked the bemused ex-Reikai Tantei. He couldn't
remember the last time he was slapped by a woman aside from Keiko. Botan
usually used her boat paddle, and his mother didn't even bother anymore
since she kicked him out of the house and he started living on his own.

"I'm Hiromi. I'm friends with Keiko-chan and Natsuki-chan, the girls
you're stringing along like you're some sort of hotshot gigolo, you two-
timing bastard!"

'Oh, so that's how it is...' Yusuke almost didn't recognize Hiromi now
that she wasn't cowering alongside her glasses-wearing cohort every time
he was near their vicinity. 'How times have changed.'

To Hiromi, Urameshi beseeched, "It's not what you think! Let me
explain!" He afterwards winced. How many comic books, television dramas,
and romantic comedies (that he'd been forced to watch along with Keiko)
contained that same, overused line?

To Yusuke's surprise, the girl accepted his challenge, her arms crossed,
her upper body leaning back, her hips swayed, and her foot tapping
impatiently at him. "Well? I'm listening. Explain."

Urameshi opened his mouth, but no sound came out of it as realization
hit him as hard as the sports car that first killed him did.

What was he supposed to say to her? That it was okay for him to meet up
with Natsuki because the soul of his comatose girlfriend told him to do
so? Or should he mention that the ghost of Hiromi's grade school
classmate who committed suicide _might_ be the person who was sending
all those creepy diary pages around? And how about Keiko's karma-
gathering quest? Should he mention that too?

"Wrong answer." With that said, Hiromi tossed her pony-tailed head at
Yusuke and sauntered away in a huff, leaving a parting shot of, "Next
time, have the courtesy of _waiting_ for your girlfriend to kick the
bucket before abandoning her for one of her best friends."

"Now wait just a goddamned second!" Urameshi grabbed hold of the girl's
thin wrist and turned her around to face him.

"LET GO OF ME!"

"NO! Not until you take back what you said! How dare you presume things
about other people without knowing the circumstances first! Keiko isn't
dead and I have no intention of abandoning her in her time of need!"

"Yusuke-niichan..." Sayaka gulped, her face luminous as she remembered
her adoptive big brother's own speech that brought her back from the
brink of depression.

"Fine! I take it back! I'm sorry! Please let me go!"

The girl had her eyes squeezed tight as she trembled underneath Yusuke's
grip. He thought that she'd gotten over her fear of him when she walked
up to him and slapped him, but he now realized that she must've forced
herself to do so and she was quite terrified the whole time.

"What's going on? Is it a lover's quarrel? Or is that guy trying to
assault that girl?"

"I heard that guy is two-timing his sick girlfriend for one of her best
friends!"

"Really? That's messed up!"

The ex-spirit detective let Hiromi go as the buzz around them grew.
"Sorry. I got carried away. But I meant what I said. Don't you dare
talk about Keiko as though she's already a goner. I haven't given up on
her, and so should you, since you're her friend too."

"Oh..." Hiromi trailed off. "I misread the situation. I've said some
horrible things without thinking. I-I'm sorry too. I jumped to
conclusions." She held herself in her arms as she let her shaking
subside. "You're not on a date with Natsuki-chan, are you?"

'Of course he isn't...' she berated herself. He almost bit her head off
for even suggesting that Keiko had one foot in the grave.

Yusuke breathed a sigh of relief. "Nope. Not for a second. Besides, she
already has a sempai she's head-over-heels in love with."

The twin pony-tailed young lady raised an eyebrow at Urameshi, her mouth
curving upwards. "Oh really? You must've had a _real_ heart-to-heart
chat with her to know that much about her."

"What are you implying? Jeez." Yusuke put his hands inside his pants'
pockets. "About that... Natsuki's been looking for you. How long has it
been since you two last met? She's worried. She says you've disappeared
since, you know, that incident with your former classmate."

"Uh, can we talk somewhere private...?" Hiromi quivered, her head
feeling light and woozy. "We're kind of bothering the other customers.
Let's take this outside."

"Sure. Uh, where...?" Dammit, he still needed to use the john.

Hiromi beckoned, "Follow me." She then asked as Yusuke went the opposite
direction, "Uh, where are you going?"

"I'll be back in a second, I swear!" Yusuke yelped as he squirmed
around, his thighs and knees together, his hands covering his crotch,
before making a beeline towards the men's room. "Ah! It's leaking!"

"Oh man, what does Keiko-chan see in that guy?" Hiromi breathed out as
she stood outside the restroom, her cheeks pink and her eyes closed.

"Big Bro, that was totally lame," said the unseen, unheard ghost of
Sayaka as she waited for Yusuke beside Hiromi. "It completely ruined how
cool you looked earlier too."


===


Outside the fire exit of the cafe, at a back alley...

Thanks to the presence of Keiko's boyfriend, Hiromi was again reminded
that she was the only single girl among her friends. Even though Natsuki
had even less experience in love than she did, at least the bespectacled
girl had an upperclassman to confess her love to. 'Whatever.'

"What are you doing? Why won't you meet up with Natsuki? You share the
same problems, as far as I can see," Yusuke said while drying off his
hands with a napkin that he crumpled and threw on the nearby trash bin.

"How much did Natsuki-chan tell you about Suzuka?" Hiromi asked, evading
Urameshi's question.

"Natsuki told me that for some reason, pages from Suzuka's missing diary
were sent to their former classmates... the last ones they had before
Suzuka... you know. This girl wasn't in the best of terms with most of
them, it'd seem. One of your classmates, the person whom Suzuka hated
the most, had already disappeared."

"Natsuki-chan told you a lot. As expected of that blabbermouth," said
Hiromi while wiping chagrined droplets of sweat on her forehead. Who
would've thought that the whimpering, mousy girl she knew from
elementary would become such a talkative busybody in middle school and
high school? 'I'm sort of to blame for that, I guess.'

Hiromi couldn't believe it, though. She was actually carrying a rather
decent conversation with the infamous Yusuke Urameshi, Sarayashiki
Junior High's Number One Delinquent. Granted, it took a misunderstanding
of epic proportions to make it happen, but she had to find a way to talk
to him sooner or later if she were to be considered Keiko's true friend
that was worth her salt.

She couldn't believe how her body moved on its own in anger when she saw
that jerk sipping drinks with Natsuki like they were on a date. 'He's
nicer than I thought. He's also quite the simpleminded guy.'

"Can you answer my question now?"

"Pardon?"

"Why not talk to Natsuki right now? To clear things up. She was also
freaked out by the appearance of those diary pages, y'know."

Hiromi stared at the concrete pavement, watching the line of ants march
from the trash bin to a crack in the sidewalk just outside the alleyway
while feeling the burn of Yusuke's stare. "I can't face Natsuki-chan as
of the moment. I'm too ashamed to do so."

"Why is that?"

"Because it's embarrassing, and whoever it is responsible for sending
those diary pages to us ex-classmates of Suzuka brought back some
unpleasant memories I'd rather forget."

Yusuke scratched the back of his head while staring at what little of
the Tokyo sky he could see within the narrow passageway. "I don't get
it. Wasn't Natsuki supposed to have more bad memories of Suzuka than
you? I mean, she's the one who betrayed her, right?"

Hiromi screeched. "...I WAS THEIR BULLY BACK IN SIXTH GRADE, OKAY?
Jeez!" She turned her back on Urameshi. "I'm too ashamed to face
Natsuki-chan in light of what I did to her and Suzuka."

"Really? Huh." Yusuke thought back to what Keiko told him about what
Natsuki told her. "Kei... I mean, Natsuki didn't mention anything about
you bullying her. I was under the impression that you kind of just
ignored both Suzuka and Natsuki, like the rest of their sixth-grade
classmates... I mean, _your_ sixth-grade classmates... did."

"That's what Natsuki-chan said, huh? That idiot, always playing the
martyr and blaming herself for the mistakes of others..." Hiromi
harrumphed while biting her nails. "She and Suzuka were among the
misfits of our class. They didn't belong to any particular clique, and
most of the time, people didn't even know they exist."

Hiromi closed her eyes and frowned as her memories came flooding back.

"She apparently remembered everything I did to her. Her entry about me
is a whole laundry list of the things I did or said to her. While hiding
her textbooks this one time, my friends and I discovered a notebook full
of her laughable attempts at writing a raunchy romance novel. We then
posted pages of it on the classroom billboard."

Hiromi's face became a mix of guilt and withheld mirth. "I also made
Natsuki-chan cry by forging a love letter under her name and sending it
to her crush. We then made her crush's crush find out about it, which
led to an awkward confrontation between her, her crush, and his crush in
between classes."

"You're evil." What else was Yusuke supposed to say after that? He was
amazed, though; for elementary students, that was some thorough bullying
going on there. 'Wait, so how did they become friends if...?'

"That's not all," Hiromi interjected, interrupting Urameshi's train of
thought. "I was best friends with the girl that disappeared after those
diary pages resurfaced, and we were part of a group of sukeban by the
time sixth grade rolled along." By sukeban, she meant female
delinquents.

"I'm not proud to say this, but we typically had our kicks by bullying
those two, especially Suzuka because it was quite easy to make her cry.
Natsuki-chan once dared snitch on me to the homeroom teacher after she
saw me do a prank on Suzuka, so I gave her a hard time as well, like
dumping staple wires on her hair or setting her books on fire on the
school incinerator."

"Eh? You were a sukeban? But you were so afraid of me back in junior
high! How can a crybaby like you be a delinquent? Keiko's more of a
sukeban than you!" said Yusuke. He shrunk back as Hiromi snarled in a
manner that would've made any juvenile delinquent proud.

"_That's_ the first thing that came to mind when I said I bullied
Natsuki-chan and her former best friend?"

"Don't misunderstand. I think you're a complete and total bitch for
doing all that shit to Natsuki and her friend," Urameshi assured. "But I
have to ask, do they even have delinquents in _grade_ school? Speaking
from personal experience as an actual, honest-to-goodness delinquent
with a pompadour to match, you'd have to be part of the yakuza to start
rebelling that early!"

"M-Moron, why do you think I was so afraid of you? I know how dangerous
Yankees can be." Ah, Hiromi just called Keiko's scary boyfriend a moron.
Was it opposite day today? Was she really having a Keiko-like
conversation with Sarayashiki Junior High's Number One Delinquent and
Leader of Two Thousand Gang Members? Whatever. She didn't know anymore.

As a side note, "Yankees" in this instance referred to stereotypical
student delinquents like Yusuke who had their hair in a pompadour or
regent (rizento) hairstyle that jutted out from the forehead like Egon
Spengler's hairdo (from the movie Ghostbusters) and picked fights on a
regular basis.

"I think you elementary 'sukeban' wannabes overestimate yourselves too
much. There's no way a bunch of little grade school girls can compare to
true middle school or high school delinquents."

"Oh really? Is that a challenge? All right, then." Hiromi proceeded to
tell Yusuke each and every detail of her bullying of Suzuka, down to the
last prank.

"...." said Urameshi.

"Well?" asked Hiromi.

Yusuke's face had a glazed-eyed look before his jaw dropped as he
blurted out, "God damn. You bitches are crazy! What did that poor girl
do to you? Did she kill family members or stole the hearts of your
crushes or something? That's incredibly low. What is wrong with you
people?"

"Wha...? You asked me to prove that we weren't being poser sukeban, then
you complain when I do just that?" a red-faced, flaring-eyed Hiromi
countered.

"I guess it's my bad for underestimating the cruelty of children, then!
I've done my share of pranks and practical jokes, but you really crossed
the line with your bullying! No wonder you drove the poor girl to
suicide...!"

Yusuke went quiet, gulping. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. I'm an idiot.
It's none of my business."

"You're absolutely right. I'm a horrible person." Hiromi pushed her
back against the warm brick wall near the fire exit, her eyes shining
with pensiveness underneath a bright neon light.

"I didn't realize that we've hurt Suzuka with our pranks until it was
too late. I was so terrible back then that I made a bet that I could
make either Suzuka or Natsuki-chan quit going to school before the
school year ended. We drove my classmate to kill herself. I don't
deserve to be called Keiko-chan's friend."

"I wouldn't say that. I mean, would a bad person slap the boyfriend of
her comatose friend because she thought that he was cheating on her with
another friend of hers, even though she used to be so petrified of him
back in middle school? I don't think you're a bad person at all. At the
very least, Keiko's lucky to have a friend like you."

Hiromi bowed her head in such a way that shadows covered eyes. "I don't
think you're a bad person either, Urameshi-san."

"Thanks." Urameshi leaned on the left side of the door parallel to
Hiromi. "...Are you crying?" he asked without looking at her.

"Of course not. I don't have the right to do that. A bully crying over
her victim is insulting to the victim." She wiped her moist eyes
nonetheless.


===


At the patio area of the cafe, on one of the outdoor tables...

"He sure is taking his time, your boyfriend," Natsuki said to the blue
spirit beast before her while sipping the remnants of her iced coffee.

"Let me warn you in advance. I can only enter Puu's body to talk to you
for thirty minutes in any given day, or else I'll risk damaging Puu's
soul," warned Keiko. The possessed Puu then grabbed hold of either side
of Natsuki's mouth and stretched them out in opposite directions.

"H-Heiho-han...?" mumbled Natsuki.

"I also forgot to punish you for telling Yusuke all those embarrassing
stuff yesterday! What were you thinking? Just because I'm in a coma...!"
Keiko ranted.

Natsuki attempted to speak, but it came out as gibberish, so Keiko drew
back Puu's flippers and relinquished her grip on her friend.

Puu sulked in a corner while Natsuki patted the spirit beast's head.
"It must be tough having your soul stuck inside some weird stuffed toy
while your boyfriend is finding a way to get it back to your body
somehow. Sounds like a plot to a manga."

"How did you know that...?" asked Keiko, because she never mentioned to
Natsuki the fact that Yusuke was trying to revive her, but she stopped
short after seeing her friend's glasses fog up.

"...Do you think Suzuka-chan's ghost has the heart to forgive me after
all this time? In her diary, she wrote that she could take anything our
bullies could dish out as long as she had me as a friend. I don't know
what to do, Keiko-chan. I've betrayed her trust, drove her to suicide,
and now she's come back for revenge!"

"Natsuki-chan..." trailed off Keiko before she hugged her best friend
with Puu's small flippers and lengthy, floppy ears. 'Yusuke, where the
hell are you?'

The possessed former mascot of the Urameshi Team noticed a folded page
on Natsuki's shirt pocket. She snatched it out and unfolded it. It was a
photocopied letter made entirely out of a collage of cutout kanji from
newspapers and magazines. "Natsuki-chan, what in the world is this?"

"That's the reason why I was so curious about the existence of spirits
and ghosts yesterday, Keiko-chan. It's my one clue to where Suzuka-
chan's soul is. All this time, I've been preparing my heart to go
there."

Sure enough, the letter outright dared the people from the sixth grade
class of the late Suzuka to come to the place where the deceased girl
lost her will to live, challenging them to confront her restless spirit
if they so chose.

"Lost her will to live...?" reiterated Yukimura's astral projection.


===


"No!" Hiromi heard Urameshi hiss. "Don't you see she's too emotional to
do that right now? Learn to read the mood, you little brat!"

"Who are you talking to?" asked Hiromi with a raised eyebrow. What did
he mean by do _that_? Do what? "You're creeping me out again."

"Ah, I'm just thinking aloud. Don't mind me." Yusuke grinned. He then
squirmed as Hiromi continued to glare at him.

"You're a weirdo. I have no idea what Keiko-chan sees in you." She
looked away again.

"Sticks and stones, Miss Grade School Delinquent." Yusuke snorted. He
then broached a different topic. "Hey, I was wondering. Natsuki says
that she used to be best friends with this Suzuka chick until she
betrayed her. What exactly did she do to betray her, then?"

Hiromi flinched. "Suzuka misunderstood. Natsuki-chan never betrayed
her."

"What?"

"It's all my fault."

"Oh boy, what did you do to them this time? Did you force Natsuki to lie
to Suzuka or did you do force Suzuka to do something so terrible that
even Natsuki started avoiding her?"

"Not exactly. I wasn't a good student, so I usually forced either
Natsuki-chan or Suzuka to do my homework for me."

"I don't follow. How can Natsuki betray Suzuka over homework?"

"Let me finish. There was this one time when I made Natsuki-chan furious
at me. It was after I anonymously mailed Suzuka's gym shorts to the most
popular guy in our class. Natsuki-chan confronted me about it, I denied
everything, we had a shouting match, but she can't do anything about
it."

Hiromi laughed hollowly. "I made a fake love triangle that caused
trouble between Natsuki-chan, her crush, and his crush, but she didn't
have the guts to confront me. Yet when it was Suzuka who was in peril,
she came to her rescue with no hesitation. If you want to talk about
true friends, then there you go."

"I see." Urameshi nodded. "Um, that's nice and all, but what about
Natsuki's betrayal?"

"Afterwards, while Suzuka was walking home listlessly, insensitive ol'
me went and asked her to do my math homework."

"You're horrible."

"I know. I'm also terrible at math. Anyway, Natsuki-chan again jumped to
Suzuka's rescue. I honestly thought she was going to take me on then and
there, but she instead told me to get a clue and learn math instead.
When I threatened to lock her inside the girl's bathroom again, she
bowed down to the floor and begged, 'How about if I teach you math, will
you leave Suzuka-chan alone?'"

"Well, how about that? She couldn't beat you up, so she used her smarts
to barter for Suzuka's peace of mind. Now that's what I call a true
pal. But where's the betrayal?"

"Stop interrupting me and I'll tell you! Anyway, Natsuki-chan's plan
worked. Ever since she started tutoring me, I eased off on her and
Suzuka. It's only fair." Hiromi shrugged.

"She then asked me a favor. She always had trouble talking to people,
especially boys. That's why she was friends with Suzuka; they're both
socially awkward. So, although it was annoying, I helped her out with
that issue as well, since her tutoring allowed me to graduate
elementary."

"And then?"

"I helped her straighten out her problems with her crush. I gave her
opportunities to talk to him and be comfortable around him and other
boys. I may have overdid it; she can barely shut up when she's around
friends nowadays. I also cheered her on so that she could confess her
feelings to him before he could confess his feelings to his crush. Of
course, that went sour fast and she was devastated. But it was a fun
experience playing matchmaker nonetheless."

Yusuke slid his back against the wall and squatted on the pavement,
just like old times when he was a Sarayashiki delinquent. "I think I
know where this is going."

"Suzuka felt left out and ignored." Hiromi bit her lip. "The person who
helped me study was Natsuki-chan, not her. I was hanging out with two
groups at the time, but when I'm with those two, Suzuka ended up the
odd person out, particularly when we started talking about boys and our
love lives. As a result, Suzuka started to drift away and avoid
Natsuki-chan altogether."

"The green-eyed monster did her in, huh?" Yusuke scratched the area
behind his ears. "That makes sense. I just couldn't see a nice girl like
Natsuki outright abandoning her friend. There must've been some sort of
misunderstanding. It's too bad Suzuka ended up so lonely after Natsuki
became friends with you."

"I'm probably partly to blame for driving Suzuka away too, because most
of the time I was with those two, I only tolerated her presence because
she was Natsuki-chan's friend. Natsuki-chan was devastated when Suzuka
stopped coming to school, doubly so when she learned that Suzuka
committed suicide. She felt guilty about it ever since."

"Pardon my bluntness, but do you really think losing Natsuki to you was
the reason why Suzuka killed herself?"

"Maybe. I don't know. Suzuka has been through a lot. At any rate, I have
to go and face the ghost of my past now. I have a good idea who's been
sending those letters and what she wants to happen."

Hiromi turned her back on Yusuke and gave him a sideway glance. "Thank
you for your help, Urameshi-san. I'll be on my way now."

Urameshi stuttered, "H-Hey wait, what about meeting with Natsuki-chan?
Don't you think...?"

"Didn't I say that I'm too embarrassed to face her right now? Don't
worry, I'll be in touch with her soon. I just need to attend to some
unfinished business. Thanks to you, I've made up my mind about it."

"But how can you possibly face Suzuka's ghost alone? Let me at least
come with you so that I can protect you!" Yusuke said, remembering the
near fatalities caused by yesterday's case.

"...Um, are we speaking in a metaphorical sense?"

"I mean, Natsuki believes that the ghost of Suzuka sent her those diary
pages, and she's actually planning on confronting her... Why are you
laughing?" Yusuke protested.

Hiromi tittered until her sides hurt. "I can't believe you're the type
of person who thinks ghosts are real, Urameshi-san! I'd expect someone
as gullible as Natsuki-chan to believe them, but not you. You've
surprised me yet again."

"But how can you explain the pages from the missing diary, then?"
Urameshi challenged as he rose up from his seated position.

Hiromi exhaled and handed a photocopied letter to Yusuke, the collage of
magazine and newspaper kanji cutouts resembling a typical ransom note
from a crime film.  "How about they were sent by some prankster with a
sick sense of humor that needs to get slapped back to reality?"

Yusuke hadn't considered that. He'd been so used to dealing with ghosts
and demons for so long that he automatically assumed that this incident
was again a supernatural one. Regardless, he insisted, "If it is a
stalker of some sort, then let me come with you."

"I-I never said anything about my business being related to the diary
pages! Leave me alone!"

"Quit it. They're obviously related and you totally know what's going
on. Or should I call the cops?"

Yusuke had an inkling that Hiromi knew a lot more about Suzuka's lost
diary than she let on, and she wouldn't tell him where she was going
anyway, so he might as well go along with her.

"N-No, there's no need to involve the police." Hiromi folded instead of
calling Yusuke's bluff, her eyes zipping back and forth between him and
the ground.

"Fine. You can go with me, but you should first cancel your date with
Natsuki-chan and then avoid telling her about me or where we're going!"

"How about we save time and go now?" Yusuke suggested.

"What? No, you'll totally stand her up!" Hiromi objected.

"Never mind that! Let's get this over with! I'll explain to Natsuki what
happened later!"

To his surprise, Hiromi nodded and said, "Okay. But don't get in the
way. This is none of your business."

'If it isn't my business, then why are you letting me follow you?'
thought Urameshi as he and Keiko's twin pony-tailed friend ran off into
the nearest intersection.


===


"I can't believe it," said Natsuki while peeking through the slightly
ajar fire exit. "I'm sorry you had to see that, Keiko-chan! I expected
better from Urameshi-san! Not so much Hiromi-san, though. To think,
she's been hard to contact all this time, only for her to pull something
like this!"

"Did you hear what they said before they ran off?" asked Keiko using
Puu's beak.

"Hiromi-chan was laughing at Urameshi-san for suggesting that ghosts
were sending the diary pages... shows what she knows... and she then
said there's no need for him to call the cops."

"I see."

"Wait, shouldn't you be more worried about Urameshi-san running off with
Hiromi-chan?" Natsuki opened the door and walked out into the alleyway
as soon as the pair was out of sight. "Just because his girlfriend is
comatose and in ghost form, it doesn't mean...!"

"Don't be silly. I trust him," said Keiko as she flapped Puu's ears and
flew upwards in order to see the direction where her boyfriend and her
friend went.

"Aren't you underestimating Hiromi-chan's womanly charms because of the
number of times she's been dumped and the number of male admirers you
yourself have?" remarked Natsuki.

"OF COURSE NOT!" Keiko nearly squawked as she landed back into Natsuki's
arms.

"Can you follow them for me, Natsuki-chan? My thirty-minute limit for
occupying Puu's body is almost up, so I won't be able to talk to you
soon. Don't worry, I'll still be hanging around, so to speak. I think
the place they're headed to has something to do with Suzuka and her
diary. Please follow them for me."

"Oh, that makes sense. Sure, Keiko-chan." Natsuki's wide-rimmed glasses
dropped to the bridge of her nose as she realized something important.
"You know what? I don't think we need to tail after them. I know
_exactly_ where they're going."

"Puu!" Puu chirped as he blinked and wiggled his tiny flippers around.

"Uh oh. Time's up." Natsuki took a deep breath as she hugged Puu and
took an alternate route to her old elementary school in Shibuya.

Although Hiromi laughed at the notion of the supernatural, it'd seem
that one way or another, they were all chasing after the ghost of
Suzuka nonetheless.


===


>From inside a train headed to Shibuya Station...

"You've been ignoring me the whole time, Yusuke-niichan!" Sayaka pulled
at Yusuke's eyelids and hair. "Why are you running off with Keiko-
neechan's friend? Why have you stood up both Big Sis and her other
friend? You're acting awfully suspicious!"

"Leave me alone. I know what I'm doing," murmured Yusuke like a petulant
child.

"You're not cheating on Big Sis with her friend, are you?" Sayaka
supposed while shaking his brain around with her ethereal hands, which
sent him into convulsions.

"LIKE HELL I WOULD!" screamed the half-demon.

"Eh? Are you okay, Urameshi-san?" questioned Hiromi with a nudge to
Yusuke's side. "You're talking to yourself again."

"I-I'm cool," Urameshi reassured before bowing down and apologizing to
the rest of the passengers he'd bothered thanks to his outburst, again
ignoring Sayaka's demands for an explanation.

The situation was this: Yusuke himself wasn't sure what was going on.
Hopefully, this incident with the diary was a self-contained issue
involving mere humans, not bourei or youkai. On the other hand, in case
supernatural circumstances were involved, then he might as well solve
things himself, without Keiko's help.

Gein had said to him last night: "Yukimura Keiko's soul is so full of
bad karma and jaki that it's affecting all the lost souls around her.
Your efforts to revive her through acts of kindness will only backfire
in your face in the long run. As cruel as it may be, her very presence
around the spirits of the dead will only worsen their fate as well as
hers. She was already doomed from the start."

Even if this were a case involving humans instead of ghosts, Yusuke
didn't want to take the chance. He'd figure out what to do with Keiko's
situation later.

"Thank you again for helping me out. I'm sorry for imposing." Hiromi's
gratitude woke Yusuke out of his musings.

"No, you didn't impose anything at all. I'm the one who did. It's no big
deal."

"Do you want to know what made Natsuki-chan and I befriend Keiko-chan in
the first place?" queried Hiromi in a soft monotone.

"I have no idea what that has to do with anything, but sure. I'll bite."

Hiromi handed Urameshi a notebook, then pointed at the top part of the
cover. A small photo of a young bespectacled Keiko wearing her old
hairdo before she was forced to cut it, a young bespectacled Natsuki,
and a young shades-wearing Hiromi greeted him with smiles and peace
signs.

"I don't get it. You all met near a photo booth and suddenly became best
friends for life?"

"The girl we were with when this was taken was not Keiko-chan. That was
Suzuka." Hiromi smiled wanly as Yusuke leaned back and emptied the
contents of his lungs in one breath.

"W-What?"


===


>From inside a bus headed for Shibuya...

"...You're surprised, aren't you? So were we! You and Suzuka-chan look
so much alike, Keiko-chan! We thought we saw a ghost when we first met
you in Sarayashiki... uh, no offense," Natsuki said before putting her
photo album inside her bag.

Puu didn't give Natsuki a reassuring "None taken," reply, so the
glasses-wearing nerdy girl could only hope that Keiko was around to
hear her words.

She looked out her closed window at the sea of humanity sandwiched
between towers and vehicles of steel and glass, her means of public
transportation currently stuck in a traffic jam.

"I showed you the picture in case Suzuka-chan's ghost does show up."

Puu blinked back at Natsuki.

"Oh, and it's not as if we made friends with you just because you
reminded us of Suzuka-chan. You were really friendly, and I'm sure we
would've become the best of friends even without you resembling my late
best friend."

Natsuki played with Puu's beak as the spirit beast nibbled on her thumb.

"I-I swear you weren't some sort of replacement friend or anything weird
like that. Once we got to know you, we realized you were nothing like
Suzuka-chan. I'm glad I was able to be friends with someone as smart,
beautiful, kind, and brave as you, Keiko-chan."

Puu nuzzled his face deep into Natsuki's bosom.

"Please answer me."

Natsuki grabbed hold of Puu, hugging him tight.

"Please don't end up like Suzuka-chan, Keiko-chan."


===


At the auditorium of Sakamoto Elementary, in the afternoon...

"This is the place," said Hiromi, surprised at how easily she was able
to sneak herself and a boy inside her old alma mater, although it did
help that the old guard recognized her immediately and allowed her to
loiter around campus. Classes were long over, in any case.

"Are you sure this is it? What does your old school's auditorium have to
do with Suzuka losing her will to live?" Yusuke asked.

"Ah. Hiromi-chan. Long time, no see. How have you been?" a thin, svelte
girl in a sailor fuku with blonde hair that reached all the way to her
back emerged from the shadows and greeted Keiko's friend in ponytails.
"I see you've figured out where Suzuka-chan lost her will to live."

Urameshi tilted his head to the side. "Hey, Hiromi. Who's that? A friend
of yours?"

"She's the student who went missing from her home after the pages from
Suzuka's diary first surfaced; the Queen of 6-A and our ever-responsible
class rep, Miyako-chan."

Hiromi laced her hands together and stretched her arms. "Even the police
couldn't figure out where you've been all this time, huh? As expected of
Class 6-A's covert delinquent."

"Eh? Are you serious? What's she doing here?" queried Yusuke.

"Are you really that dense? She's the one who mailed Suzuka's diary
pages to my classmates like some sort of psycho, Urameshi-san!"
explained Hiromi.

Yusuke asked another question. "Is she a model of some sort? She looks
like a foreigner! Is she half-Japanese or a naturalized Japanese
citizen? I've seen some real beauties during my time, but she looks like
she belongs in a centerfold!"

Hiromi grabbed hold of Yusuke's gelled hair and tugged hard. "Is that
something a man in a committed relationship would say?"

"And who is this?" inquired Miyako with a lingering, Cheshire Cat grin.
"You're not Hiromi-chan's boyfriend, are you?"

A duet of "NO HE'S NOT!" and "NO I'M NOT!" was heard from both Hiromi
and Yusuke. The ponytails-sporting girl clarified, "He's the boyfriend
of a friend of mine. He's here to help me stop you from hurting
yourself, Miyako-chan."

Yusuke let out a cathartic sigh. There were no ghosts involved here. No
mutated poltergeists were going to pop out to gobble up the nearest
humans around. This was just some messed-up girl who had too much time
in her hands.

'Had I known, I would've brought Keiko here too. Or maybe we shouldn't
have involved ourselves in this business at all.'

"Stop me? Whatever do you mean, Hiromi-chan? Did I do something wrong?"
queried Miyako as she tossed her lengthy golden locks and smiled a 1.21-
gigawatt smile that complemented her glassy, blurry blue eyes. Hiromi
couldn't meet her gaze after she said that.

"Why'd you do it, Miyako-chan?" Hiromi asked. "Why are you terrorizing
our former classmates with bad memories and the ghost of Suzuka? Haven't
we already done enough to her? Why do you hate her so much? Leave her in
peace."

Instead of answering Hiromi's questions, Miyako asked, "Hey, don't you
know what today's date is?"

"What kind of sick joke is that?" snapped Hiromi. She knew what Miyako
meant.

"I'm not joking," deadpanned Miyako. "It's March 25. It's our precious
Suzuka-chan's four-year death anniversary. What happened here in the
auditorium occurred a few days before her suicide. You should've come by
around that time instead. I've been waiting here for _days_."

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" Hiromi reiterated. "We agreed to put our past
behind us, didn't we? Why bring this issue up now of all times?"

Yusuke gulped as his non-beating heart sank and butterflies fluttered
inside his stomach. He hated confrontations like this. He was out of his
element.

A man-eating demon that had the power to level Tokyo City like an atomic
bomb, Urameshi could deal with; two girls passive-aggressively fighting
because of another girl they also passive-aggressively drove to suicide?
He didn't think Rei-Gan blasts or a million punches held the answer to
that particular problem.

"Why am I doing this? I want to share Suzuka-chan's suffering with the
people responsible for it, of course. I had no idea, and most likely, no
one in our class did either. We all should've known better, Hiromi-
chan."

Miyako pouted. "It's such a shame. I wish more people had come. The
thought of seeing Suzuka-chan's 'ghost' must've scared them off.
Everyone in our sixth grade class knew when and where Suzuka-chan lost
her will to live, but it looks like it's only you and me who cared
enough to come here. Poor Suzuka-chan. In the end, the only ones who
cared enough to remember her are her bullies."

By reflex or rage, Hiromi strode in front of Miyako and slapped the
taste out of the latter's mouth.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You've never changed. Even back in
elementary, you were always the attention seeker!" berated Hiromi, her
right hand shaking and numb from how hard she had hit Miyako. "Do you
really hate Suzuka that much? Why can't you let her go? I don't
understand you at all!"

Miyako licked the blood on her fat lip. "Hate her? I never really hated
her. Had she not done such a stupid thing, I honestly couldn't care less
about her, much less remember her."

"HEY! I don't know what your deal with Suzuka is, but at least have some
respect for the dead!" Yusuke exclaimed while imagining the hurt
expression Suzuka would've given had she heard Miyako's words... while
wearing the same face Keiko had, at that.

Miyako responded, "I'm only being honest. She didn't stand out much, and
the only reason I gave her the time of day was because she was so much
fun to torture. She wore her heart on her sleeve. I only did what anyone
in our class would've done."

"Why'd you do that to her? She never hurt anyone!" Hiromi put her hands
over her mouth, as though she'd accidentally blurted out some curse word
in front of her parents or confessed her love to a boy she just met.

Yusuke gasped, gripping his unmoving heart that Sensui destroyed when he
was killed for the second time (his blood flow was currently governed by
the pulse of his cells thanks to his demonic transmogrification). Images
flashed before his mind's eye; undecipherable, yet somehow miserable.

"Oh. Do you have any right to tell that to me? Does anyone in our class
have the right to say that either? It's like our entire class, or even
the entire school, turned on her, isn't it?"

Hiromi flinched and grabbed her cheek as though she herself had been
slapped. Miyako had a point. "You're right. I apologize. I was being a
huge hypocrite."

"Really now? I agree. It's interesting how you can apologize for being a
hypocrite, but not for slapping me," jibed Miyako as her hair gleamed
thanks to the rays of the setting sun that reached the gigantic windows
of the auditorium.

"At least you had enough moxie to come here. Even Suzuka-chan's former
best friend is missing. I was hoping for our classmates to prove me
wrong. Instead, once again, Class 6-A has come up short."

"If that's the case, then let's get the hell out of here already. Forget
about Suzuka. What's done is done. Your family is worried about you.
You've been missing for weeks now," pressed Hiromi as she grabbed hold
of Miyako's sleeve.

After a moment of silence, Miyako spoke again. "If what I did was so
wrong, why didn't anyone stop me? Why didn't you stop me? Or any of our
classmates and teachers, for that matter."

"Y-You've made your point. Forgive my French, but our sixth grade class
was made up of cruel, preteen bitches and assholes. We should all be
ashamed of ourselves. We were all terrible people. We turned on the
helpless and the misunderstood. But it's too late for regrets."

Bullets of cold sweat appeared all over Yusuke's body, his breath
belabored. He saw the unmistakable tendrils of black jaki form around
Miyako's silhouette like plumes of smoke, as though the afternoon sun
set her on fire and cooked her right on the spot.

"Is that it? Is that your answer? ARE YOU REALLY ALL RIGHT WITH THIS?"
The birds from a nearby tree outside the auditorium flew and fled the
scene even though they couldn't possibly have heard what Miyako said
just now.

Hiromi hesitated before probing, "M-Miyako-chan...?"

Miyako took a worn-out, leather-bound booklet from her skirt's pocket.

"I never had the courage to give Suzuka's diary to the police. To turn
it in or to even turn myself in. To receive my punishment. I've read it
from cover to cover. Almost every page, I saw my name. She hated me.
She wanted me dead. She wished some unspeakable things to happen to me
and my family. I don't blame her, though."

In his mind's eye, Yusuke saw what looked like a thirteen-year-old
Keiko wearing Natsuki's glasses walking around in her gym outfit at the
same auditorium they were in at the moment.

She couldn't change out of her gym clothes because someone had stolen
her uniform. When she went to the bathroom to cry, the stalls had her
name and phone number plastered all over their walls. No wonder there
had been an increase of prank calls to her house.

"I was amazed. Half of the things written there, I'd already forgotten
by the time she died. Then, I began dreaming about her. I couldn't get
her out of my mind..."

"MIYAKO-CHAN! Snap out of it! You're scaring me! What are you saying?"
Hiromi grabbed hold of her former classmate's thin shoulders and tried
to "shake the crazy" out of her.

Yusuke then saw a bucket of water splash all over the Keiko look-alike's
body. Throughout the ceremony, she sat there silently at the farthest
corner, her wet PE shirt clinging to her body, her underwear showing
through the soggy fabric, and not one teacher bothered to help her out.
They were too busy with whatever that damned assembly was about.

"Stop it. Enough. It's over! You can't bring her back from the dead!"
pleaded Hiromi.

Instead of whimpering in the corner like she usually would've done had
Natsuki been there with her, Urameshi saw his vision of a bespectacled
Keiko become hysterical.

She screamed like a banshee till her voice sounded like it'd been rubbed
raw with sandpaper. The majority of those gathered didn't know how to
react. Some laughed. Others ignored her. Still others tried to comfort
her, but she lashed out like a wild animal.

"How can you say that knowing full well what I did to her in this very
auditorium?" demanded Miyako as she bit her nails and drew more blood on
her lower lip. "Why couldn't the police interfere? Why couldn't our
teachers do anything? Why wasn't I punished for what I've done? All I
got was a slap on the wrist. The teachers even helped me cover it up."

Yusuke wiped his sweaty brow. The images wouldn't stop playing in his
mind. Like an infection, the laughter spread. It was cruel, but Suzuka
did look ridiculous flailing her arms around and crying "out of
nowhere".

Of course, there were those too disturbed to even chuckle. The harder
she shrieked, wailed, moaned, and gnashed her teeth, the louder the
hoots and guffaws became. It was hard to watch.

After everything was said and done, a young version of Hiromi's friend,
Miyako, stood in front of the spent Suzuka and said...

"'Everyone hates you. Wouldn't it be better if you were dead?' was what
I told her back then without a second thought. I was only telling her
what was in everyone else's minds at the time."

The glassy-eyed Miyako giggled, her golden locks seemingly giving off
their own light that made her radiant sapphire eyes stand out all the
more.

"U-Urameshi-san, do something...!" said Hiromi.

"You're a monster. What did Suzuka ever do to you to deserve your
bullying?" was what Yusuke almost said, but instead someone else took
the words right out of his mouth.

"N-Natsuki-chan! What are you doing here?" asked Hiromi.

"...." answered Natsuki. She'd been hiding all that time behind the
auditorium door, listening to her former classmates' argument.

For the first time in years, Natsuki gathered enough courage to ask
Miyako a question that had been bothering her since they met in grade
school.

"Natsuki...?" Yusuke blanched as he saw Puu in Natsuki's arms and the
floating, glaring astral projection of Keiko looming above his head like
his personal Sword of Damocles. 'Uh oh. I've been busted.'

Miyako answered, "She did nothing to me at all to justify my actions.
She was weird. She was one of many people I teased. You were a target of
mine too, I guess? Unlike what her deluded diary would indicate, I
didn't go out of my way to make her life miserable. It's sad how she had
to slip that diary of hers into my bag before she hung herself in her
bedroom closet. No one else would've known what she went through
otherwise."

Natsuki began to tear up. "H-How can you say that? Even after everything
that has happened...!"

"Natsuki-chan! Please! Stay out of this!" Hiromi shouted to her best
friend who, for some reason, had a stuffed toy of a... floppy-eared
penguin in her hands. "Miyako-chan isn't...!"

"...Underneath all that shyness and social awkwardness, Suzuka-chan was
quite pretty. If she only had more confidence in herself, she would've
made many friends and stolen the heart of any guy she set her eyes on.
What happened to her later is what Cinderella would've gone through had
her Fairy Godmother never existed."

Miyako took a piece of paper from Suzuka's diary and crumpled it up.
"This is what I've done to Suzuka-chan." She smoothened it out the best
she could. "No matter how many times I say sorry, I can never return
this paper back the way it was. That's clear to me now."

Miyako threw the paper and diary aside, rummaged through her skirt's
pocket, and produced a box cutter.

"MIYAKO-CHAN...!"

Yusuke jumped into action in an instant, grabbing hold of the utility
knife before Miyako could hurt herself or others with it. Her ninety-
pound frame wasn't going to overpower his even if he didn't possess the
blood lineage of the strongest demons in existence.

Miyako reacted in kind, screeching and scratching at him like a cat
that been dipped in a tub of boiling water. Didn't this look familiar?
Like with Suzuka's breakdown, this scene was also hard to watch.

He knew even without the help of Rando's emphatic Kugai curse that there
was nothing he could do to soothe the anguish within this complete
stranger's heart as he kept her from slitting her thin wrists, which
would end it all in an instant and in a pool of her own blood.

Fortunately for Miyako, instead of jeering classmates and nonplussed
teachers, her howls were met with pleas for her to stop by both Natsuki
and Hiromi.

Wasn't Yusuke relieved that this time around, nothing supernatural was
involved in the case? He was wrong. It'd seem that Suzuka's ghost had
been haunting Miyako's mind for a long time.

"Yusuke, I'm going in."

"H-Hey, Keiko, what...?"

Keiko entered Miyako's mind as the beautiful but disturbed blonde girl
collapsed into Urameshi's arms. He gently let the teenager lie down on
the auditorium floor before snatching the box cutter from her dainty
hands and smashing it into pieces with one clench of his mighty fist.

'What the hell was she thinking?' thought Yusuke, not realizing that
Keiko merely followed suit with what he did to her three years ago. A
ghost could only communicate with the living through dreams, after all.


===


Inside the unconscious Miyako's mind...

Just as Yusuke somehow came up with the disguise necessary to fool Shota
into thinking he was some stereotypical, mustache-twirling villain out
to dognap Jiro, the little boy's family dog, Keiko too changed her
appearance, albeit in a somewhat more involuntary manner.

The look of a ghost mostly depended on the beholder. Sure, for the most
part, a soul retained the basic characteristics its body had when it was
alive, but certain changes could take place depending on who was
perceiving it. This was especially true of a ghost that had lived a long
and fulfilling life.

For example, to the parents of a ghost, he typically appeared to them as
nothing more than a child, especially if their sharpest memories of him
was when he was a child. To his children, he'd instead appear as a
parent. To his grandchildren, a grandfather. If he were a prime minister
or some other high-ranking official, then he would take the form of his
most famous public image to any stranger who knew him only as such.

Thusly, Keiko appeared to this stranger... no, to Hiromi and Natsuki's
classmate... the way she wanted herself to appear as _and_ the way this
Miyako person would probably perceive her had she met her for the first
time: The spirit and image of the late...

"S-Suzuka-ch-chan?" Miyako stuttered, her entire body stiff and her
pinkish skin turning alabaster at the mere sight of what she thought
was her deceased classmate. "H-Have you come to take me away with you?"

'I didn't think this would actually work. Wow.' Adjusting the glasses
and twin ponytails she now somehow had, the bookish, nerdy, and class-
representative-looking Keiko took a deep breath (more out of reflex
than anything else) and said to the real class representative of 6-A,
"Stop this, please."

The trembling and shell-shocked Miyako mustered enough courage to blurt
out, "W-What?"

"I forgive you. I've long forgiven you. So please..." was what Keiko
tried to get out of her mouth, but the words tasted bitter and felt
forced, so all she could manage was a small squeak.

Did Keiko even have the right to do such a thing? Could she forgive
Miyako if she were in Suzuka's shoes, after knowing only some of the
dreadful things that'd been done to her look-alike?

She tried again to say the words that rung false to her, but they died
in her ghostly throat as soon as Miyako spoke the following words:

"Are you in Hell, Suzuka-chan?"

"W-What?" Keiko was at a loss for words. Who did this bitch think she
was? How could Miyako say such an unforgivable thing? What kind of a
twisted, evil person would say that to someone she might or might not
have driven to suicide?

Miyako continued. "Are you suffering in Hell or Purgatory because of me?
No ghost who has committed suicide can possibly go to Heaven, I've
heard."

Keiko felt her face grow warm even as she and this wicked girl occupied
the mysterious and abstract space known as the Dream World, where the
hearts and minds of both the living and the dead could congregate
freely.

"I've read your diary. You hated me from the bottom of your heart. You
wished me dead and much more. You wanted me to feel the same amount of
humiliation you felt through the years you've known me. Not that I could
blame you."

Keiko fidgeted as Miyako skipped past her then grabbed her from behind,
the blonde's hands on her shoulders. "Funny how a few words can lead to
a mistake you'll regret beyond your lifetime. This is your chance,
though. You're a ghost with a grudge, right? For once in your life, or
perhaps your afterlife, focus your anger on me. Drag me to Hell with
you."

"W-What?"

What was with this girl? Was she really Hiromi's best friend back in
grade school? What was her problem?

"You haven't changed a bit. You're meeker than sheep. Come on. Grow a
backbone for once and do to me what you've been fantasizing about all
this time, you good-for-nothing ghost!"

"Do you regret everything you've done to me? Are you sorry for driving
me to suicide?" Keiko found the voice to ask, unsure of how to treat the
raving lunatic behind her.

For the longest time, Miyako couldn't answer. "Kill me."

"If I had the power to do that, I would've already done so."

"So you've decided to haunt my mind instead?"

"That's not my fault."

Miyako began choking the Suzuka proxy.

"KILL ME! Don't you want to see me punished? Do you want me to get away
with what I did to you? May God and Buddha help you, you've always been
like this! How were you able to survive this long? I'm surprised you
were able to go through with your suicide! Dammit, you piss me off so
much!"

Keiko turned and felt the ghostly equivalent of her heart stopping and
her blood running cold.

For the briefest of moments, she saw an apparition of Seiryu of the
Saint Beasts superimpose itself on Miyako's form as panic coursed
through her veins or whatever constituted as such for her astral
projection.

Keiko pried Miyako's fingers open and gave the blonde a smack to the
face. "You think your death will make me happy? You think killing you by
my own hands will somehow magically make everything all right? Learn to
deal with your own guilt! Don't make me live your own life for you!"

Both girls stayed there in that undefined blank space full of mist while
panting heavily, with Keiko standing above the fallen Miyako.

"Listen. I've long ago forgiven you... but not for your sake. I truly
did hate you. But even if you weren't guilty of your actions, I'd still
forgive you because it's pointless to hold a grudge against you at this
point in time."

In all honesty, that was what Keiko imagined Suzuka would say, because
she herself, in more ways than one, shared the same predicament.

"I'm surprised you felt guilty enough to do this. If you want to punish
yourself further for what you did in the past, then do as you wish. But
please, don't make useless gestures like killing yourself in my name.
The past is past. Do something positive with your time, for once."

With that, Miyako dropped on all fours and began sobbing. "I-I've done
some terrible things, Suzuka-chan..."


===


Back in Sakamoto Grade School's auditorium...

Miyako's eyes fluttered open, and before her were two of her sobbing
former classmates, Natsuki and Hiromi, begging for her to wake up. She
looked down and saw herself somehow gripping tightly the worn, creased,
and yellowed pages of Suzuka's diary that she threw away earlier.

All three girls whose lives had been touched by the untimely death of
their socially awkward classmate embraced each other in reminiscence of
her, exchanging apologies to themselves and to Suzuka, wherever she
might be; a bittersweet reunion of old friends.

Meanwhile, the will-o'-the-wisp form of Keiko escaped from the bawling
Miyako's mouth.

"...Maybe it's about time we burned that damn diary. No offense to
Suzuka, but she wrote most of the entries there out of anger and
resentment."

"No. Not until Suzuka-chan's parents know the truth. I almost chose the
easy way out and took her secret to the grave."

"Ah, jeez. Do what you want."

"Um... Miyako-san..."

"Hmm, what is it, Natsuki-chan?"

"Can I read what's written there too?"

"O-Of course. She wrote a lot of nice things about you."

"Really?"

"Well?" asked Yusuke as soon as Keiko adopted a more humanoid appearance
beside him, "How'd it go with the crazy blonde bitch? She's still a
total mess now, but at least she sounds saner than before."

"I have no idea. It's all up to her now."

"I see. Fair enough." Yusuke shuffled his cloth-shoed feet as Keiko
floated away from him. Was it his imagination or was she giving him the
cold shoulder? 'It would be nice if that damn Kugai Rando gave me could
clue me in on stuff like that. Worthless piece of shit curse...'

To her surprise, as Keiko scanned the auditorium, she saw her other
self floating from a distance: A younger version of her sporting coke-
bottle glasses thicker than Natsuki's and her old ponytail hairstyle.

Keiko thought, 'So she has been watching those three all this time.'

Suzuka stuttered hard to say something that the astral projection
couldn't hear. Keiko smiled, nodded, and waved. She understood what the
apprehensive ghost was saying. "You're welcome, Suzuka-chan. Take care."

Beside Keiko, Sayaka informed, "Although I'm just a trainee, I know this
much. It'll be hard for someone who committed suicide to go to Heaven.
That girl still has a lot of hardships ahead of her, and she may even
end up in the Elysian Fields in order to clear both her bad karma and
her bad memories."

Isn't it better for her to forget everything? From what Natsuki-chan
told me, all she has are bad memories leading up to her death."

Sayaka looked back at the bawling Hiromi, Natsuki, and Miyako. "Not all
her memories are bad, Big Sis. There are things she'd want to remember,
but unfortunately, they come packaged with the things she'd rather
forget."

The three former schoolmates from Sakamoto Grade School wiped their
tears, stood up, went in front of Yusuke, and bowed at him in unison.

"Thank you for helping me out with my personal problems, Urameshi-san!"
said Hiromi from the bottom of her heart. "I'm sorry for misjudging your
character after all these years... and for slapping you earlier."

"Ah. I don't mind. I had nothing better to do at the moment. I'm glad we
were finally able to talk with each other normally." Yusuke thumbed his
nose and returned their bows with some of his own.

"Me too! I'm also grateful! Thank you for allowing me to talk to Keiko
yesterday, Urameshi-san!" said Natsuki.

"I don't mind. You're welcome."

Thankfully, Hiromi didn't ask _how_ Natsuki talked to the comatose
Keiko. 'She really is a blabbermouth.'

"So you're _Urameshi-san_. Thank you for taking care of Hiromi-chan and
Natsuki-chan all this time." Instead of bowing, Miyako curtsied.

Meanwhile, a pink-faced Hiromi punched the blonde on the arm and hissed,
"Don't put it that way! Don't make it sound like Urameshi-san and I have
been hanging out for so long!"

The red-eyed Miyako smirked. "Did I really? I didn't say that. I clearly
mentioned both Hiromi-chan _and_ Natsuki-chan. Get your head out of the
gutter."

"SHUT UP!"

"Awawawa! Don't fight anymore, you guys!"

'Man, it's been quite a day,' mused Yusuke as Hiromi and Miyako bickered
while Natsuki did her best to stop them.


===


To Be Continued...

Next: Keiko's third mission.

Disclaimer: Yuyu Hakusho is the rightful property of Yoshihiro
Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV, and St. Pierrot. Rurouni Kenshin is
the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump,
Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallop, Studio Deen, and ADV.
This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material
that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm
very poor.

May kailangan pa ba akong sabihin?
Abdiel