[FFML] [yyh][ry][xover] Demon Sword Chapter 29: Homework Never Ends (Part 4)

[Chester Castañeda]

Genkai sipped her tea in the darkness of her empty, devastated property.
Rebuilding the temple and her humble abode wasn't even halfway done, so
there was no electricity yet (although the plumbing and water facilities
were already up and running). She also didn't want to waste any candles
since she was about to sleep anyway.

She'd just paid her workers from both the Demon World and the Human
World their wages for the first two weeks. After they'd left, she was
the only human being left in the middle of an empty, barely finished
shrine, the sawdust and debris dancing in the moonlight before her eyes.

Even Puu himself decided to come with Yusuke and the others to help
bring Keiko out of her coma. The elderly grandmother wasn't totally
alone though, as evidenced by the howls, chirps, bleats, and squawks of
the creatures of the night from different realms seeking refuge within
her vast property.

"You were _supposed_ to give out your will and testament to Urameshi
Yusuke and his crew two weeks from now," a trench-coat-wearing,
sunglasses-donning ghost from Genkai's past pointed out to her. "It's
almost been a month since you saw the 'Harbinger of Death' Star. Can you
still see it now?"

"...No. The Star of Death has vanished. I cannot see it any longer,"
Genkai confessed. The one luminous star right beside the Big Dipper's
seven stars she'd seen only twice in her (extended) lifetime had
disappeared as though it never existed.

It probably never did either, as any astronomer worth his or her salt
would attest to. Anyone who saw it was cursed to die within a month's
time unless it happened to disappear altogether.

"I'm guessing that Koenma Daio is doing his best to keep me around in
light of this newest threat, just like what happened when Sensui Shinobu
decided to make his move."

"And how fair is that? You died, as all old people should, and Koenma
forced you to live on because he needed you. On the other hand, Yukimura
Keiko is in a coma and he couldn't lift a finger to help her."

Genkai nodded. "No, it's not fair at all. I agree. However, our
circumstances have changed. The fleeting promise of peace that Yusuke
and the others have worked so hard to attain is being threatened once
more. They need me, so I will live on. That's all there is to it."

Had this Chojin business not reared its ugly head, Genkai would've
looked forward to dying peacefully in her sleep with no worries or
regrets. Her estate had already been divided among Yusuke and his
friends. She'd taken care of the paperwork even before Urameshi put
his hands on the Demon Sword.

"Can you really trust a so-called God of the Dead who decides who
should live and who should die according to his whims or how useful a
given soul is to him?" asked the tall, lanky man with dark shades and a
military-style haircut in Genkai's mind's eye.

"What do you mean?"

"Koenma let a young girl who still has her whole life ahead of her go
into a wild goose chase just to regain the right to live while he
allowed you... an old, decrepit woman... to continue living at the drop
of a hat because you proved more useful to him than Urameshi Yusuke's
girlfriend."

"That's enough. I trust that man and his decisions. Koenma Daio is
nothing like his wicked father, Enma Daio."

The man turned his back on Genkai, his hands in his trouser pockets
before he faded into the shadows. "I have to wonder about that..."


========================================================================


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/

Let's explore the lives of the supporting characters, shall we?


========================================================================

Chapter 29: Homework Never Ends (Part 4)

========================================================================


About three weeks after the attack at Genkai's temple, in the
afternoon...

"That first mission Keiko-neechan got was... unexpectedly difficult,
don't you think?" was Sayaka's understatement of the day. "I'm so sorry,
Big Sis. Next time, I'll find something a lot less dangerous for you to
do."

Keiko let out a weak chuckle. "I've heard enough apologies from you to
last me a lifetime, Sayaka-chan. It's quite all right." Yukimura rubbed
the top of the ferry-girl trainee's head.

"I don't regret taking that case. Thanks to what happened, Shota-kun
isn't banned from seeing Shiori-chan anymore, and they're still going to
go to Sarayashiki Junior High together. Shiori-chan and her parents now
understand each other better. Akemi was even able to rest in peace to
boot. All's well that ends well."

After the shy Akemi made amends with her parents and the sister she
never met, the ferry-girl assistant contacted one of Reikai's many
shinigami and got Hinageshi... the death goddess who helped Yusuke and
company to deal with the threat of the Nether World... to guide the
lost soul back to her ancestors.

"Shota-kun grew up so fast," Sayaka murmured, her eyes bright and wide
as she remembered how the young lad filled in the police report for the
incident until he fainted from all the blood he lost earlier. Nobody
realized how hurt he was until then.

She picked up a compact mirror from inside her pajamas... the only kind
of mirror that could reflect the images of ghosts... and stared at her
youthful face. Keiko in turn let her rest her head on her shoulder.

"What's it like to grow up, Big Sis?" the death goddess trainee asked,
and Keiko Yukimura's astral projection replied, "I don't know. I haven't
grown up all that much either."

Clueless of the pair's conversation, Yusuke said, "The best part of the
whole thing is that I didn't have to pay for the wall I broke down or
the bodyguards I beat up," while rubbing his nose. Puu, like a pirate's
parrot, squawked his own name and nibbled at Urameshi's ear.

"THAT'S NOT SOMETHING TO BE THANKFUL FOR, YOU CRIMINAL SCUM!" raged
Keiko as she grabbed hold of Yusuke's spine and made it tingle with her
ghostly touch. Normally, she'd just slap the insensitive brute, but
seeing her current condition, this was the best course of action for
her.

Yusuke shivered then winced and favored his sore right arm that he
earlier stopped in mid-punch.

"Whoops. My bad. I got carried away there. Does your arm still hurt?"
asked Keiko as her eyebrows creased together and her pupils widened.

"It's no big deal. I've gone through worse," assured her boyfriend. Even
though Urameshi was able to live through a broken arm care of Sensui or,
much worse, dying twice, that didn't mean he was made out of steel or
something.

"Y'know, it kind of bothered me how a poltergeist who was doing harmless
pranks on her kid sister turned into a monster. Something fishy is going
on," said Yusuke, changing the subject.

"I have no idea what happened either, Big Bro, but I'm glad Akemi was
able to rest in peace and forgive her parents and her little sister. The
way their voices was able to reach her broken heart underneath all that
hatred and resentment really touched me!"

Sayaka sniffled, and Keiko quickly grabbed hold of the girl in an
embrace as they floated back to the hospital where her comatose body
lay. "I wish I had a family like that."

"I think we're off to a good start with all this mission business, but
for now, I say we deserve to rest," said Keiko.


===


It was already evening when the quartet of two ghosts, a half-demon, and
a spirit beast arrived at the hospital and entered the comatose Keiko's
room at the intensive care unit.

"What's the matter, Yusuke?" asked Keiko as Urameshi stared at the
ceiling, the air conditioner, and the ventilation shaft.

He shook his head. "It's nothing. Probably my imagination."

The first one to reach Keiko's unmoving form in the ICU was Puu. The pet
mascot of the Urameshi Team snuggled tightly underneath the armpit of
the despondent Yukimura, savoring her warmth. It was Yusuke's turn to
look after Keiko that evening.

Keiko smiled and chuckled, remembering the penguin-like bird's constant
frustration whenever he passed through her as he attempted to hug her
astral projection. "Wah! He looks just like a stuffed toy! How
adorable!"

"I think he looks more like a pillow than a stuffed toy. Stuff him in
a pillowcase," quipped Yusuke while shielding himself from Sayaka's
harmless fists of fury and shouts of "Meanie! Don't make fun of Puu-
chan!"

Keiko pretended to look away as Yusuke stole a kiss from her tangible
form's lips while fluffing up her pillows.

'It's been tough on you too, huh?' she thought as she touched her
ghostly body's lips and smiled wanly. She stared at her other self.

'I hope these missions are worth it. I want to kiss him for real, while
I'm awake... and using my own lips.'

"Do you think you've gotten your sponge bath from the nurse yet...?"
Yusuke ate a mouthful of pillow for asking that.

"There's a child in here, Yusuke! Don't act so perverted," rebuffed a
glowing-faced Keiko.

"Who's being perverted? What do you have against bathing, Keiko?"
retorted Yusuke.

"Don't patronize me! And don't lay a hand on my body until I can get it
back, you hear?" was Keiko's ultimatum.

"Sure, sure," Yusuke "reassured" with a hand wave.

Keiko blinked. Since when did she become so sure that she'd survive her
coma and come back normal? Truth be told, she still wasn't all that
confident about _anything_ regarding these missions. Nevertheless, she
felt like she had no right to complain about her circumstances after
seeing what Akemi went through.

Akemi didn't want to die. She wanted to live. Even though she was an
earthbound ghost and it was already too late for her, her will to live
remained strong. What right did Keiko have to give up on her life when
someone who was worse off than her never did?

Before Keiko knew it, she had turned her back on Yusuke, and when her
flustered boyfriend asked her if she was mad, she waved him off,
assuring him that, "I'm not mad. I'm just thinking about... stuff."

With a big, toothy smile, she faced towards her assigned Spirit Guide...
who was busy playing with Puu's floppy ears, raising them up like rabbit
ears... and requested, "Sayaka-chan, do you have a moment? I need to
talk to you in private."


===


Keiko requested at the corridor just outside the room where her comatose
body lay, "Sayaka-chan, tell me about the Elysian Fields."

Sayaka pouted, put a finger on her chin, and stared into the horizon.
What was this all about? "Oh, the Elysian Fields? You somehow ended up
there after taking the middle fork of the Sanzu no Kawa, right? What
about it?"

"Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't shinigami required to forget
their sins as well as their past before they can become shinigami? At
least, that's the impression I got from Botan," Keiko probed.

Sayaka twiddled her thumbs and stared at her floating feet. "I chose not
to go to purgatory."

Keiko floated around her fellow specter. "Y-You can do that?" She then
remembered Ayame... the shinigami who was tasked to bring her to the
River Styx's first fork... saying that the reason Keiko was able to go
to the middle fork was because of her spirit's own incredible willpower.
Perhaps the same could be said of Sayaka?

Sayaka bopped her head. "Then again, if I didn't have friends in high
places like Botan-neechan and Yusuke-niichan, then I would've ended up
in purgatory anyway."

Keiko fell through floor... literally, since she was a ghost that could
move through walls. 'Hehehe. I guess Sayaka-chan is a bit more pragmatic
than I am. Friends in high places, huh?'

After she returned to where Sayaka floated, the smaller girl asked with
a tilted head and swaying hips, "Did I say something wrong, Big Sis?"

"No, of course not." Keiko patted the ghostly shinigami-in-training's
shoulders. "So why didn't you want to forget? Pardon me for asking, but
wasn't it painful for you to die alone? Don't you feel guilty about
almost damning Shota-kun with you to limbo? Isn't it dangerous for a
spirit like you to be left with all those issues and bad karma?"

"You know what? Koenma-sama asked me the same thing." Sayaka shrugged
and flipped her long, waist-length black hair.

"I don't care. I don't want to forget my parents, my sickness, my death,
Shota-kun, Botan-neechan, and Yusuke-niichan at all. Those memories are
precious to me, and they make up who I am right now. I want to make new
memories with you, Keiko-neechan, with my old memories intact, even if
I have to suffer because of it."

Come to think of it, after the hideous onryo version of Akemi tossed
Shota to the display case of dolls like a... well, rag doll, didn't
Sayaka revert to her more powerful poltergeist form because of her anger
and the negative feelings brought about by memories she didn't want to
forget?

'Even at the risk of becoming an earthbound ghost again, she doesn't
want to forget a single thing,' Keiko concluded. To Sayaka, she said,
"You ask me what it's like to grow up, but in the end, you've grown
into a fine young woman without even realizing it."

"Liar. I haven't grown at all," said Sayaka as she cupped her flat chest
and pouted. It took all of Keiko's self-control to not fall through the
floor a second time.

The astral projection chuckled before her mood mellowed down altogether
as an idea occurred to her. Had Sayaka opted for reincarnation, she
would've had a second chance at experiencing a happier childhood,
growing up, falling in love, or becoming an adult. "Why did you choose
to become a ferry-girl anyway?"

Sayaka beamed. "I want to be like Botan-neechan or Yusuke-niichan when
he was still a ghost! I want to help earthbound ghosts rest in peace. I
want to make them realize that death isn't as scary as they thought, and
it could lead to a new beginning!"

"Good answer. You get five gold star stickers!"

"Jeez, you're making fun of me, Big Sis!"

After the two ghost girls recovered from their giggling fits, Sayaka
showed her schedule on her clipboard to Keiko. "Well, I have to go now
and submit my progress report to the Spirit World. I'll contact you and
Niichan as soon as I'm done with all the paperwork, Neechan."

"I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Come back soon, Sayaka-chan!" Minutes
after Keiko waved goodbye at the departing shinigami trainee, she quaked
and shuddered as she heard the unmistakable peal of a feminine scream
right inside the room where her body lay. "What in the world...?"


===


"STAY BACK! Stay away from Keiko-chan, you sponge-bathing, stalker
pervert! I won't let you soil her purity with your lecherousness!"

"Where the hell did you come from, you crazy bitch?" Yusuke yelped while
deftly avoiding every attack the short-haired girl threw at him.

"AH! Natsuki-chan?" exclaimed Keiko after realizing who it was that
screamed at Yusuke at that ungodly hour. What was her old friend from
junior high doing there?

Of course, because she was a ghost (an astral projection, to be exact),
her bowl-cut, (usually) bespectacled friend couldn't hear her. 'Hey,
what happened to her glasses?'

"Who's Natsuki?" Yusuke asked the ghost beside him, which in the friend-
in-question's eyes made him look even more disturbing and scary because
she couldn't see Keiko at all.

"She's my friend back in junior high! Remember? She and another friend
of mine hung out with me all the time."

"Oh yeah. They were always scared stiff of me when I was around you.
Which one was she again?"

"She's the one with glasses."

"She doesn't have glasses."

"Well, not right _now_, but she usually does."

"Oh wait, now I remember her."

Because in her point of view, Yusuke was having a one-sided conversation
with the slightly ajar door, Natsuki (not to be confused with Natsuki
Shinkai from Shinjuku Yamabuki High) backpedaled towards the windows at
the back of the room and grabbed the nearest object she could lay her
hands on. "STAND BACK! I have a vase and I'm not afraid to use it!"

"...." said Yusuke while the not-bespectacled friend of Keiko held a
hospital flower vase in front of her like a shield, shaking like a leaf
all the while.

The spirit form of Yukimura giggled from behind Urameshi. Even after
three years had passed, her friends were still petrified by her
boyfriend. On the other hand, knowing what she knew, they had even more
reason to be frightened of the Half-Demon Mazoku Prince of the Demon
World.

"How about throwing that vase at me instead of thrusting it at my face
like a gift? I'd hate to see you do the same thing to a real cat burglar
or mugger," was the helpful suggestion that Urameshi imparted to
Yukimura's friend.

"What do you know? I'll do everything to protect Keiko-chan's... um...
honor! And mine as well!"

"..._Honor_? Are you serious?" asked Yusuke with an arched eyebrow while
scratching the side of his face.

"YES!" affirmed the girl as she threw the vase as hard as she could at
Yusuke. She deflated upon seeing him catch it.

Urameshi smirked. "Y'know, it's kind of a little late for that... OW!"
He flinched as the vase in his hand "floated by itself" and crashed
right on his noggin. "I was only telling the truth, Keiko!"

"THAT'S ON A NEED-TO-KNOW BASIS! SHE DIDN'T NEED TO KNOW, YOU TACTLESS
IGNORAMUS!" scolded a brightly "blushing" Keiko, whose cheeks appeared
more like luminescent pink light bulbs than red tomatoes due to her
soul's lack of blood or veins to speak of.

"YOU ALREADY 'DID' HER? You _monster_! You're not supposed to do that to
someone in a coma!" the mousy girl screeched as she (attempted to)
tackle Yusuke, scratched him, and bit him all over his body while
hurling insults of "psycho", "weirdo", "lecher", and "freak".

"Keiko! What am I supposed to do now?" demanded the great and powerful
Urameshi, a finalist of the Demon World Unification Tournament and
winner of the Black Martial Arts Tournament.

"I have no idea," responded Keiko in all honesty.

"STOP TALKING TO HER LIKE SHE'S AWAKE... Hic," Urameshi froze as Natsuki
sat on top of his stomach and held her mouth with both her hands, her
cheeks reddening in a way Keiko's astral projection couldn't.

She bounced up again as an abrupt rush of air into her lungs caused her
vocal cords to close and her body to jerk from her constricting
diaphragm.

"Hey, Keiko. What's going on? Is your friend drunk?" Yusuke stage-
whispered to his girlfriend.

Keiko let out a long and loud exhale as her shoulders slowly slumped
down although she had no lungs or carbon dioxide to breath out.
"Natsuki-chan gets the hiccups every time she's excited or scared."

"Aw. How cute! She's wike a wittle puppy!" Yusuke grinned so wide, he
exposed all of his teeth, from his incisors to his molars.

"DON'T... Hic! MAKE FUN OF... Hic! ME! Hic." Natsuki blinked back her
tears as she crawled back to the wall facing opposite the doorway and
hid her face behind a pillow.


===


A little while later...

"...Thank you," a now-bespectacled Natsuki murmured after drinking a
bottle of water to cure her case of the hiccups. "I shouldn't have
jumped to conclusions. I apologize. I didn't realize you meant that
Keiko-chan and you have already..."

"N-No worries here!" The bite and scratch marks all over Yusuke's body
healed just fine thanks to his demonic bloodline, but he remained unsure
of what to make of the violent yet meek girl before him regardless. "If
you hadn't lost your glasses underneath that bed, then maybe you
would've recognized me and things would've happened differently. It
can't be helped."

"Actually, the reason why I hid underneath Keiko-chan's bed in the first
place was because I recognized your voice as you entered the room and I
panicked," Natsuki confessed, which led Yusuke to reply with another
pokerfaced, "...."

She continued. "I was going to leave as soon as you went out of the
room, but then I started hearing you talk to Keiko-chan about giving
her a sponge bath or something, and you kept speaking to her as though
she can talk back when _clearly_ she couldn't, so I freaked out and
whacked you upside the head before you committed a crime on my friend,
and even though it turned out to be a misunderstanding, the fact that
you _still_ keep on talking to Keiko-chan under your breath when you
think I'm not looking is making me have second thoughts about not
calling the police on you," Natsuki relayed in one breath.

Urameshi bowed his head low and raised his hands up in surrender. "Okay,
fine. Let's just forget about it. And I won't... pretend to talk to
Keiko anymore. How does that sound?"

"Oh, I said too much again! Never mind what I said, you're free to talk
to Keiko-chan whenever you want," assured Natsuki with flushed cheeks,
her hands on her pleated skirt's hem and her knees rubbing against each
other as she squirmed in her chair.

"Although it kind of creeps me out, the way you can't get Keiko-chan out
of your mind is also sort of... sweet. And sad. Again, I apologize for
being so tactless with my words."

"No, no, I don't mind," replied Yusuke with a flat, disinterested
monotone that implied the opposite of what he said. Who would've thought
that Keiko's nerdy friend was so... chatty? He could've sworn the other
girl with twin ponytails was the blabbermouth of the trio.

Puu, who had hidden himself beneath the comatose Keiko's bedcovers after
hearing Natsuki's scream, finally came out of hiding, his head poking
out of one of the pillows. "Puu?"

"AH! I've never seen anything like that! What is it? Is it a toy? Is it
alive? Was this your get-well-soon present for Keiko-chan?" inquired
Natsuki as she plucked Puu out of his hiding place and commenced
cuddling him.

"Um, not exactly. I guess you can consider Puu as our... pet?" Yusuke
shrugged. He had no interest in covering for Puu after the _last_ time
the creature was spotted and played with by "normal" people.

"You're a lot nicer than I expected, Urameshi-san. Neither me nor Hiromi
('Oh, so _that's_ the name of Keiko's other friend!' Yusuke thought,)
believed Keiko when she said you're not as bad as the school rumors made
you out to be. Although I'm kind of embarrassed for apologizing so much
at this point, I have to say sorry for that as well!"

"Nah, it's no big deal. My bad reputation helped me get through junior
high without a hitch. No one would dare mess with me." Yusuke winced
as his mouth stretched from end to end for "some reason", which left
Natsuki wondering how he did such a feat.

He blabbered something incomprehensible before his mouth returned to
normal, which allowed him to speak clearly. "What I meant to say is
that I'm glad you have a better impression of me," deadpanned Urameshi
while rubbing his sore cheeks.

Natsuki chuckled before she turned her head to the side, her left hand
on her face while her right hand continued to pet Puu's black mane and
blue fur, her glasses obscured by the glare of the fluorescent lights.

"I wasn't able to talk much to Keiko-chan or Hiromi-chan ever since we
graduated from Sarayashiki. It's such a shame that the one time I was
able to visit, it's already too late for us to talk to each other!"

As Natsuki sniffled, she also giggled as Yusuke fumbled around for
a tissue and advice to give her about her comatose friend. "How is it
my fault she's crying? No, I won't stop talking to you! Didn't she say
it's okay for me to talk to you? She's _your_ friend, help me do
something about this!"

"Sorry. Oh my, I've said sorry too many times again." Natsuki took
her glasses off and wiped her tears away with the tissue Urameshi
gave her. "But that's how it is with us Japanese. We apologize for
every little thing, huh?"

"If I said yes, will you stop crying? Ow, I can't believe you poked my
eye!" exclaimed Yusuke at the ceiling, which made Natsuki chortle
despite herself.

"Here I am crying when it's clear that you're the person who was most
hurt by what happened to Keiko-chan. Were you anywhere near her when
she collapsed and fell into a coma?" asked Natsuki as she let Puu nibble
on her fingers.

Keiko collapsing due to "cardiac arrest" and "lack of oxygen to her
brain" was the official cover story Koenma suggested to Yusuke and the
others before bringing her to the hospital and telling her parents what
happened to her. Because the Spirit World was full of experts on death,
its denizens regularly researched the latest medical advances and the
newest causes of death.

Yusuke clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white. "No. No, I
wasn't."

"I-I'm so sorry. Ah... Sometimes I don't think before I speak."

'No shit.' The half-youkai could only nod as nearly every muscle in his
body tensed. He then relaxed as he waved his hand and stroked the air
lovingly, as though he were a maestro conducting an orchestra. To
Natsuki's eyes, he was beyond bizarre. "Thanks, Keiko. I needed that."

"I wish I could talk to her. I have so much to tell her." Natsuki moved
towards the sleeping form of her friend of three years and held her
hand, taking care not to move or dislodge the catheter stuck in her arm.

"Keiko-chan, did you know that I'm hanging out with an upperclassman I
really like these past few months? He might not be as strong, handsome,
fit, or scary as your boyfriend, but he's really smart and I like him a
lot. We have so many things in common. I regularly visit him at his
house where we play the same games, read the same books, talk about the
same things, and he even wears glasses like me!"

Yusuke stared at Natsuki with a blank expression on his face before
saying, "If Keiko were here, she'd be really excited to hear that. She'd
be jumping up and down, asking you details about how that happened
because you were always so shy around boys. She'd also congratulate
you."

This time around, Natsuki's whole body flushed a healthy pink. "Tell her
it's too early for congratulations. I haven't confessed my feelings to
him yet."

"Huh. Well, _I'd_ say that nerd better man up and confess his feelings
to you before you do to him," said Yusuke with closed-eye nods and
crossed arms.

"But I'm not even sure Sempai likes me that way! And he's not a nerd,
he's just really smart!" protested Natsuki while holding her burning
cheeks with her hands and wiggling around. "What should I do?"

"Jeez. All right, I'll tell her!" snapped Yusuke at the curtains. "Keiko
says she'll cheer you on. Good luck and do your best. She and I agree
that if you've been hanging out in his house so often, then you might as
well confess your feelings now and avoid misunderstandings later. I
personally think he's already head over heels in love with you if he
lets you in his house, but that's just my opinion."

"Tell Keiko-chan that I said thank you," returned Natsuki while
adjusting her glasses after it slipped at the bridge of her nose.

She then giggled as she told Yusuke, "Your girlfriend told me just now
that back in middle school, she couldn't stop talking about you.
Although Hiromi-chan and I couldn't care less because we didn't have
boyfriends at the time, she would go on and on about you. She even
confessed to us that she has had a crush on you since you were children,
after that time when you fell in the water and got sick because of her!"

"Oh-ho. Did she now?" Yusuke's grin almost split his face, his eyes
shaped like mischievous almonds. "She never told me that to my face. Ask
her what she likes about me. Did she doodle my name or face on the back
pages of her notebooks? Did she carve our names on a tree trunk?
Inquiring minds need to know!"

For one reason or another, the room got cold to the point that it could
double as a meat freezer. Natsuki shivered, hugging Puu tightly to her
bosom. "The air conditioner must be broken, huh? Well anyway, Keiko-chan
also says that the thing that attracted her to you the most was your..."

"NO!"

At that point, Puu attacked Natsuki, biting her neck-length hair and
pecking her on the forehead. Yusuke had to grab hold of the penguin-
shaped, floppy-eared spirit beast, who had left Keiko's bespectacled
friend in a disheveled, startled mess. "S-Sorry. I don't know what came
over him. Haha."

Because Yusuke couldn't leave well enough alone, he whispered to a
dumbfounded Natsuki while turning Puu the other direction, his hands
clamped over the strange creature's long ears, "Was it my penis?"

"I HEARD THAT, URAMESHI YUSUKE!" Puu shrieked in a girly voice as he bit
Yusuke's thumb, flew away from his grasp, and then pecked at his eyes.
"Why the hell would I be attracted to you because of _that_, you
pervert? Swine! Pig! Sicko! What kind of a girl do you think I am?"

"Lighten up! It was a joke! I didn't mean it! Give me a break, Keiko!"

"...K-Keiko-chan? What?"

Yusuke and Puu... or rather, the Keiko-possessed Puu... froze in the
middle of their slap fight (floppy ears versus human hands) after
hearing Natsuki's probing question.

"D-Did that birdie just talk?" stuttered Natsuki, her face pale and
bluish and her body shaking harder than a Chihuahua that just drank
coffee (a poisonous substance to dogs). "More importantly, did that
birdie just talk using Keiko-chan's voice?"


===


Much, much later, after Yusuke's attempts to pass off Puu as a new
penguin-parrot hybrid species that could mimic the voices of others
failed spectacularly...

"So let me get this straight... Keiko's _soul_ or astral projection or
whatever possessed that birdie. Is that right or I'm way off?"

Simultaneous confirmations of, "Yeah, that's basically it," and "U-huh.
You got it on your first try, Natsuki-chan," were provided by Yusuke and
Keiko respectively.

"On that note, what exactly is Puu anyway?" questioned Natsuki further.

"One thing at the time, Natsuki-chan," the Keiko-possessed Puu told
Natsuki, and her friend thankfully obliged her request. Obviously, they
didn't bother telling the petite, talkative girl about the more
"esoteric" aspects of Keiko's condition.

"S-So is Keiko-chan... dead?" Natsuki asked, holding her breath as she
hugged Puu firmly and grabbed hold of the hand of Yukimura's comatose
form at the same time.

"No. Not at all. You can hear the blips on the medical monitors, right?"
Yusuke insisted with fervor. "She's still alive, it's just that she's
having an... out-of-body experience right now, but we're working on
getting her back into her body. She isn't dead, and she'll wake up soon
enough!"

Natsuki put a hand on her chest and breathed out a sigh of relief. "I'm
glad. The idea of Keiko being an earthbound ghost cursed to haunt this
hospital for all eternity scared me for a bit." She saw the moist-eyed
look Puu gave her. "N-Not that _that_ will happen to you, Keiko-chan!
I'm sure you'll recover from your coma soon too!"

"It must've been shocking seeing definitive proof that ghosts and
spirits really exist, huh?" said Keiko through Puu's beak as he used
his lengthy ears to pat Natsuki's hand.

"Anyway, thank you for visiting. Don't worry too much about me, I'm in
good hands. We'll definitely find a way for me to wake up and recover.
Yusuke and... the others are doing their best, and so will I."

"I'm glad to hear that," Natsuki said as she stared at the window
overlooking Tokyo City's tall buildings and bright lights. "I can't
help but feel concerned about the fact that ghosts exists. Not that
you're a real ghost or anything, but you know what I mean."

Keiko nodded Puu's head, even though the creature didn't have a neck to
speak of. "You were always afraid of ghosts and the supernatural even
when I first met you back in junior high. Even Hiromi couldn't help but
tease you about it."

"If I were only speaking about my phobia of ghosts..." Natsuki rested
her chin on the back of her hand as her eyes wandered into the blinking
neon lights of the multicolored urban jungle of Japan's capital.

"Before I came to visit, I've heard that a ghost from my own past has
returned. I wish she was only a figment of my imagination. I wish she's
merely a manifestation of my guilt. But if do ghosts exist, then that
means...!"

Yusuke suddenly got up from where he sat, his eyes sharp and focused,
his body ready to spring into action. "I'm sorry for interrupting your
story, Natsuki, but do you mind staying here with Keiko for the time
being? I have some business to attend to."

"Huh? What's this about, Yusuke?" the Keiko inside Puu answered, but
Yusuke wouldn't even look her way.

"Uh... No. Not at all. I guess I could stay over for about an hour or
so. Our school break isn't over yet, and I'll be home alone for the
time being. Do you want me to have a sleepover with Keiko-chan?"

"No, that's fine. I won't take long. If worse comes to worst, you can
go ahead and leave anyway. Keiko is in good hands with the doctors."
He cracked his knuckles while glaring at the ventilation shaft. "I'll
be back soon."

"What's going on with Urameshi-san, Keiko-chan?" asked Natsuki as her
eyebrows formed a steeple, her forehead creases became more prominent,
and her lip shrunk into a small line of concern.

"I don't know, but I'm sure Yusuke can handle it. I trust him." Keiko
did the nearest approximation of a shrug that Puu could muster. "Now
what were you saying about ghosts from your past?"


===


Yusuke ran straight for the stairs, whizzing through one flight after
another, looking over his shoulder from time to time as though to ensure
that he was being followed. After he had ended up atop the hospital roof
deck, he demanded, "Who the hell are you and what do you want with
Keiko, you goddamn stalker?"

Within the shadows cast by the water tank behind Yusuke, a dark-clothed
person with a decorative skull mask emerged and said, "It's unfortunate
that we have to meet in such dire circumstances, but I believe that
threatening the safety of your loved one is the fastest way to get your
attention, Urameshi Yusuke."

"And you are?" snarled Yusuke as he glanced sideways at the shadowy
stranger behind him.

"I'm an accomplice of the creature you've lured out into the open."

As if on cue, the person Yusuke called out earlier... the one that had
been spying on him, Natsuki, Keiko, and Puu within the confines of the
intensive care unit's ventilation shaft... burst forth from the concrete
ground, the long, sharp claws of his left arm nearly slitting the half-
demon's throat.

"Isn't it a little too early for Halloween, old man? What's up with this
gimp of yours? I'm not into that stuff," Yusuke remarked as he grabbed
hold of both claws of his attacker and wrestled with him, recoiling in
disgust at the animalistic creature's slavering tongue, sharpened
teeth, and a cloth mask that concealed half of his face. Eventually,
Urameshi's superior strength allowed him to overpower the monster and
bring him to his knees.

The skull-masked man laughed and clapped his hands. "Impressive! As
expected of the descendant of Raizen. You've apprehended my associate
with little to no trouble at all." He exposed himself to the moonlight,
revealing his full form and getup: A medium-build ninja wearing an
eighteenth-century puppeteer garb, slippers, and gloves, which made
his mask look even more ridiculous than before.

"Are they in the middle of taping a special effects show for kids? I've
seen more convincing villains from Kamen Rider."

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Edward Gein. I used to be linked
with the person you know as Himura Kenshin in my past life, but at
present, I'm now working for the being you know as the Chojin as part of
his elite guard, the Shin Ju."

'Edward Gein? What's with his name? Is he a foreigner?' To Gein, Yusuke
asked, "So? What do you want from me? Are you and your backstabbing crew
of tokusatsu rejects planning another sneak attack here in the hospital
like you did back in Genkai-baasan's property?"

"Nothing of the sort. I might as well get straight to the point. I know
what happened to Yukimura Keiko. She's been cursed by Seiryu of the
Saint Beasts, and she's now in a comatose state that neither modern
medicine nor your employers from the Spirit World can fix. If you'd
allow me, I know how she can be restored back to normal. I can bring
her back to life."


===


Natsuki's eyes darted all over the place while she rubbed her nose.
"Back when I was in elementary, Hiromi-chan and I belonged to different
cliques although we went to the same class together for three years
straight."

"Yeah, I knew about that." Keiko nodded Puu's head. "What about it?"

"I was friends with a girl... who was always depressed. Her parents were
divorced, her nose was always buried in books, and she had no other
friends in our school because she had just moved to Tokyo from Tohoku,
so everyone thought of her as a country bumpkin."

Natsuki cleared her throat. "I'm a wallflower myself, so I considered
her my comrade of sorts. She was my only friend for most of my final
years in grade school, and so was I to her. We were so close, we were
teased as a couple by the boys. It didn't help that I never really
talked to any boys because of my shyness, but Suzuka-chan... that's her
name... really took all that teasing hard."

"And then...?" Keiko prodded.

Natsuki tightly embraced her friend trapped inside a stuffed-toy-looking
creature. "I'm horrible! Lower than dirt! I abandoned her during the
time she needed me the most! I wanted so bad to make friends and change
my image that I started neglecting her. I left her behind. That's why...
That's why...!"

"Natsuki-chan?"

"That's why she killed herself before our grade school graduation
ceremonies! I was her only friend, and I betrayed her! I outright
distanced myself from her in the hope that I could get better friends
and not be ostracized like she was!"

"That's... really terrible. I can see why you'd feel so guilt-ridden.
But what does this have to do with ghosts? It's almost more than four
years since we were in elementary. Why are you thinking about this now
of all times?"

"I got several pages straight from Suzuka-chan's diary in the mail
about a month ago. I know it's hers, because I immediately recognized
the handwriting. It chronicled the point where we started drifting
apart. It detailed every last sin I committed. I could only read it
once; it made me sick to my stomach how I've made her suffer all this
time without even realizing it."

"A-Are you sure it's Suzuka-chan's handwriting? It's been so long, and
this could be a nasty prank from one of your old bullies..."

"No. There's more. I know it's true because Hiromi-chan got pages from
Suzuka-chan's diary too. Everyone in our class that made fun of her,
avoided her, and did practical jokes on her, she listed down on her
diary. The scariest part here is that the bullies who made Suzuka-chan
suffer the most started getting death threats and were being stalked by
some unknown person who knew everything about them."

Keiko wiped the tears from Natsuki's eyes with Puu's floppy ears.

"Even though the police were involved, they considered the acts as
nothing more than lowbrow pranks. However, one thing led to another, and
now a former classmate of ours... Miyako... has gone missing. She was
even on the local news a week or two ago."

Before Keiko could do anything about it... not that she could, seeing
who it was her soul possessed... Natsuki slid off her chair, bowed her
head low, and ended up on the floor on all fours.

"Keiko-chan, I'm scared. I feel frightened, guilty, and alone. I haven't
even told Sempai about any of this. You're the only other person I can
talk to about the incident aside from Hiromi-chan. This, on top of your
coma three weeks ago, has been stressing me out all month. I'm about to
have a nervous breakdown."

Puu flew atop Natsuki's back and patted her hair while saying, "There,
there," because Keiko didn't know what else to say.

Sure, Yukimura had lost contact with several of her childhood friends
aside from Urameshi as time passed by, but she never outright betrayed
any of them. She couldn't imagine Natsuki doing such a thing either,
because she considered her as one of her most loyal and trustworthy
companions.

The most important issue in Keiko's mind right now was whether or not
the "ghost" that was haunting Natsuki really was a ghost at all. Even
so, her friend needed her, and she'd help her to the best of her
abilities regardless if the Spirit World considered this a "good karma"
gathering mission or not.


===


'He says he can save Keiko's life?' was the hazy thought that floated
around Yusuke's head before he spat out, "Don't play me for a fool! Like
I'd trust anyone associated with that Chojin bastard! You idiots are the
reason why we're in this mess! Gathering good karma to counteract the
bad karma Seiryu inflicted upon Keiko is a good enough method to heal
her."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Gein while resting his finger on his
mask's chin strap. "I was watching when you and your posse battled that
earthbound ghost inside that mansion earlier today. Aren't you wondering
why she turned into a monster all of a sudden? How she gained such a
huge amount of negative energy when, earlier on, she was haunting the
mansion like a normal spirit according to the accounts of the rich girl
you rescued?"

"You goddamn stalker! Mind your own business!" To Urameshi's surprise,
Gein's words seemingly brought a second wind to the long-armed freak he
had at his mercy, which soon left them at a standstill of sorts, their
arms interlocked and the concrete beneath their feet buckling from the
force they were exerting upon each other.

"This isn't my first barbecue, you know. I've been solving ghost-related
cases for years now. In fact, that shinigami trainee we had with us was
a poltergeist I saved too," Yusuke maintained before lifting his enemy
off of the ground and pile-driving him to oblivion. This proved to be a
mistake as, like a concrete-breaking mole, the long-armed masked beast
dug himself out of harm's way.

"Did that trainee turn into an outright monster like Akemi did? I highly
doubt that." With a snap, the concrete-digging creature grabbed hold of
Urameshi from behind. The teenaged ramen vendor reacted immediately,
pummeling his foe with backhanded fists and elbows of fury.

"He is Yatsume Mumyoi, or if you'd prefer, the Nameless Yatsume. Believe
it or not, he was once human: A member of a gold-mining clan with a
special tradition that allows them to lengthen their limbs about one and
a half times as long as normal. Regardless, because he's a mere human
revived in modern times, he'd normally be no match against an S-Class
hanyou like yourself."

'Normally...?'

Yusuke was about to blast Yatsume away with his Shot Gun special attack
when the human-turned-demon's black tights melted into tar while, from
out nowhere, bandages with dozens of sutra written on them wrapped
themselves around his lithe form. The teen fired off his spirit energy
buckshot anyway.

"However, by doing some bodily experiments and psychic surgery on him, I
was able to transform Yatsume into a separate aspect of the Chojin's
self. Just as the Dai Shin Kan's Sadojima Houji serves as the Chojin's
conduit and dark priest, Yatsume Mumyoi now serves as the Chojin's
container for his violent nature and wildness. In a sense, you're
basically fighting the Chojin right now."

No matter how many times Yusuke fired off his Shot Gun, the mummified
tar monster kept healing his elongated limbs and nimble body.

The half-youkai was reminded of his and Kuwabara's annoyance in fighting
the Elder Toguro thanks to the shapeshifter's regenerating shenanigans.
The late Hiruma Brothers were the same breed of regenerator, come to
think of it.

Mumyoi cackled. "Gotcha."

The rest of the fight... if it could be called that... became a blur of
claws, spearheads, tendrils, jaws, needles, teeth, blades, spikes,
swords, chains, sickles, and all sorts of sharp instruments of death.
Yatsume had full control of the murky substance that covered his
bandaged body, which allowed him to shapeshift his limbs into anything
his cold and black heart desired.

The ebony ichor seared like acid and burned like lava, yet it also
allowed Mumyoi infinite flexibility that allowed him to survive Yusuke's
desperate attempts at pummeling him to submission with the shock-
absorbing properties of rubber.

The color, shape, size, texture, and temperature of the material that
covered the former assassin's body were all in Yatsume's full control,
which enabled him to turn the half-demon into a pincushion while burning
and smothering him at the same time.

The Nameless Yatsume held the thoroughly spent and injured Yusuke by the
hair, lifting him high up in the air as his clawed fingers threatened to
crush his head like a walnut. The teenager snorted in contempt as his
eyes burned with fury and anticipation. "JYU REI...!"

"Easy there, Mister Urameshi. I'm quite aware that once you release your
full power, you have the ability to match Yatsume's abilities or even go
beyond them. I only brought him here to prove a point," Gein said.

"And what point is that?" demanded Yusuke.

"Haven't you already figured it out? Doesn't Yatsume's form remind you
of anything? Doesn't he look like the poltergeist you helped vanquish
earlier? It was Yukimura Keiko's bad karma that turned that girl into a
monster." Gein's expression remained unreadable behind his over-the-top
skull mask.

Urameshi's eyes widened in realization as he grasped Mumyoi's claws and
attempted to pry them open. "...No! You're lying! He doesn't look
anything like her!"

"Don't be in denial. Here are the facts. 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."

"And you're saying you have a better solution than we do?" Yusuke
escaped Yatsume's grip and threw a punch at him. However, his foe easily
dodged the attack.

"Yes. The Spirit World has no idea what it's dealing with. The only
thing they know about jaki is how to seal it and store it away; out of
sight, out of mind. Unless you want Miss Yukimura's body to end up with
water in her brain and her soul transformed into a parody of its former
self, I suggest you take my offer."

Yatsume tried to embrace Yusuke with a spiky body and trap him inside an
iron maiden coffin, but his bandaged and tarred form turned into soup
from the heat of the young Urameshi's determined aura.

"No thanks. I don't approve of scams where the person who ruined you is
the same person who'll offer to fix you up for a price. You're no better
than Ichigaki."

Muffled laughter came forth Gein's mask. "Ah. Doctor Ichigaki. Now that
name takes me back." He shrugged. "A pity. Don't say I didn't warn you."
He snapped his gloved fingers at Mumyoi. "It's time for us to go,
Yatsume. You've bared your fangs. Let's leave before you're actually
forced to fight a mazoku."

Yatsume growled and stood his ground. "You're not the boss of me. He's
my prey now. Let him release his true power. The weak is food for the
strong. If I can conquer someone as strong as he is, then I can prove
that I'm the strongest of them all!"

As Gein was about to retort, "Suit yourself," and leap away, all three
of them heard the unmistakable tinkling of cracked glass and the
footsteps of leather shoes on one side of the building.

After a few more seconds, out emerged a blue-uniformed, lean-faced, and
antennae-banged officer of the law from below the edge of the building's
upper deck, his mouth chewing on a burning cigarette stick. He wielded
his Japanese sword like a spear and aimed it straight at Gein's head.

"SAITO HAJIME! We meet again!" Mumyoi greeted his old Shinsengumi
nemesis while intercepting his charge, confident that the Chojin's
violent power would pull him through. Unfortunately for him, Saito
crushed and pureed his left arm and most of his shoulder with ease, as
though it weren't even there.

As Yatsude regenerated his lost limb, the policeman announced, "I am
Lieutenant Fujita Goro. You're the Shin Ju's and Unit 731's Edward Gein
and the Dai Shin Kan's Yatsume Mumyoi. You're both under arrest for
being known associates of the Overfiend. I'll be taking you in for
questioning right now."

'Jeez, this hospital's security guards mean serious business!' observed
Yusuke as Saito or Fujita ran roughshod over the Chojin's two henchmen.
'So which one is this guy's name anyway? Saito or Fujita? And why does
that name sound familiar?'

"You've done your research, former Third Unit Captain of the Shinshu
Troop and ex-member of the police force and the Imperial Japanese Army.
I'm also amazed at how little _we_ know about your present self,"
confessed Gein as piano-wire strings suddenly appeared tied around his
fingers. "You've been dead for seventy-eight years and yet here you are,
fresh as a daisy. Why is that?"

"That's an interesting codename you have. Did you intentionally name
yourself after an American body snatcher, _Gein_?" Fujita answered the
puppet master's question with a question of his own as he drew close.

"A little bit of both. I actually had the name 'Gein' before that
serial killer was even born," Gein informed before one pull of his
strings resulted in the emergence of the meat puppet known as Iwanbo
from underground, which meant that it was probably hidden beforehand
by Yatsume. Fujita's blade punched into the doughy marionette from its
tip to the sword handle.

"We'll be seeing you around, Lieutenant," said Gein before he and Mumyoi
dove right off the building.

"Don't think this is the last you've seen of us, Urameshi Yusuke! Saito
Hajime!" shouted Yatsume while wincing at his sore yet freshly
regenerated arm.

Meanwhile, Iwanbo (the first version that was used to infiltrate the
Juppon Gatana) spewed out a bomb that exploded immediately before even
the decently fast Yusuke could save the policeman.

Not that he needed to anyway, because soon enough, a slightly burnt but
otherwise unharmed Goro emerged from the raging fires of the explosion
as though he'd merely slipped and fell into a dirty, brick chimney. He
spat the flaming piece of wrapped up tobacco in his mouth before its
flames reached his lips.

"HEY! I remember you now! Kuwabara mentioned you to me. You're that
historical figure guy who rescued my girlfriend from that bastard,
Seiryu!" said Yusuke while waving at the officer who saved his hide, or
at the very least saved him the effort of kicking the hides of those two
Chojin lackeys. "Thanks. I owe you not one, but two... uh, favors!"

The lieutenant walked straight past Urameshi while scraping off bits of
soot and patting down the small embers on his uniform. "Hey, aren't you
going to say anything?" asked Yusuke as he grabbed hold of the copper's
shoulder.

Fujita harrumphed as he brushed the half-demon's hand away. "I have
nothing to say to a person who wastes his time and limits his power to
save someone who cannot be saved instead of using his gifts to battle an
ever-present danger that threatens all three worlds."

Yusuke was left with a gaping mouth, an hanging jaw, and slumped
shoulders as the policeman shut the door on his face. "Jeez! I still
appreciate your help and all, but you don't have to be a dick about it!"

He also wondered why the policeman, for whatever reason, sounded like
Meikai's Yakumo.


===


By the time Yusuke walked back to Keiko's room at the ICU, Natsuki was
long gone.

He didn't like what Keiko (who had gone past the thirty minute mark for
spirits to safely possess living creatures, so she'd already left Puu's
body) told him as soon as he got there, though.

"I know what my second mission is."

After that, she asked what'd happened to him while he was away, taking
note of all the freshly healed scars and stab wounds all over his body.
She also pointed out the explosion that the entire hospital heard, which
resulted in the arrival of the Tokyo fire department.

Yusuke didn't have the heart to tell Keiko that, according to the
Chojin's personal surgeon or whatever, her mere presence was injecting
even more bad karma into earthbound spirits because of all the negative
energy that was leaking out of her cursed soul.

'He's lying. We're going to prove that skull-masked puppeteer wrong,'
was Urameshi's mantra to himself.


===


At one of the outdoor tables of a Tokyo coffee shop...

"Puu!" Puu chirped, his head poking out of a bag. Yusuke stuffed him
right back in.

"I'm happy that Keiko-neechan is taking the initiative to track down
earthbound spirits by herself, but I wish she checked with me first,"
mentioned Sayaka while writing her latest report on Miss Yukimura's
newest mission.

Yusuke rolled his eyes. "The only reason we followed Shota around was
because you wanted to check up on your puppy love. The fact that there
was a poltergeist running amuck was pure coincidence. Keiko's choice in
missions is as good as any."

"Huh. You're being surprisingly supportive today, Yusuke," Keiko
noticed before giving her boyfriend a cold peck on the cheek. "I hope
you're doing this out of good faith and not because you're feeling
guilty about something."

"Hey, look! It's Natsuki! She's right on time!" a sweaty Yusuke outright
changed the subject while Keiko puffed her cheeks and stared daggers at
him.

"Hi, Urameshi-san. Did you wait long?"

"Nope. Have a seat over there, Natsuki."

Eventually, the five of them (two if one only counted the visible,
alive, and human people) gathered together under one, umbrella-topped
table.

"This is a bad idea. Can you speak to Keiko-chan for me? She already
has enough problems to be worrying about the problems of others!"
complained Natsuki to Yusuke, unaware that there were already two
floating spirits before her.

"She insists that you're her friend, so it's only natural for her to
be involved."

"Well, can I speak to her using Puu-chan, then?"

"Nope, sorry. She can only possess living creatures for up to thirty
minutes each day," Yusuke said while Puu again poked his head out of the
knapsack after hearing his name, which prompted the spirit detective to
put him inside again.

"Well, can she possess _you_?" queried Natsuki further.

"If you're going to insist on asking her to give up, it'll be a waste
of time."

Natsuki closed her eyes and exhaled. She opened one eye at Yusuke and
relented, "Fine. What does she want?"

"She wants to contact Hiromi. In case the ghost of Suzuka strikes either
of you, Keiko wants to be there to confront her."

"We're already at the cafe right in front of Hiromi-chan's school. She
usually hangs out here during lunch," pointed out Natsuki. She then
buried her face in her hands in defeat.

"It's no use. After everyone in my former sixth grade class started
getting pages from Suzuka-chan's lost diary, Hiromi-chan was among the
most affected of us all. Ever since that happened, I haven't seen her. I
can barely keep in contact with her. It certainly doesn't help that all
three of us friends from Sarayashiki ended up in different high
schools."

Yusuke nodded as he scoped out the high school in question and took a
slurp of the iced coffee he ordered. Like with Keiko's school, it was an
all-girls school. "Out of curiosity, which high school are you going
to?"

"I'm going to Meiou High. The school Hiromi-chan is going to is called
Oumi Academy. Keiko-chan is attending Daiichi High School, right?"

"Yep." Urameshi slicked his hair, remembering that Keiko was already in
the middle of preparing for her university exams before that nonsense
with Seiryu happened. "Any ideas? Or are we just going to wait for this
old ghost friend of yours to come out and haunt you?"

Natsuki took a sip of her own drink. "I was kind of hoping Hiromi-chan
already came back to the apartment she's renting nearby. Classes are
about to start soon anyway, after all."


===


Yusuke wiped the sweat off his brow. He excused himself to use the john
located within the cafe, leaving his backpack full of Puu under
Natsuki's (and an unseen Keiko's) care.

Sayaka gave Yusuke the same puffed-up cheeks and sullen-eyed look that
Keiko aimed at him earlier.

"What's your problem, kid? Oh, and don't follow me into the men's room."

"But Big Bro, I'm not doing anything at all in this mission! I was a lot
more useful in our last mission!"

"The one who needs to gather good karma for herself is Keiko, not you.
Do what Botan does during these missions. Tell us what's going on,
supply us with gadgets or trinkets for future use, and report back to
that pacifier-sucking brat anything that needs reporting. You're a
Spirit World Inspector now. Do some... inspecting!"

"But that's so boring!" complained Sayaka.

"But that's your job!" countered Urameshi. "I don't want you firing off
spiritual lasers or getting eaten by hungry poltergeists. Promise me you
won't do any of that dangerous stuff like a good shinigami-in-training,
okay?"

Both ghost and half-demon halted in mid-float and mid-step as they
chanced upon a sunglasses-wearing girl with twin ponytails standing in
their way. She was about Natsuki's or Keiko's age, from what Yusuke
could gather. "Um, can I help you, miss...?

The pony-tailed girl answered Urameshi back with a crisp slap to his
face that would've made Keiko proud.


===


To Be Continued...

Next: Keiko's second mission continues.

Yeah, Natsuki is the canonical name of the glasses-wearing friend
of Keiko (the other one was never named in either the manga or
anime). Yes, I'm also willing to risk redundancy by having two
Natsukis in this series. It's not as if they're going to meet or
anything.

Moreover, just in case I forgot, the "Shichosei" or "Star of
Death" is actually a reference to Fist of the North Star and the
star that appears whenever a character is fated to die.

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