Prologue: A Deal With The Dead

"Huh?"

Yumi Urameshi, age 14, perfect school attendance, outstanding grades, and unfortunately not the most liked person. It is because of this that she's dead.

Yumi looked around as she floated in the air. "So I'm flying? … No, that's impossible."

As she scanned the ground below she noticed a lump floating in the stream. Looking closely she realized it was her.

"Oh, so … I guess I'm dead."

"Bingo!" Exclaimed a voice behind her.

She spun around to see a young girl with blue hair, wearing a pink yukata, and riding an oar. She smiled brightly at Yumi.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Botan, pilot of the River Styx. Your culture call me the Grim Reaper." She answered.

"The Grim Reaper? So are you going to take me to the Afterlife?" Yumi asked calmly.

"Well normally, but in your case I can't." Botan said flipping through a small book.

"What do you mean?" Yumi asked raising an eyebrow.

"To be honest we aren't ready. We didn't expect you to die today." Botan said looking to Yumi with a sorry look on her face.

"So what am I going to do?" Yumi asked.

"I do have good news. Thanks to your good marks in personality and humanity you can come back to life." Botan said with a smile.

"That's possible?" Yumi asked in disbelief. "How?"

"You weren't suppose to die. Someone was suppose to intervene with the gang members and stop them but he was delayed." Botan read from her book. She looked around and then pointed. "That's him. The boy who was to save you."

Yumi followed her finger to the lone boy walking along the stream. Her eyes widened, "That's Kuwabara!"

"Yes Kazuma Kuwabara he was the one who was going to stop those bullies. You know him?" Botan said looking to Yumi.

"He's just some guy that my brother beats up on a daily basis." Yumi crossed her arms. "If he knows I'm Yusuke's sister he probably won't help me."

"It makes it worse since you and Yusuke are twins." Botan said. "You look exactly like the one person he doesn't like."

"Great." Yumi furrowed her brow and thought for a moment.

"You don't have much time. If he doesn't get to your body at the right time you won't be able to come back." Botan said in a panicked tone.

"What's the point in me coming back anyway?"

"The Spirit World is in need of a Spirit Detective. You shall be the Assistant."

Yumi narrowed her eyes. "Assistant? Why not the Detective?"

"Your spirit energy isn't right but from the records we have, you have a more heightened awareness then most humans." Botan ran her finger around the page of her book. "Your skills and brain power will be very useful to whoever is chosen to be Spirit Detective."

"Alright fine." Yumi sighed. "So what do I do to get back?"

"Well, you have to get Kuwabara to notice your body and then have him pass his energy to you through the lips." Botan answered.

"So mouth to mouth resuscitation?"

"If you want to think of it as that." Botan said coyly. "Now remember normal humans can't see you or hear you so think outside the box. I'll be seeing you when the time comes." And with that Botan disappeared.

"Okay, so how am I going to get him to notice my body?" Yumi pondered out loud. With little time to think about it she made her way over to Kuwabara.

"If he can't hear me or see me what am I going to do?" Yumi floated in front of the red head. "I don't think I can touch him either." She thought for a moment just as the boy walked right through her. Yumi shivered. "That felt weird."

"The heck was that?" said the boy with a shaky voice.

Yumi turned in shock. Had he felt her? Yumi tried to touch him again. She reach out and grabbed his shoulder, however her hand passed right through him. Kuwabara jumped.

"There it is again. The tickle feeling." Kuwabara looked around quickly then stopped. He walked closer to the stream, suddenly his eyes grew wide. "Woah is that a person?"

He ran into the water and lifted the body into his arms. Carrying the body he looked both way to see if anyone was around. With no one in sight Kuwabara set the person down and moved the hair out of the way.

"Oh man she's not breathing." Kuwabara gulped then moved closer. "Only one thing to do …"

Okay got to time it right. Yumi thought.

Just as Kuwabara's lips touched hers, she dove back into her body and everything went black.