"What do you mean I'm getting a new partner?! What's wrong with you and the other three I already have?" 16-year-old Yusuke Urameshi looked at his Spirit World assistant, Botan, also known as the Grim Reaper, an angered look covering his face. He couldn't even look at Kuwabara- he was probably laughing his head off at the outburst. Yusuke had had to put up with a lot of shit since becoming a Spirit Detective two years ago, but this took the cake- Koenma, also known by Yusuke as the toddler ruler of the Spirit World, was pushing it this time. "I mean, come on!" he continued. "With Kurama and his rose whip, Hiei and his demon-ness, Kuwabara and his Spirit Sword and my own Spirit Gun, how much more help could I need? Does that little toddler think I'm that helpless or what?" Botan had to smile- it was rather amusing to her when Yusuke got like this. But she figured now might be a good time to set things straight.
"Yusuke," she said, calmly. "Granted, you do have me and three other qualified partners, but Kurama and Hiei have cases of their own and I can't always help you. That leaves Kuwabara..." Yusuke was about to ask what was wrong with Kuwabara, but restrained himself- a comment like that would make it look like he actually cared about the guy.
"And what's wrong with me?!" exclaimed Kuwabara. Yusuke cracked a smile- besides, why should he say anything when he had Kuwabara, who would say it for him? Botan tried her hardest to stifle a giggle, but failed miserably and ended up laughing hysterically.
"There is nothing wrong with you, Kuwabara," she said, still trying to regain control of herself. "You're just fine."
"Keh," muttered Yusuke. "Like that's been satisfactorily determined." Kuwabara shot him a menacing glare and looked like he was ready to take Yusuke's head off.
"But," Botan continued, barely managing to stop the fight before it began. "You two seem to enjoy beating on each other more than on the demons and Koenma feels that there should be a peacekeeper along for the ride." Yusuke chuckled.
"So what'd he do?" he asked. "Hire some peace loving, tree hugging, demon hippy boy to baby-sit me and Kuwabara?" Botan shook her head.
"First of all, it's not a demon- this person is just as human as you and Kuwabara, although I've never seen someone with as much spirit energy as she..."
"Huh?" asked Kuwabara. "Pardon me, Botan, but I coulda swore that you just said 'she.'" Botan slightly sweat dropped as she nodded.
"Yes, you heard right- your new partner is a girl."
"WHAT?!" cried both Yusuke and Kuwabara. A GIRL?!
"Wait a second," said Yusuke. "Kayko isn't too thrilled with this whole spirit detective thing as it is- you throw in some chick that'll be following me around and she'll be pissed!" Suddenly, a light giggle filled the room.
"I don't think you'll have to worry about that." Everyone turned around to see me standing in the doorway, leaning up against the door jam, arms crossed in front of me. Yusuke just looked at me, a rather surprised look on his face.
"Kaira?" I nodded, with a smile.
"Hey Yusuke," I said. "It's been a long time- about six years now right?" He nodded as I walked into the room, and right over to him. We just stood there for a second staring at each other, until Yusuke, in a very un-Yusuke like manner, wrapped his arms around me and held me in a warm embrace, which I returned just as warmly. Like I said, very un-Yusuke.
"It's great to see you, Kay," he said before letting me go. "But, what are you doing here?" Botan cleared her throat and smiled.
"Yusuke," she said. "This is your new partner." Kuwabara looked at Yusuke, rather confused.
"Who's this, Urameshi?" he asked. Yusuke looked at him.
"Kuwabara," he said. "This is my cousin, Kaira Urameshi- her father and mine were brothers." I looked at him with a sly smile.
"Just cousin, Yusuke?" I asked. "You replace me all ready?" Yusuke returned my grin and shook his head.
"Nah- who could replace you as a best friend?"
"Nice to meet you, Kara," he said pleasantly and was rather shocked when I started to frown.
"My name is Kaira," I said, rather angrily. "Kah-ee-rah." My smile then returned as I let out a giggle. "No offense, Kuwabara, but I'm really sick of people screwing that up." The boy nodded his reply as he checked me out.
"She could be Urameshi's twin," he thought. I did have the same raven colored hair (but mine was highlighted red), same dark brown eyes (although mine were outlined with a pair of neon green framed eye glasses), the same sly smile. He also noticed that Yusuke and I seemed to have the same favorite color- both of us were wearing a green jacket over our normal clothes- mine being a pair of tight black denim jeans, a blue t-shirt with white lettering that said "Forget about my attitude- let me adjust yours," red sneakers and finally, a thin gold chain with a small "K" charm dangling from it, which had been a gift from my father. Yusuke was sporting his normal attire of blue jeans, a white t-shirt and black sneakers... his favorite outfit for the past ten years at least.
"Do you still have yours?" Yusuke said suddenly, bringing Kuwabara back to his present state of mind. I nodded, took off my jacket and rolled up my right sleeve. Tattooed there on my shoulder, in incredible detail, was a blood red dragon, the head facing right and the tail, which had some writing on it, was facing left. I looked at him and smiled.
"What about you?" Yusuke then took off his jacket and rolled up his left sleeve.
Tattooed on his shoulder was also a dragon, with writing on the tail. The only differences were that his dragon was a crimson red and was the mirror image of mine- the head faced left and the tail faced right. Yusuke and I then put our arms side by side, which made the dragons face each other and lined up the writing on the dragons' tails. Starting with my dragon, the sentence read: "Family by Fate, Friends by Choice." I smiled.
"Dad never made me remove it, like he said he would," I told Yusuke. "He knew how much it meant to me so he didn't have the heart."
"Hey, where is Uncle Rick, anyway?" asked Yusuke. "He at the house with Mom or what?" My smile fell as I shook my head.
"No, Yusuke," I said. "He's... he's not with your mom, Yusuke." My cousin looked at me, rather confused.
"Well, where is he? Couldn't he got off work?" I shook my head again.
"No... Yusuke, Dad died a few months ago." Yusuke was taken aback. He didn't know about that, but he did know how close I had been with my father- after all, since my mother died when I was ten, the last time Yusuke and I had seen each other, Dad and I were all the other had.
"Kay," he said. "I am so sorry. If I would have known... why didn't you call me? I would have been there in an instant!" I looked at the ground.
"I'm sorry, Yusuke," I said. "I just didn't know what to do at the time... That's the reason I'm a spirit detective now- my confusion."
"What?" asked Kuwabara. "What do you mean by that?" I looked at him, sighed and began to tell my story.
**Hey, everyone! Kaira here. Yusuke may be happy to see me now, but will he be when finds out how I became Spirit Detective? We'll find out next time on Yu-Yu Hakusho!**