**Curtains Rise, Enters Stage Left Holding Megaphone**

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN YU YU HAKUSHO. How sad for me.

Story: The Yu Yu Girls Take Center Stage

Chapter 1: Train

Characters: Touya/Keiko


Today was a great day for celebration; it was the first day of winter, the Winter Solstice. Of course you wouldn't be able to tell it by looking around, for not one single flake of snow had yet to fall. Despite the lack of snow, the trees were still barren from fall and the grass and flowers had long since retired for a season of sleep, but that's not what disturbed Keiko the most. What stood out to her was the sky. It was the haunting icy blue it had turned recently. It was an unnatural color to be sure; one Keiko knew she had seen somewhere before, but she just couldn't place the memory.

Keiko huddled deeper into her coat when the biting wind hit her skin. There was a definite chill in the air as she made her way to the train station to meet the group. Genkai had invited everyone up to her compound for a celebration and to acquaint everyone with the youkai who had been given special permission to live and train there for a time.

She'd finally made it to the station and deliberately took in a deep breath of warm air the second the terminal doors closed behind her. Keiko picked up her ticket, then made her way to the platform where her train should be arriving and her friends waiting.

There was only a few other people sharing the platform space with her, and sadly none of them were the faces and forms she'd been expecting. There was an older woman, probably mid thirties with two younger children, a boy and girl hanging of her pant legs. Off to the left, there was an old lady feeding the birds and crooning softly to them. Aside from those four and some litter strewn on the pavement, she was alone.

"Figures," the brown haired girl mused quietly, "they went on ahead without me." So embroiled was she in her thoughts of abandonment that she did not notice someone approach from behind.

"So they left you out of the loop too?," questioned a quiet voice.

Keiko let out a shrill shriek as she whirled around; hand pulled back for one of her infamous slaps, only to be stopped short at who she found. She let out a sigh of relief when she found that it was Shizuru behind her, puffing contentedly on her cigarette.

"You plan on using that?," she uses her cigarette to indicate Keiko's still raised hand.

Keiko looks up at the offending appendage and quickly pulls it to her side giving a nervous laugh. "Uh no,… you just startled me is all." The other girl merely shrugged nonchalantly. "Hey..um, you wouldn't happen to know where everyone is would you?"

"Yeah they left out early; sometime last night I believe," she casually flicked the remnants of her cigarette to the side while pulling out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. The edges were wrinkled and slightly singed and the inked smeared in some places. It looked as if a fight had broken out over this scrap of paper.

Hey Sis,

Me and the gang are headin out tonight. See ya at Genkai's

Kazuma,

P.S .hey, could you make sure Keiko makes it to grandmas? Thanks!

Yusuke,

Keiko giggled softly as she pictured Yusuke and Kuwabara fighting over the pen to leave their respective messages. Keiko also felt a small flame of anger flare up inside of her at the same time, as the thought that once again Yusuke had left her to figure things out for herself crossed her mind.

She squashed it instantly, 'Well at least he left a note this time, maybe there's hope for him yet.'

Shizuru had pulled out yet another smoke and had light up again, and was giving Keiko a cool stare.

"Well it's just the two of us, I guess," Keiko gave a small smile trying to feign indifference.

Shizuru noticed that the younger girl's smile never quite reached her eyes anymore. In fact, Shizuru wasn't sure that she'd ever seen a true smile grace her features, except for when Yusuke came back that day on the beach. 'The beach…' that had been a good day, and Keiko had been genuinely happy and light hearted that day.

Things went smoothly for a while after that; Keiko, Kurama and her little brother had finished up their last year in high school. Yusuke had even started taking night classes so he could get his high school diploma; but then it happened, the ex-spirit detective had gotten bored. Apparently schoolwork, training at Genkai's, running his own street side ramen stand and Keiko weren't enough to fill his time anymore.

While Keiko was busy preparing for college, Yusuke had been doing side jobs for Koenma. These jobs were all off the record of course, since Yusuke officially was still terminated from his job as detective to the Reikai. However this little fact didn't stop Koenma from slipping Yusuke a "missing" case file or two until he was able to find a suitable replacement.

The only problem with that was that Yusuke had promised Keiko that he'd never take another dangerous assignment from Koenma again, nor would he disappear to the Makai. Still, Yusuke being Yusuke, he had managed to break both promises in a mere six months after his return.

When Keiko found out, to say she was fed up with his antics was an understatement. In fact, in an uncharacteristic display of cold fury after quietly letting him explain himself, she gave him a scathing look that would stop Hiei's darkness dragon in its tracks and she walked out. She walked out without so much as uttering a word or looking back. In that moment it was clear to everyone, even the dimwit who stood staring after her, that Keiko Yukimura was tired and she wasn't putting up with it anymore.

'That girl just hasn't smiled the same since she dumped Yusuke,' Shizuru shook her head, 'it's like she's missing something…..maybe if she found a new man?'

Shizuru was pulled from her musings about Keiko as the train screeched to a stop in front of their platform. "Well, I guess we better get going," she stated; grabbing the younger girl's arm and dragging her onto the train.

Shizuru tossed away the butt of another cigarette before getting them both on the train. Both girls sat quietly in their compartment, preferring the comfortable silence to speech as both entertained private thoughts. Suddenly Keiko gave an unsure shake of her head and tried to square her shoulders as she looked up at Shizuru with a question in her eyes

Shizuru blinked; looking back at the girl's odd behavior holding her empty fingers to her lips, cursing the train for having a no smoking rule as the tension from Keiko rose another notch.

Shizuru reached out to her, "What is…" Keiko effectively cut her off "Shizuru; I know we're all staying the night at the compound, so I was thinking that once everyone's asleep, would you bring Botan and Yukina to my room? I have something that I want to discuss with all of you."

Keiko's words had come out in a rush, leaving the chain smoker in front of her at a loss for words. In fact all Shizuru could do was nod her acceptance as Keiko beat a hasty retreat, mumbling something about needing to find a bathroom.

In reality she wasn't the least bit surprised; she could feel it in the air, something big was being put into motion. She just never expected it to be coming her way or spurred on by Keiko; the kind hearted, level headed girl of all people. Somehow she knew, that after their midnight meeting tonight, things would never be the same for any of the girls involved.

"Well, this should be interesting," Shizuru said to an empty room, and once again wished for a cigarette.

It wasn't too long before the train came to their stop and both girls exited to an empty platform.

"What, they couldn't at least meet us at the station?" said Keiko with an annoyed tone of voice.

"Come on Keiko, cut the boys some slack. I mean they left us a note, and that alone probably killed my baby brother's daily supply of brain cells," Shizuru chuckled at her own joke, lighting up once again the second her feet left the train. "Now come on; we've got to get going, there's still a long walk ahead of us."

Keiko groaned at the mere thought of all the steps they had to climb just to get inside Genkai's land; I mean, forget even getting to the front door. Shizuru slapped her on the shoulder good naturedly and gave her an encouraging smile before lightly pushing her into motion.

The two chatted back and forth during the walk. Shizuru complained about the salon she worked at, the shallow girls she worked with and most importantly which customers were lousy tippers. She also talked about how her little brother had decided to major in law enforcement.

Keiko talked about life on campus, her professors, and how her pre-law classes were going. She also talked about her little hole in the wall of an apartment and how strange it was to be living on her own now. Also about how she was having a hard time adjusting to how quiet it was without the sounds of the ramen shop beneath her feet.

Half-way up the steps, the duo could already hear that the party was in full swing. Various kinds of music came blaring down to greet them as they climbed the stairs. The two girls sweat-dropped, as several unidentifiable objects went flying over their heads.

"Do we even want to know?" Shizuru asked as she opened her second pack of cigarettes for the day.

"Probably not Shizuru, probably not," Keiko answered.

Once they reached the door Keiko squared her shoulders and smoothed the wrinkles from her clothes, "Well, let's go see if we can help Genkai handle this rowdy bunch." Then Keiko, looking for the entire world like a solider that'd been sent to the front-lines, stepped through the door.

"Oh yeah, defiantly going to be interesting," Shizuru stated, flicking her smoke away before she too disappeared behind the door.


Well I hope that you all like the start to my story, please read and review if you want more.

**Walks Off Stage Right, Looking For Touya; Curtains Close**