"It's funny, Yusuke," Botan said.
"None of us were expecting you to die today;
you've thrown us all for a loop.
Run someone with your credentials through that scenario
A Thousand Times
and they never would've saved a kid like that.
No one saw it coming and quite frankly, we haven't prepared a place for you yet."

A Thousand Times

Seeing the people beginning to shift to the sides of the street and shopkeepers blocking their doors, he perked up rather than shy away like the rest. It meant it was a chance to catch a street punk by the name of Yusuke Urameshi. A shoplifter, a delinquent with a penchant for a smoke every now and again, an attitude at anyone of true authority, and a mouth not shy to be dirty around complete strangers.

He had once offered Kuwabara a stolen smoke a while back.

It was a weird moment from his rival, but an offer he had vehemently declined.

Noting the hunch of the shoulders and the familiar tones of the currently grumbling voice, Kuwabara brightened. His gang stepped up, surrounding the other boy, as he strode forwards with his shoulders back, standing tall.

"Urameshi," he greeted confidently. Today was the day. Took a while to hunt his rival down since he bailed school early, but the usual streets were where he and his gang found the punk.

"Hey Kuwabara, you're conscious. I'm not used to that."

Kuwabara straightened in indignation and for any possible intimidation. Considering it was his so far unbeatable rival, Yusuke Urameshi, intimidation was near impossible to manage. Still, at least he was beating his rival in height. Grabbing Urameshi by the collar, he defended himself. "That was a cheap shot last time and I was only knocked out for a little bit, okay? Now I'm back and I'm going to beat your face up so bad even kittens won't look at you!"

"Hm." His rival leaned forward, a dangerous grin spreading across his face. "Ah. So sorry you caught me on a bad day. It makes me a real jerk."

Startled, Kuwabara jolted back as Urameshi jumped upwards and out of his grasp. No! And with himself free, Urameshi proceeded to wail into him with a crazy ease compared to the past few challenges. Bad day. Kuwabara groaned as he lay in the street.

"You win," he heard Okubo say.

"Don't hurt us," said Kirishima.

Not hearing one of his gang members, Kuwabara sent a single silent praise to Sawamura.

"Ah. I feel better." Well, his rival certainly did sound far more pleased than when Kuwabara first approached him. Trying to move his body, he shifted about just enough to see Urameshi walking away, annoyed to see any tension in his shoulders gone. Even whistling as he walked away. That bastard.

His friends rushed over to him at Urameshi's exit. Sawamura first. Concerned, his second in charge that he tended to rely on opinion more than the other two, spoke up. "Kuwabara. Maybe you should stop picking so many fights with Urameshi, huh?"

Except for that opinion. Kuwabara was certain he would one day beat the other street punk, taking him down some notches for his more delinquent actions, like shoplifting.

"That makes it zero wins and one hundred and fifty-six losses."

He burst up at that, fist up and ready. "NOOO!" Gritting himself, he assured himself. "I almost had him that time." And after he declared it, his body gave up on holding himself up at that moment.

"Kuwabara!"

"I'm okay, I'm okay," he reassured them all quickly. "Just got a bit light headed there. Sat up too fast."

"Okay Kuwabara," Sawamura agreed lightly. "Let's get you up now and patched up before your sister finds out."

He scowled. "She'll know anyway," he grumbled irritated. "Shizuru's good at that." The other guys glanced at each other and shared a chuckle at his expense.

"There's the Kuwabara intuition we all know."

"Shaddup," he defended. It was a weak argument against it all. He took Sawamura and Kirishima's help to get back up. Okubo took the chance to continue the amusement to defuse the situation of him losing, again, to his rival.

"Last time she called you out on it when we rounded the block corner."

"Calling you weak," Kirishima recalled and piped in.

He saw Sawamura fight a smile, but it came out anyway. "Then smacked us all over the head, calling us idiots who can't keep you from overdoing himself, then pounded into you."

Kuwabara groaned. "I didn't overdo it today. I just bet she'll know," he groused loudly.

Laughing at him, Kuwabara pulled himself upright again as the other two's grips loosened for a moment. He just knew he was going to hear about getting too excited and rushing in when it should have been obvious his rival was already having a bad day. He winced to himself. Yeah, he definitely would. Knowing his sister's senses, she'd know he'd noticed but still rushed in and spewing challenges.

Somehow, he felt Shizuru had the advantage in her sixth strength compared to him, even if he had an edge on sensing life threatening danger rather than her read on people. With her insistence and spirits coming to him more than her, he had gained a better read on people than most around him, but he still lacked her speedy pin point precision. He'd sense it and react to it, but wouldn't realize the specifics until later.

Urameshi wasn't life threatening, but perhaps he'd be well off to remember not to push it when his rival was having a bad day.

Kuwabara frowned. Seemed that punk had been having those far more often than when he first began challenging him. Today had been the worst yet. Truth be told, he worried every now and then about Urameshi taking a worse turn. Cocky idiot insisted on being solo and doing crap that could get him in real trouble in life already.

"I'll get Urameshi yet."

And he totally saw Sawamura shake his head at him from the corner of his eye.

AN: To be honest, this is a reposting up of a story I took down some time ago. Because I knew if I went all out, it was going to be a long haul, yet I still find myself taken in with the idea of this 'What If'. This is set from Kuwabara's perspective and starts the day Yusuke died, except this important starting day goes as Spirit World expected. I'll be posting up the chapters for this first part daily (presuming there will be no technological issues) and plan to do the same with each part, section, of the story. There will be time between, but once I start posting a part, I plan to get them up fairly quickly. There are 10 chapters set for the first part.