Sorry for the writing delay. Watching the last bit of EVA in order to help with angel of light.
Chapter 3. Yusuke Urameshi, Death.
Yusuke Urameshi was having a rather bad day. First, he had gotten in a fight with Keiko, then Kuwabara and his mother and now he had been run over by a car. Factor in that some strange death spirit lady was telling him that he had an "Ordeal" to go through and he was ready to give up completely.
"Look, Botan or whatever your name is. I don't WANT my life back, all right? Like you said earlier, all I was was a juvenile delinquent." He said the last words with a slight twist of derision. "Why WOULD I want my life back?"
Botan looked slightly frustrated herself. This Yusuke boy had been rude to her ever since he had met her and now he was turning down a chance to come back to life? "Look Yusuke. I'm sure there's SOMETHING left for you." She said, throwing up her hands. "Don't turn down the idea right away, Okay. Let's go and see a few things first." As she said this, Botan took off, causing Yusuke to instinctively grab onto the end of her ore.
"I already made my decision!" Yusuke yelled, but Botan was oblivious to his objections.
HR
As Ranma walked down the street, he looked to the form next to him in concern. Kuwabara was clenching and unclenching his teeth, growling softly. "I can't believe that Urameshi." Kuwabara muttered, clenching his fists tighter. "Dieing before I could beat 'im!"
Ranma looked at his friend in slack jawed amazement. "What?" He asked, blinking. "What do ya mean by that?" The two boys had heard of Yusuke's death from Keiko, who had apparently gone to find him when he had left school. Apparently, he had died while saving a little boy from dieing on a street somewhere. There was going to be a wake for him that night and Ranma supposed that he should go. After all, even if they had only known each other for a bit over a week, Yusuke was one of Ranma's closer friends. "Kuwabara, I think you should calm down." He said, trying to get the other boy to stop clenching his fists before he broke something.
"No way. That scum bag was too much of a coward to fight me!" Kuwabara yelled, before starting to run.
"What?" Ranma asked, running after Kuwabara. Due to the other boy's surprise head start Ranma found it hard to catch up to him, but he did so as Kuwabara reached Yusuke's house. "Kuwabara. Stop." He said, trying to grab the other boy and keep him from yelling at a corpse.
Kuwabara just brushed Ranma off, surprising the older boy with his determination, and walked into the house. "Urameshi! How could you die before I had a chance ta even our score. You cowardly bastard!" To Ranma's surprise, Kuwabara then lunged into the living room of Yusuke's home, swinging out with a fist that came just barely short of smashing into the picture of the now deceased Urameshi before he crumbled into a mass of tears.
"Kuwabara…" Ranma said, watching the other boy in a state of stunned silence.
Yusuke looked on from his position hovering over the assembled funeral guests, gaping. Keiko was crying in a corner, along with his mother, while Kuwabara pretty much went insane. Even Ranma, someone who he hadn't known for very long, seemed to be saddened at his death. Then, he heard two men nearby who were talking among themselves. They were two of Yusuke's teachers, Mr. Ewamoto and Mr. Akagi.
"Those are just a bunch of Yusuke's Punk friends." Ewamoto said, glaring at Ranma and Kuwabara.
"Yes. It's too bad that car wasn't big enough for the two of them as well. You know, I bet Urameshi wasn't even really trying to help that kid, but stealing his lunch money." Akagi said with a soft chuckle. Yusuke clenched his teeth, ready to beat the crap out of him, when Mr. Takanaka walked up behind the two of them clasping each on the shoulder. "You two should be ashamed of yourselves. Mr. Urameshi gave his life to save a child and this is how you speak of the dead? I have more respect for that boy who's crying for the loss of his friend than I have for you at the moment." After saying this, Takanaka walked off, leaving the other two speechless.
"Yeh!" Yusuke said, pumping his fist into the air. "Who'd a thought that Takanaka liked me." After saying this, Yusuke floated into the main house, following Mr. Takanaka past the crying forms of Keiko and Kuwabara. As he went in, he saw the teacher offer a prayer at the picture that was set up and then express his sympathy for Yusuke's mother. After the teacher left, Ranma walked in and did the same.
As Ranma looked at the face of Yusuke's crying mother, he remembered what a strange red haired boy had told him a week ago. An image of the woman who he had taken home after her fainting spell seemed to blur over Yusuke's mother's face and Ranma wondered if she had grieved like this when her son had disappeared. Briefly offering his condolences, he left the room.
As Yusuke watched the crowds, including the little boy and his mother, leave the house, he floated into the air.
"So, what did you think?" Botan asked, floating down next to him on her ore.
"Fine." Yusuke grumbled, looking up at the girl. "I'll do it."
"Great!" Botan said, grabbing Yusuke by the hand and pulling him as she flew into the sky.
"Where are we going?" Yusuke demanded as the two flew.
"To see King Enma, of course." Botan explained, still going.
"We're going to see a king?" Yusuke asked, before the two disappeared through a portal. On the ground below them, Ranma looked up in surprise as he thought he heard a shout. Shaking his head, he continued down the street to the park where his camp was still set up. For some reason, No one seemed to object to someone setting up his tent in their park, however Ranma wasn't certain how long that would last. Brushing aside those thoughts, Ranma began to think about something that he had avoided for the last week. That being the things that the strange red haired boy had told him. Now, apparently, Ranma knew where his birth family was but could they accept him back after all of this time? Would his real mother accept his curse and where was his father, anyways? Seeing the image of Mrs. Urameshi's tear streaked face, Ranma couldn't bare to think that he may have caused a similar reaction in someone at one time. With an increasing resolve, Ranma decided that he was going to see the Minaminos tomorrow.
HR
The next day, Shuichi Minamino was getting ready to go and see his mother. She had, after her last fainting incident, finally agreed to go to the hospital and stop worrying him. Unfortunately, now he was more worried. The doctors only gave her about three weeks to live and they had never seen the condition she was suffering from before. His resolve to do what he needed to grew as he thought about this, and he finished pulling on his shoes, heading for the front door. As he reached it, he heard a knocking sound.
Opening the door, Shuichi saw a black haired boy with a pigtail standing there.
"So you decided to come back?" He asked, in a soft tone.
"Yeh." Ranma said, shrugging. "If what ya told me's right then I figured I should."
Shuichi nodded before exiting the house. "Well then, we should go to the hospital to see mother."
"The hospital?" Ranma asked, following the other boy as he walked down the street.
"Yes. The fainting spell that you found her in was a symptom of a larger problem. I'm afraid that she's had to be admitted to the hospital."
Ranma frowned worriedly as he followed Shuichi towards the district medical centre.
HR
Yusuke smirked as he thought of how he was going to beat up the big and ugly lord of spirit world while Botan looked bemused. Her charge kept muttering about how he was going to destroy King Enma, and it was rather disconcerting to her. Before hitting the button to enter the main office, she turned around to face Yusuke. "Now Yusuke, we aren't going to see King Enma, but his son Koenma. Be VERY polite because he is the son of the ruler of Spirit world." She explained, looking at Yusuke warningly.
"All right already. I heard you before." Yusuke complained, holding his hands up in warding signs.
Botan looked worried before she touched the intercom panel and spoke. "Koenma sir, this is Botan with Yusuke Urameshi." There was a buzzing sound and the door slid open, revealing a room full of ogres franticly running around in order to sort out the affairs of the dead.
Looking around, Yusuke looked confused. "Um, Botan. Where's this Koenma guy?"
"I'm down here. Came a voice from near Yusuke's knee caps. "What?" Yusuke muttered, looking down to see what looked like a young child with a pacifier in it's mouth.
"Koenma's a…." Yusuke said, his mouth open in shock. "Toddler?"
"I AM NOT A TODLER!" Koenma yelled, pulling off a nice imitation of the Tendo Family special Technique, Demon head.
"Okay, Okay! You're not a toddler. Jeas." Yusuke muttered, making placating gestures with his hands.
"I apologise Koenma sir. Yusuke is rather rude." Botan said, trying to cover for Yusuke's mouth.
"Hey!" Yusuke protested, before being shut up with a glair.
"Well, that's all right. You had just better not do that again Mr. Urameshi." Koenma said, hopping up on a chair at a desk in the middle of the room. It should be noted that there were several telephone books stacked on the chair so that the diminutive ruler could see over his desk. "Well, to get on to business. The reason I called you in here is…"
HR
Yusuke hovered in the sky of Tokyo, holding a spirit egg. "I can't believe this." He muttered, looking around. How the heck am I supposed to get them to stop the funeral?"
Well," Botan said, from her position next to Yusuke, "You could try to posses someone in order to get your message across.
"Possess? Like in those bad horror movies?" Yusuke asked, blinking.
"Yes. If you can find someone with a strong source of spirit energy or affinity with the spirit world you can possess them, with a little help from me of course."
"…Okay, so where do I find someone like that?" Yusuke asked, looking confused.
HR
Ranma headed back towards his park home, feeling slightly depressed. He had gone to the hospital with Shuichi, as he had found out the boy was named, but Shiori wasn't awake. He had gotten to see her but that was about it. As he looked around for something to do other than just head home and train for the rest of the day, Ranma noticed something odd out of the corner of his eye. Running towards it, he looked up to see what he could have sworn was an outline of a human figure. "What the heck is this?" Ranma asked, reaching out to touch the figure.
"I think we found our receptive person." Botan said, as Ranma reached out and passed a hand through Yusuke's incorporeal form.
"Really?" Yusuke asked, sarcastically.. "I couldn't tell."
"Oh, shut up." Botan growled, getting slightly annoyed with Yusuke's attitude. "All right. I'm preparing his body for possession now. You only have about an hour, so be quick."
"All right. I'm ready." Yusuke said, as he felt a sucking sensation. Ranma blinked in surprise as he felt himself go limp and his mind began to fall unconscious. 'What the heck's goin on?' He thought, before his eyes closed and then re-opened, a different force behind the controls.
"All right." Yusuke said, clenching and unclenching his fists. "I've got a body again. Now I've gotta go tell someone not to berry me." Running off, Yusuke decided to go and find Keiko.
Yusuke looked around trying to find Keiko, having been running for ten minutes. She wasn't at school and she wasn't at his place. He thought that he could have asked his mom but she was pretty smashed and he didn't think she would have remembered. As he tried to consider what to do next, Yusuke completely missed a rather large bucket of water that someone had left out on the sidewalk in front of their house, planting a foot in it. "What the hell?" He muttered, as he felt a twisting and tingling sensation, withdrawing his foot from the bucket. After doing this, Yusuke stumbled forwards and desperately tried to correct his balance. For some reason, he felt unusually off balance. Falling flat on his face he felt a rather painful sensation on his chest, as if he were crushing something sensitive.
Struggling to his feet, still very off balance, Yusuke looked down to see a pair of rather large breasts sticking forward in Ranma's loose red Chinese shirt. "What the hell?" He muttered, noticing the high pitched voice that came from his mouth. "Did Ranma just turn into a girl?" Deciding that he could think about this little bit of weirdness later, Yusuke began to search for Keiko again but found it rather hard to move quickly as he kept losing his balance. A possessing being gets the basic instructions on how to move it's new form, but Ranma's curse hadn't really been planned for and Yusuke had no idea how to compensate for the completely different sensations that he was now experiencing. As a result, he wasted about half an hour getting used to how to walk correctly before resuming his search, only twenty minutes to spare.
After another five minutes of searching, Yusuke figured out that he should probably go to the Yukimuras' place to ask where Keiko was. Quickly traveling there, he walked in only to see Mr. Yukimura waving at him cheerfully. "Ah, if it isn't our new waitress." He said, holding up a plate that he was washing. "How are you doing Ranko san?"
Yusuke stopped for a second and looked confused. It was actually quite a good thing that Keiko's father had spoken first, or he would have said something stupid like insisting he was Yusuke even if he was quite clearly a girl at the moment. "Um…. Hi Mr. Yukimura. Do you know where Keiko is?" He tried, in stead.
"Oh yes. She's out with her friends a couple of stores away." The man said, cheerfully.
"Thanks!" Yusuke said, running out of the store.
"I wonder what she wanted Keiko for?" Mr. Yukimura said as he laid the dish he had been washing on a table.
HR
A few blocks away, Kuwabara dodged to the left as an opponent came down trying to kick him in the head. All of Yusuke's old enemies had decided that now was the perfect time to attack since he was gone and the red haired boy had been trying to defend his part of the city. He had been mostly successful, but it was tiring work. 'Damn it Urameshi, I wish you were here.' He thought, delivering a strong punch to another rival gang member and knocking him through a loop.
HR
Keiko stood near a shop waiting for her friends to come out. They had insisted on going there but she wasn't really interested in the stuff that was sold so she decided to wait outside. As she waited, she felt something snaking around her back. As she gasped and began to turn, she heard a voice.
"Nice school uniform." The voice said, before squeezing a breast. "Ooh, squishy."
Yusuke you pervert!" Keiko yelled, before turning and lashing out with a hand to where Yusuke's cheek should be. To her surprise, her hand smacked a red haired girl in the top of the head.
"Hi Keiko." The girl said, rubbing the spot where she was hit.
"R… Ranko? Why did you do that?" Keiko asked, angrily.
"No Keiko. You were right the first time. I'm Yusuke." The girl said, before starting to chuckle. "I don't care what anyone says. Your punches hurt the worst."
"You're… Yusuke?" Keiko asked, in a state of disbelief. "This is a really sick joke." She said, beginning to cry..
"Keiko. Please don't cry. I'm serious!" The redhead said, desperately trying to calm Keiko down. This was a very familiar gesture, as Yusuke had always done it whenever Keiko cried, no matter how tough he tried to act.
"You… really are Yusuke, aren't you?" She asked, and then blinked. "But why do you look like Ranko?"
"Look. I possessed someone's body so that I could tell you a message, and I gotta give it back in a few minutes so listen up. Stop mom from having the funeral. I'm taking a test to get back to life but it's gunna take me a while. I'm trying as hard as I can but you HAVE TO stop mom from burying me. Got it?"
Keiko nodded numbly, before running forward and hugging the shorter girl. It felt really weird, especially since she had to hold her in her arms as she was taller, but Keiko didn't care. Then, she had to ask. "Yusuke. Why did you possess a girl's body. You aren't THAT much of a pervert, are you?" She giggled at the end.
"No. I didn't mean to possess a girl's body. Believe it or not, when I first took over this body it was a guy. That Ranma guy from school." Yusuke explained, looking confused. "I don't know why it changed but…" Yusuke suddenly stopped talking and his small body suddenly tensed up.
Ranma came to awareness in female form and with a girl hugging her. Looking up to see who it was, she saw Keiko's face. "Um… Keiko? What's goin on?"
Keiko released Ranma and stepped back. "N… Nothing. I'm sorry about that." She stammered, blushing slightly. She realized that Yusuke must have released the body when they were hugging and Ranko had regained control during the embrace. Then there was that strange comment Yusuke had made, but she just shrugged it off as him trying to get out of being caught in the act of being a bit of a pervert, which she didn't mind as long as he came back. Running off down the street, Keiko left Ranma blinking in her dust.
"What the heck was that about?" Ranma asked, before shrugging and starting back to her camp. It was getting late, after all.
END,
Notes:
Ranma's intelligence: Ranma is NOT dumber than he was normally. He merely had to take a proficiency test with no preparation. You ALWAYS score lower on those things than your basic academics. The way he got past this in the Manga and Anime was having school records that showed his previous marks, so that he could just enrol in the next year of classes. I have had the same type of test that I mentioned Ranma taking and I scored a full grade level lower than I actually am. I should also mention that I am an all right student so it wasn't me just being stupid.
Continuity: Sorry, but this story's going to start as a re-telling of Yu Yu Hakusho with a new character. There will be new behind the scenes stuff but it won't really diverge much for at least the Yukina's tears arc. Prolly start getting different around the dark tournament. Funny thing is, I've never SEEN the DT arc so this should be fun.
