. . . means a new endeavor.


"But I don't want to go about mad people."

"Oh, you can't help that. Most everyone's mad here."


Shizuru lit a cigarette as she waited for her brother outside of someone's house- he had yet to say who or why.

"Hurry up little bro. I'm missing my soap," she said as she looked at her watch.

It was the sort of house one passed on the way to town, squeezed in between two others exactly like it. The only different feature was a thick nest of flowers congesting the small front yard and barely enough room to walk through them.

Kuwabara closed the front door behind him and walked down the steps with a queered expression on his face and a grown cat in his arms.

"I swear, there's something weird about that girl," Kuwabara said as he left the outer gate.

"This coming from the 'man' carrying a kitty?"

"Hey, shuddup!" he defended himself as they strolled together down the sidewalk towards home.

"It's this Saika girl. She's in my class, and she's got these eyes like an owl's. I mean, don't get me wrong, she's nice and all, but she's always staring. I didn't notice it before, but she's always looking at me weird-"

"Hey, do you feel that?" Shizuru stopped suddenly. It was the strangest sensation, as though someone had grabbed her from behind, inside of her mind. It was her spirit sense acting up.

"No, what is it?"

"Something- never mind." The siblings continued casually down the road.

"Not smart," Saika scolded herself. "I'm not ready yet," she thought as she shut the door and put back up her mental fence.

Not even Kuwabara could sense her when her defenses were up, but it came with a price.


Yusuke's cheek still had the shadow of a hand print on it.

He greeted Keiko as she worked in her family's ramen shop, with an unexpected grope, and she reacted accordingly.

There was no one left in the store when Botan entered the fluffy scene unexpectedly.

"Oh, am I interrupting something?" she cooed knowingly with her hand held impishly her mouth.

"What the hell, Botan?" Yusuke barked as he stood off of the ground, because he had previously been leaning over Keiko (or at least trying to).

"I'm here on business," she put up her hands, trying to forge a wall between herself and his anger.

"What? Already?" asked Keiko.

"Sorry, but Lord Koenma says that you should get on it right away."

"Emergency this, emergency that. This saving the world thing is getting kind of old. Don't I at least get a twenty four hour break?"

"Well, it's not exactly a world crisis. Here," Botan said as she sat down at stool in the ramen bar, pulling out and opening an office folder. Inside was the profile on a nondescript human girl with a blank faced picture.

"This is Saika Ota. Blood type O, blonde hair, gray eyes, born December 4th-"

"Skip the details, Botan," Yusuke groaned.

"You know, some detectives like to know the details of their cases."

"That's just not my style," he shrugged.

"Come on, Yusuke. Be serious," Keiko advised.

"Whatever. Just give me the facts, Botan."

"Saika Ota. She's shown spiritual awareness since childhood, but never enough to attract any attention."

"Like Shizuru?" Keiko asked.

"Exactly," Botan nodded. "You'd do good to pay this much attention, Yusuke."

"Just get on with it!"

"Well, recently she's been involved with Kuwabara-"

"Involved? And here I thought he was dating Yukina," Yusuke quiped.

"That's not what I meant! She's been taking care of his cat for him." At that, Yusuke snorted. "And recently she's shown some unusually large bursts of spiritual energy. No one has been harmed as of yet, but we're unsure of how much she knows or what her intentions are. We need you to monitor her and find out what's going on."

"Wait, I think I've seen her before," Keiko spoke, eyeing the picture keenly. "Yeah, I know her. She's in our class."

"Now that you mention it, she does look kind of familiar," Yusuke made his Sherlock face and pinched his chin.

"Yes, it says here that she attends Sarayashiki Junior High with you two." Botan speculated as she scanned the page.

"Well isn't that just the best coincidence? Why is everyone around here a psychic or a demon?"

Botan closed the folder and handed it to Yusuke. "So says the resurrected Spirit Detective."

"Well, Yusuke, it looks like you'll have to come to class now," Keiko smiled as Yusuke's groaned.


Hiei in the next chapter. Prepare yourself.