A Thousand Times

Splitting off with his gang after school, Kuwabara made off in the direction of the house haunted by Sayaka earlier than he did the previous night. It was early. Being that Souta wouldn't be asleep at the moment. But that was a bit of the point. If he could be there before the kid had his soul separated another time, then he had a chance at seeing it didn't happen. Kuwabara was not really all together sure about the chance being high, yet it was still a chance and more than waiting until Sayaka would be active and already pulling the boy out from a proper sleep.

Hopping and sliding himself up onto the wall, he tugged out his schoolwork, determined to get some done while he waited around until Sayaka started becoming active.

There was no way he was going to head home between school and dealing with this. He may have lucked out before, but his luck was not that good. Wincing, he shifted sideways on the wall, the thought of this not being figured out before he went home tonight hitting him. Shizuru made herself very clear on what she thought of him rushing into danger over his head. Like him rushing up and challenging Urameshi on his bad days. Treading from rushing in on normal danger to the abnormal type dangers... Well.

Pushing the thought of that aside, shoving it forcefully away from terrifying him on top of what he was already planning to get further involved in, Kuwabara awkwardly managed to prop a notebook up onto his knee and tilted to read the book positioned on the wall under his legs as he took notes.

"Cry baby, cry baby!"

Drawn out of his focus, Kuwabara glanced over as a kid went streaking past him. Blubbering and bawling. Two other kids followed at a slower jog, smirking and laughing at the back of the first kid.

"Still crying about a stupid dog! It's dead, cry baby!"

"Hey!"

The two young boys skidded to a halt, going wide eyed as they looked up at him, then bolted, screaming. Shaking his head, Kuwabara sat back up on the wall and turned his head to see where the other kid had gotten to. He slowed and straightened.

From the house next to Sayaka's haunting spot, the house he swore he spotted the crying kid running into, was the faintest feeling of otherworldly. It was small. Yet it'd only cropped up after the kid ran in. Loyalty and caring. If Kuwabara had to guess off of that and what the two boys had been using to taunt…it appeared as though the soul of the dog was lingering. Staying there. For that blubbering kid. The kid seemed pretty torn up about the dog passing away and it didn't look like he had friends his own age. Poor kid.

Wait.

His pencil fell from his hand.

Right next door? And the other night, Souta had said something about dogs. The boy had been almost too excited about the prospect of having Kuwabara as a friend. Little kids did tend to look up and admire those older, wanting to be friends with them and he'd not thought much of it, but…

Oh man. The boy had lost a precious pet recently, hadn't he?

But if Souta's dog was lingering around to comfort the boy, where was—Kuwabara shifted and pushed himself up to see the doghouse—Jiro the other night with Sayaka? Animals were at times more sensitive to these kinds of things. Perhaps being a soul, the girl a ghost, and Souta having his soul separated…perhaps the dog didn't sense the danger of it as well since all of them weren't physical entities at night? And Jiro only saw his owner finally having a friend outside of a pet?

Kuwabara frowned. Things of the otherworldly sort were harder to pin down. There wasn't the same following of rules that held up in day to day life. Well, unless you were in the Kuwabara family or had some sort of ability for this sort of thing.

Still. He'd never really dug farther than he had to or what had been informed of by older family members for these things. Just, really avoided. Well, tried to avoid. For the most part. The focus of them tended to be on him. But with others… This is probably why he was told more fear inducing stories by older family members. And him being a bit of a punk was far more accepted.

'Focus your need to help others in more manageable situations, like schoolyard bullies, okay Kazuma? You're still a kid and aren't trained. Not like your grandfather's sister was.'

'But what about—'

'Know your own strength. As it grows, your ability to handle more of those other situations will grow as well. Time. It requires patience. Waiting to see. And a bit of hard work.'

'It'll grow? Then…I can still help?'

'In time.'

'Okay Great Grandmother. I'll wait.'

Kuwabara drew in a steadying breath.

It'd only been a couple of months since she had passed. While it was not the most shocking as she'd been declining in health the past year, it still shook him and the family up. She'd always seemed like she was always going to be around to him. He knew it wasn't true, but it always seemed that way and she'd been the one to reassure him about things. His fears about not making friends at school, talk him through his impatience about things, unusual family stuff…

To have a cornerstone of your life taken away.

Kuwabara sighed, rubbing a hand down his face as he stared at the house next door. He understood. Grasping a hold of something was needed. He gravitated toward more time with his gang and patrolling the area for any troublesome punks and pushing himself into rumbles with Urameshi to get stronger. This kid needed something. Someone. And Sayaka was a lonely thing too.

He couldn't not help. There'd been a marked surge in his ability for sensing things and more of those things gravitating toward him of late. Which didn't seem all that strange since his great grandmother had passed on. If a bit scary and annoying and maybe a bit exciting in the growth.

As startling as it was, it felt as though Botan coming forward was fitting and perfect and destined the more he thought on it.

Something new to grasp a hold of after his great grandmother passed. And in remembering that conversation from years ago about his need to jump in and help. The time he'd been yelled at and given far more fear talks after the older members of the Kuwabara family realized and jumped in to manage it much better than his attempt had gone.

Besides his dad. His dad had chortled and joked about the situation, not offering advice or assuring, but laughing about the thoughtless actions that lead to the whole big mess. Then steered him over to Great Grandmother.

If Souta had grasped a hold of Sayaka at this time of his beloved pet passing, and couple that with Sayaka's attachment onto Souta, this just got much harder than Kuwabara originally bargained for when he went barging into the house last night.