They had to run quite a few blocks, and Kat became more and more miserable with every step she took. She had never had occasion to wear a skirt more than a couple of times before, and she didn't like the one she was wearing now one bit. She wondered why the Sarayashiki uniforms couldn't be more practical (it didn't help that Yusuke had never bothered to put his on, and so looked a lot more comfortable). Since it looked like they weren't going to get a chance to change any time soon, Kat quickly slapped her Spirit Agent badge on her uniform. If she was going to fight in a skirt, she would do so as a representative of Spirit World.

Just then, they rounded a corner and found themselves in a dingy alleyway. Kat was a bit taken aback by the sudden transition, but Yusuke had been in this part of town before. He ran around another corner in time to spot a group of people wandering through the alley. There were five, two women and three men, and they all had a look of apathy on their faces. Despite this, they looked like they definitely had a purpose. They were headed towards the forest, as Koenma had said.

"Shingo must be close to where Hiei, Kurama, and Gouki the Kyukonki were hiding out that one time." Yusuke remarked as the girls ran up behind him, "They look like they're headed in that direction." Kat felt a shiver run up her spine when she saw them. She didn't need outstanding spirit awareness to know that there was something unusual about those people.

"There's something wrong with them," Kat whispered, "I can't tell what, but it's weird." She felt like she was in a cemetery, or at a funeral, or some place where it was important to stay silent. Botan saw her face and was worried.

"They're probably under hypnosis," she reassured Kat, who looked shaken. Kat shook her head.

"That's not it," she whispered back, even though the people were now out of hearing distance, "It's something else."

Nevertheless, all three kept following. They dodged around in the shadows until it became apparent that, whatever these people were, they either couldn't perceive what was going on around them or had such perfect apathy that they didn't care. After they made this discovery, they walked alongside the people for a while, but Kat became so agitated that she had to drop back and walk behind. Yusuke teased her, but was careful not to touch any of the people. Even if she was just a silly girl, Kat's fears might have had a basis in fact.

Botan stared at the person closest to her. It was a woman of maybe twenty, and she looked like she might have been pretty if her face was not so pale, or her expression so vacant. Botan shuddered a little, but kept walking.

When they reached the forest, even Botan and Yusuke stepped back. Shingo could be anywhere, and it wouldn't be very tactical to waltz right into his hideout along with five of his minions. Keeping in mind that they might stumble over him at any time, they were careful to keep hidden.

All three crept quietly through the trees, being careful to look ahead before darting to the next hiding spot. Yusuke looked bored, Botan was excited, and Kat would have been annoyed by all the darting around if she still wasn't distracted by the five people. They frightened her, somehow. They were unnatural.

Finally, Yusuke had his fill of darting from tree to tree and suddenly swung up into the branches. The trees were so close together that he could easily walk from branch to branch, and the leaves were thick enough that they hid him from view. Not one to miss an opportunity to show off, Kat swung up behind him. Usually, tumbling about on the limbs would have been child's play, but she was so overeager to show off that she tried for a flip to the next branch without first getting her balance. She slipped and crashed painfully to the ground.

Yusuke, laughing, continued to walk easily along. Kat shook herself off, and swung up again. Her face was red. After that, she decided that just walking carefully along the treetops was fine. Botan continued on the ground.

Kat was walking, looking where she was stepping, when she suddenly ran into Yusuke's back. She was about the shout at him, but he turned quickly and put a hand to her mouth. Then he pointed.

About two branches from where Yusuke was standing, the trees suddenly stopped. They had reached a clearing, and, apparently, their destination. For there was a demon near the center of the clearing, and he had a human behind him. All five of the forlorn humans were slowly assembling around the demon.

Kat looked closer, and managed to get a better look at their adversary. Shingo was a small, skinny thing, only about the height of the humans' waists. He looked malnourished, but Kat knew that that was just the way some demons looked. He had scrawny wings and small, unthreatening-looking horns on his head, elbows, hands, and stubby tail. In all, he didn't look very menacing, and Kat wasn't impressed.

However, she forced herself to think. Appearance didn't always dictate the ferocity of a demon, especially ones known to have psychic powers. Kat weighed her chances, and came to the conclusion that she would eventually have to go into the clearing no matter what course of action she took. Therefore, it didn't really matter how stealthy she was as she made her entrance. Unfortunately, Yusuke made his entrance first.

He fell headfirst out of the tree and landed in a small explosion of leaves.

Shingo snapped his head around just as Yusuke leaped back up, and Kat felt her hatred for the spirit detective deepen a little.

"So!" Shingo said loudly, looking first at Yusuke and then sweeping the trees with his eyes until he found Kat. "Koenma has found me out, has he? But look! He only sent a couple of low-level detectives to fetch me back! That will be a mistake that will prove fatal." He pointed his finger at the two. "Kill them now!"

Kat leaped from the tree. "I am not a spirit detective!" she shouted. Then she noticed that the five humans were advancing on them. With a shudder, she almost took a step backwards. Then she caught herself. She refused to look scared in front of Yusuke on a case she had made out to be so easy.

Just then, Yusuke registered on the one human that wasn't moving, the original hostage. While he didn't look completely normal, he definitely wasn't like the other five. He had a blank stare and was unmoving, but he did not radiate despair and apathy. He simply looked bored, as if he was paralyzed. Yusuke looked paralyzed too, for some reason.

"It…" he stuttered, "It's Ghost!" Botan chose that moment to step out of the trees.

"He's an innocent hostage," she scolded, "So it's your job to save him whether you like it or not!"

"Innocent?" Yusuke shouted, "That guy's hardly innocent! He's a complete maniac! He doesn't go to school, he picks fights with everybody, and his dad lets him carry a gun around! And I heard he uses it if someone makes him mad!" Shingo looked very upset that no one was paying attention to him anymore.

"Attack, my minions, attack!" he shouted, trying to get everyone's attention again. He didn't realize that Kat had already sneaked around his advancing line of attackers and was now behind him.

With one quick movement, Kat grabbed both of the demon's wrists behind him and said, "Shingo, you are under arrest!" Then she stopped and looked very surprised. Shingo slipped easily out of her grasp.

"Fool!" he said, "Did you think you could defeat me so easily? I have powers beyond your wildest imagination!" Kat gasped, realizing that she could not move. She was completely paralyzed.

Meanwhile, Yusuke was trying to figure out what to do with the five advancing humans. They didn't look particularly threatening, but he wasn't sure if he should punch them. They might have some hidden power. Instead, he chose the point in the line that looked weakest and shoved his way quickly through. To his surprise, he felt a little shock of cold but met no further resistance. He looked down just in time to see his hand pass right through the nearest person's arm.

"What the…" Yusuke shouted, but he was interrupted from his discovery that their opponents were insubstantial by Kat, who had not moved since she had tried to grab Shingo but had retained the use of her voice.

"What are you waiting for, you stupid detective?" she screamed, frustrated, "Get him! Get him before he runs away or something!" Yusuke stared at her.

"How come you don't?" he asked, and Kat spat at him.

"Idiot!" she screamed, "I'm fucking paralyzed! The little creep made it so I can't move! Now get him!" But then Yusuke stopped too, because one of the five insubstantial humans had come up behind him and reached inside him. He felt the person's weak little fingers close around his heart as a shock of intense cold, as though the person was trying to pull something from him. It was staring at him with longing. He was so vibrantly alive, and it was so sad and pale.

As Kat looked on, she realized that she was getting some movement back in her fingertips. She flexed them as much as she could, and then she began to bend her elbows and wrists. Shingo didn't seem to notice, but his spell was wearing off.

"Yes!" he cried, "Yes! Feel as my servants suck the life from you, detective! Feel my awesome power! I have you both completely under my control! You will suffer! The whole world will suffer! I…"

"Oh, shut up!" Kat screamed at the top of her lungs, and she twisted her wrists all the way around so her palms were facing Shingo. "Prison of Fire!" With that, her palms glowed red for an instant and then a circle of flames sprang up around the demon, effectively trapping him. Shingo shrieked loudly and hurried to the middle of the prison, where the heat was less scorching, then quickly renewed the spell of immobility on Kat before she could follow up with another attack.

All five of the ghost-people were surrounding Yusuke. They all had their brittle fingers around his heart, and, as Shingo had said, he could feel his spirit energy quickly leaving him. He sank to his knees, feeling suddenly weak and intensely cold.

However, Botan was still very free and mobile. Swinging her bat menacingly, she raced past Yusuke and Kat and headed right for the demon. Kat saw what she was doing, and brought down her fire wall at just the right moment. With a sound like a hammer hitting a slab of meat, Botan brought her metal bat down on the point of Shingo's skull.

As Shingo fell to the ground, unconscious, Kat found herself so suddenly free that she promptly overbalanced and fell on her face. Yusuke quite suddenly found the little grips at his heart weakening and fading. Everyone looked up as the five forlorn humans floated upwards and melted away into sparkles of light, leaving behind an overwhelming feeling of relief. Yusuke got to his feet, realizing that his strength had come back when the people had let go of him.

"What were they?" he asked quietly.

"Ghosts, most likely," Botan answered, shouldering her baseball bat. Kat looked horrified.

"What?" she gasped, "That little demon was a necromancer?" She looked at Shingo, who was lying on the ground with a glazed expression, and gave a little shudder.

"No," Botan said, "He was simply a psychic. It is not very difficult for someone like him to create such servants as those. He needed only to be present at their deaths, so he could bind their souls to him before they crossed into Spirit World. So instead of finding final peace, the ghosts linger on Earth, knowing nothing but to obey the one they are bound to. They covet life, which was why they try to take it from others. Had the spell not been broken, and the ghosts released, they would have sucked Yusuke dry until not only was his spirit and life energy gone, but his very ghost as well." Yusuke shuddered, and Kat's eyes got as big as dinner plates.

"Of course," Botan went on, "Had he been a true necromancer he would have been able to infuse those souls into bodies fashioned of clay or even their own old bodies. A slave made in such a way has no free will and not much in the way of intelligence, but they are considerably stronger than simple ghosts and can attack physically besides feeding off spirit energy."

"So he wasn't a necromancer," Kat sighed, "Just a stupid demon who thought he could rule the Earth with a few low-class psychic abilities."

"Bingo!" Botan said, using her trademark word.

"But if all his spells are wearing off now that he's fainted," Yusuke asked, "How come Ghost still isn't moving?" Everyone looked at the boy. Yusuke was right. He was string into space blankly. Instead of a plaintive, sad look on his face, he was expressionless. Besides that, he was a normal human of about fifteen. He was tall, muscular, had blonde hair that stuck out in spikes over his face, and was wearing dusty, unremarkable clothes.

"Hmm," Botan said, looking him over, "He seems to be under some sort of hypnosis, the kind that doesn't simply wear off. The only way to get him back to normal that I know of would be to make Shingo do it, but I don't think that's going to be a possibility." Yusuke looked delighted.

"This is perfect!" he crowed, "Let's just leave him, please! Seriously, this guy's no good! I know him. He's a total punk, and he lives to make other peoples' lives miserable! It would be that much of a loss if we just let him stay here forever!"

"No," Botan strongly disagreed, giving Yusuke a dirty look, "I'm sure Koenma will know a way to put him back to normal. Let's take him with us while we turn in Shingo." With that, she tossed both the sleeping demon and the blank boy over her flying paddle and sat behind them, making sure they didn't fall off. "Hang on!" she shouted to the others, and Kat and Yusuke grabbed the end of the oar just as she lifted off.

****

As Botan touched down back beyond the clouds, Kat felt a sudden overwhelming feeling of being cut off. She was, briefly, back in her own home, but she was forever separated from it because of her assignment on Earth. The most she would ever see of it now would be at times like these, when there were reasons to consult with Koenma.

As they made their way to the castle, Yusuke dragging Shingo and Botan supporting Ghost, Kat wondered if she would ever get to have a real case, that would be remembered, and that she could complete with her friends. Then she shook off her despair and turned to Yusuke.

"Yurameshi!" she called, "How come you called that guy Ghost? That's not a human name, is it?" Yusuke shrugged.

"He's got a real name," he assured her, "I heard it once. I can't remember though, because he likes Ghost better and that's what everyone calls him. I'm telling you guys, it would be better if we just left him like this! He's a real nut case. He'll hit you as soon as look at you! I heard he's shot a couple of guys for trying to pick his pocket."

"Well," Kat countered, "I've heard that Detectives can actually be talented, so I guess you can't believe everything, huh?" Yusuke ignored her, and Botan led them through the gates.

"Koenma-sama?" Botan said as she entered his room. Koenma was busy stamping papers. Yusuke tried not to laugh. Kat bowed.

"Oh, Botan!" Koenma said, looking relieved to have an excuse to ignore his papers, "So, did you all handle the case?"

"Oh, yes, sir!" Botan said as she motioned for Yusuke to hand over Shingo to the nearest of Koenma's assistants. "But there's a problem. His hostage doesn't seem to have been released from hypnosis. We weren't sure what to do about it." Koenma jumped down from his perch and began to examine Ghost from all sides. Meanwhile, Kat was looking behind her at the busy room they had just come through. It was full of the Spirit World workers, who were brightly-colored, horned beasts who seemed to be constantly moving.

Then, two relatively human figures walked by the door, right in front of Kat. They both stopped. One was a girl with deep blue hair that was ear-length and a large jewel set in her forehead, and the other was a boy with a ponytail. His ears were pointed and his eyes didn't stay any one color. They were both wearing a uniform like Kat's (though she wasn't wearing it at the time), and they had Spirit Agent badges.

"Kat?" the girl said, disbelieving, "Kat, I've been wondering where you went! I haven't seen you since we took our exams and became agents! Where have you been? And what the hell are you wearing?" Kat mouthed wordlessly (she was still in her school uniform, the sailor skirt). It was two of her friends from school. She couldn't bring herself to tell them the truth.

"Didn't you hear?" the boy said, staring at Kat, "She got assigned to Earth! We're not going to see much of her anymore. Come on, we still have to finish all the paperwork from that last case." With that, they both left. The boy refused to meet Kat's eyes, and the girl looked back with heartfelt sympathy. Kat felt numb. She turned back to Koenma with dry eyes and a weeping heart.

"It seems that this is just residue from the spell that's making him like this," Koenma concluded, "All he needs is sufficient shock to jolt him out of it, I think." Yusuke brightened.

"Shock?" he asked happily, "Like would a punch work? I've been waiting so long for an opportunity like this!" With that, before anyone could stop him, Yusuke punched Ghost full in the face. Ghost took two steps backwards, looked around, and blinked several times.

"Ehh…" said Koenma.

"Oh dear," Botan added.

"What the fuck?" Ghost choked, and ran out the door of the office.

****

Several minutes later, Kat had managed to knock Ghost out with a quick blow to the back of his neck, but not before he had led everyone on a long and tiring chase all around the castle. Ghost had now seen what few other living humans had seen, and most agreed that it was all Yusuke's fault.

"Just get him back to Earth and put him somewhere from where he'll know how to get home," Koenma sighed, "And we'll hope he thinks it was all a dream."

By the time they all got back, it was getting dark, and as soon as they dumped Ghost near his house Yusuke dashed off for home. Kat followed dazedly. Her encounter with her old friends, who were obviously on their way to becoming great spirit agents, had shaken her deeply.

"Hey!" Yusuke called in Kat's ear, "Are you paying attention?" Kat glared at him.

"Oh, I find everything you do a source of constant fascination, especially that little stunt that led to an unauthorized human running all around King Yama's palace, but I must admit that I wasn't listening to that last thing you said. Please repeat it so that I might be amused."

"I was wondering if you wanted to sleep at my house," Yusuke said, ignoring Kat's unbridled scorn, "You don't really have anywhere else to go, do you?" Kat stopped for several seconds, surprised that Yusuke was being relatively nice.

"Umm," she said, "Sure!" She began to follow him inside.

"Where did you sleep last night anyway?" he asked, "I didn't see you at all between the time you slunk away while Kuwabara and I were fighting and when you came and found me this morning to drag me off to school." Kat smiled weakly.

"I didn't want to come to some human for help, so I slept behind your house." Yusuke stared at her.

"But it rained last night!" he protested, "Didn't you get cold?" Kat laughed humorlessly.

"I'm a pyromancer, moron!" she said, slapping him lightly on the side of his head, "I've never been cold in my life!"

"You can't feel cold?" Yusuke asked, disbelieving.

Kat sighed. "I didn't say that!" she said, "I can feel temperature, it just doesn't bother me. You can feel that skin is warmer than stone, but neither is painful to touch. Well, I can feel that a glowing brand is warmer than, say, liquid hydrogen. But they don't bother me, see?" Yusuke stared at her, not sure what to say. Kat grinned at him. "Why did you think I didn't get burned when you tossed me in that flaming trash can?"

Yusuke decided not to try to figure that one out. "You can have the couch," he said, "I'd let you have my bed, but if you can sleep behind a house in the rain, I don't think it'll make that much of a difference." He ran upstairs before Kat could protest. Kat sat on the couch. It was dusty and hard, and smelled of cigarette smoke and alcohol. Brat, she thought, and tried to make herself comfortable.

****

The next day, Kat was walking to school alone. When she had gone in to find Yusuke, she had found that he was already gone, and since she was already going to have to hurry to make it to class, she didn't want to go look for him. As she neared the school gates, she heard the five-minute bell ring. She picked up her pace to a run, right as a tall boy with blonde hair stepped into her path.

Her books went flying, but her training had taught well enough that she managed to keep her balance. She looked at the boy she had run into, ready to cuss him out.

It was Ghost.

"You!" Ghost shouted, and grabbed her shoulders so she couldn't get away, "Who are you? What was that place? What the hell happened last night?" He looked a little hysterical. Kat wasn't sure what to do, but her training about Earth had made it clear that she was not allowed to talk to any human about Spirit World. Since it was still early, and she wasn't really thinking straight, all she could think to say was, "I can't tell you, I can't tell you!"

Then, panicking, she smacked his hands away and created a flash of light that temporarily blinded him. "Sorry!" she called as she raced into school. His shouts followed her until she ducked into the building.

"What were all those pink and blue and orange demon guys with horns? Is that what happens when you die?"  

****

That evening, Ghost further lived up to his reputation. Yusuke had been wandering around the town when a hand jerked him down an alleyway, behind a dumpster. Yusuke suddenly found the barrel of a Gulch 9mm pressed up against his throat. At the other end of the gun was a boy with wild hair, dirty clothes, and a very peeved expression. Yusuke made a sound like a hamster being squeezed.

"Start talking!" Ghost ordered, tilting Yusuke's chin up with his gun, "Where did you take me last night? And who were those people?"

"Holy shit!" was all Yusuke could say, pointing weakly to the gun, "Is that thing fucking loaded?" Ghost prodded Yusuke between the eyes with it and hefted it a couple of times, grinning.

"Umm…" Yusuke went on, "If you're not going to shoot me, could you put the gun down?" Then he thought for a moment longer. "And put it down if you are going to shoot me too."

"No to both," said Ghost, which really didn't answer whether or not he was planning on shooting. He shifted his aim to between Yusuke's legs. "Now start talking or you'll be singing high soprano!"

Yusuke kicked the gun away, and ran out of the alley like all the demons on Earth and in Spirit World were on his heels. He heard the gun go off, and a bullet pinged off a concrete wall close to his head. He began to run faster, and bullets continued to zing around him.

"Yurameshi!" Ghost bellowed, firing the gun one last time as Yusuke safely rounded a corner, "You'd better watch out! I'll get you sooner or later!"

****

"I'm telling you, the guy was shooting a gun at me!" Yusuke insisted. Kat and Botan weren't listening. "Botan, can't he get in trouble for trying to blow a spirit detective's head off?" Botan gave him a look.

"Yusuke, don't you think you're over exaggerating?" Botan said, "I mean, I'm sure he wouldn't really have shot you."

"Aren't you listening?" Yusuke countered, "He did shoot me!"

"You're not bleeding," Kat pointed out, "I think you'll live."

"I didn't say he hit me!" Yusuke growled, "But he needs to be stopped! That kid is unstable!"

They continued the discussion all they way to school. It was the following morning, and a Friday. Kat was looking forward to the weekend, even if it meant that she would have to spend more time with Yusuke. She was beginning to hate Earth school with a passion.

By the time they got to school, the girls were completely convinced that Yusuke was grossly embellishing the story, and Yusuke and Kat were beginning what promised to be a heated discussion about why Kat had to sleep on the couch. Yusuke finally took off in disgust, mumbling to himself.

In first period, Kat took her usual seat beside Keiko. Keiko leaned over and whispered, "Yusuke told me that you're staying for a while." Kat shrugged.

"That's nice," Keiko went on, "If he's going to keep getting into trouble, I'd like for you to watch out for him. You seem to have a lot more sense than he does." She smiled, and Kat grinned weakly.

For the first time, Kat tried to really pay attention in class. She decided that, since it looked like she wasn't going to get to go back to Spirit World any time soon, she might as well get used to school on Earth. But she soon realized that no one else was really listening, so she gratefully stopped trying. Instead, she started to look around at her classmates.

One was a boy that reminded her of Ghost. He sat in the back, and looked like he would rather be somewhere else. Another was a girl with glasses, who was passing notes down to Keiko. There were lots of different kinds of humans here. Then her eyes fell on a boy sitting about in the middle of the classroom. He looked ordinary. He had strangely-colored hair that looked almost a silver-violet in the sun coming through the window, but otherwise she wouldn't have given him a second glance if not for one thing. He was looking straight at her.

Kat and the boy both quickly looked away. Kat turned to Keiko immediately. "Keiko!" she whispered frantically, "Who's that boy with the weird hair? He sits about two rows up and five seats over from us." Keiko looked for a moment, and then said, "Oh, Trunks? I don't know him very well. Why do you want to know?"

Kat didn't answer, but stretched so she was bending over the back of her chair. That way she could see behind her without looking too suspicious. This time he wasn't looking at her, so she let herself get a better look. His hair was ear-length, and violet-colored as she had seen before. He had a pointed nose and a stern mouth. His eyes were very blue.

Then he turned to look at her again, and didn't look away when he caught her staring. They locked eyes for a few seconds, him inclining his head a little and her leaning over the back of her chair. She leaned a little farther back, and saw him smile. Kami-sama, he's cute! she thought to herself, then mentally slapped herself. What was she saying? He was a stupid Earthling and that was the end of it! She tried to sit back up and her chair fell backwards.

"Oww!" she shrieked as her head hit the desk behind her. She felt blood come to her mouth and tears to her eyes. No matter how much one trained under even the toughest senseis in Spirit World, falling backwards onto your head still hurt. She heard the class roar with laughter and suddenly had the overwhelming urge to just stay underneath her overturned desk.

Finally, she rolled over painfully and began to heave her desk upright. Almost subconsciously, she glanced over at Trunks again. He was laughing softly while still managing to look concerned. She tried to smile back at him, but slipped and fell again.

****

Later that day, Kat was in gym. Since it was the only class she was any good at, she was happy. Pyromancers weren't known for their physical strength, but she was very fast, and she sometimes had to catch herself before she drew too much attention. This usually wasn't as much of a problem, though, as her habit of catching things on fire, so she didn't worry.

That day they were playing baseball. Kat was leaning against the fence in her buruma and waiting her turn to bat when her eyes fell on the same boy she had seen first period. He was manning third base. She suddenly felt an overwhelming wish that he would see her, and at the same time hoped desperately that he would not.

Then she was up to bat, and she didn't know what to wish.

She took the bat clumsily, and felt it slipping around in her grip. She stepped up to the plate without taking her eyes off third base for a second. She wasn't even aware of what the pitcher was doing. Then he looked at her again, blinked, and smiled. And she couldn't see anything at all until the baseball bounced off her forehead, leaving her sitting in the dust nursing her twice-injured head.

****

"Let me get this straight," Yusuke laughed later, after Kat had explained the two sizable bumps on her head (leaving out certain details), "In first period you fell backwards off your chair, and hit your head on the desk behind you. Then, as if that wasn't enough, you get beaned by an oncoming baseball while staring off into space! You are so clumsy! Is everyone from Spirit World as hopeless as you?" Kat stared at the ground.

"Yeah, hopeless," she muttered. Yusuke stared.

"You're lying," he said, and Kat jumped. "I can tell," he went on, "Because normally if I said something like that you'd threaten to burn something up. You're trying to hide something." Kat stayed obstinately silent, refusing to admit to anyone, especially Yusuke, that she had been distracted by a boy. 

"You know, Yurameshi," Kat growled, giving him a token threat to get him off her case, "I hear the bandaged look is in. And that's lucky for you, cause bandages is what your going to be wearing if you keep this up." Yusuke smirked with satisfaction.

But Kat was troubled. She was supposed to be professional, an agent of Spirit World come to earth by a perverse twist of fate. But now she was acting like a silly schoolgirl. The last time she had noticed a boy in her class was several years ago, in her school preparing her to become a warrior.

Could she possibly be starting to feel so at home here?

Kat shook her head violently. Of course she didn't fell at home on this miserable planet! Yusuke was an arrogant brat who happened to stumble on a job as Spirit Detective. He was a gangster, and at the very dregs of human society. Keiko was a better specimen, but she was still a human, and could never be associated with. Her teachers were idiots, and her classmates were like babies compared to what someone their age would have been through already in Spirit World. Even Botan was part of it. She called herself a ferry-woman of the River Styx? She had taken Yusuke on as her little project, and now seemed to like Earth better than the Reikai itself! They were all inferiors, all stupid. She hated them all.

And even as Kat felt the familiar burn of resentment flare back up inside her, she savored it. This is what she was supposed to feel. How could she have even begun to fool herself into thinking the Earth was home?

"Baka Ningen!" she spat at Yusuke, suddenly maddened, and with that she launched herself into the nearest tree so quickly that to Yusuke it looked like she had fizzled out and disappeared.

"What's wrong with her?" he wondered, and kept walking.

Kat slept on a roof far away from Yusuke's house that night.