Kazuma and his nephew pulled into the parking lot with the beams of the bright orange sun fading into the western skies guiding him to a clear spot of the cluttered asphalt. A blanket of broken tree limbs and branches littered the ground around his car. An eerie stillness filled the air, as though he was waiting for the storm to pick up once again. The front of the school he remembered from the days of his junior high years felt distant as he gazed at the once gracious archway, which had lead him to the front of the building demolished with a black Sudan lodged in the ground blocking the entrance with its backend. Carrying Saito on his hip, Kazuma cautiously examined the grounds on his way to the entrance. Both the broken glass from the school's windows and debris of vehicles that had been thrown like lawn darts into the earth in front of the shattered entrance mesmerized Saito. Kazuma gingerly stepped over the ground, edging himself into a building he once took for granted in his earlier days. The days when he and the members of his gang continually butted heads with the brash street fighter felt like they were just light years away. He crept over the remains of a bone white Toyota lodged in the doorframe in the darkened foyer of the old Saranaski.
"Hello, is anyone in here?" he hollered up and down the corridors of the seemingly empty building.
"Kazuma, there you are. I am glad you had showed up," his sister said to him in a hollow voice. She stood before him, the baby asleep in her arms. She looked at her brother with a blank stare in her eyes. She gazed at her son; the thought of never seeing him again still clung to her mind. Saito, still clung to his uncle, reached over and touched his sister on forehead with his flattened hand. Tears drew lines down her face, seeing the both of them standing in front of her. "Kazuma…" was about all she could muster out of her relieved heart.
With his free arm, he embraced his sister. "Shizuru, I am so glad you and Sakura made it in one piece. I was so afraid you wouldn't make it and end up crashed, in the hospital, or worse. You are my favorite sister and the best mother I know, I'd hate to lose you. I know Kurama would be a mess without you."
"Yes I know, he's told me that so often. Still it feels good hearing those words repeated. I feel the same way about you. You are my number one little brother. You will always be my best friend, the first man in my life. I am glad that this puny windstorm didn't steal you and Saito away from me."
"Where is everyone else? I see that Urameshi's car has made itself a home in the school."
"I was wondering whose car that was. It looked like Yusuke's, but with everything scattered, I could tell whose that was at first. Of course his plates would have SPRTGUN tapped onto it. Yeah, that's his car. He's going to have a mondo fit, Keiko told me last week he just had the transmission fixed," Shizuru sighed heavily, rolling her eyes.
Suddenly a pair of rose-smelling hands reached from behind the young mother and covered her eyes. "I wonder who this could be. Is it a doctor, a demon fox, or maybe it's a guy being ornery? Naw, its just some poor schmuck who has nothing better to do with his time than to blind me and make me guess."
"Hey, now. I am not poor," the guy retorted, "The fox does wish one thing from his vixen," he whispered playfully into Shizuru's ear, flopping his arms around her neck like a rag doll. "He requests some milk duds from his sweet."
"The vixen will give the fox all the milk duds he wants, later, when she is not holding their kit in her arms," she replied, turning herself around to greet him. Shizuru looked at her fox boy in his sparkling jade eyes, twirling his hank of ruby hair around her fingers with her free hand. He turned his gaze, pretending to be disappointed. She drew her hand underneath his chin and smiled at him. "How about one milk dud, will that do for now, fox?"
"I guess," he sighed. Shizuru drew her lips towards his, and caressed his for as long as they could.
"I hate to break this little reunion up, Sis, but…" Kazuma interrupted, "Your boy is becoming restless. And sounds like Urameshi is done with role call. Think I will break the news about his beloved four-wheeled baby."
The old junior high rivals met each other at the top of the basement stairs near the front entrance of the school. "Kuwabara, I see the wind has brought you here but why are you not letting me past to let me dismiss my students."
"Yeah I know but I have some good news and bad news…" Kazuma hesitated. Suddenly an uneasy feeling swept between him and Shizuru. "Sis, did you…"
"…Feel that? Yes, something has happened," his sister confirmed.
"I'll say something already did happen. Who or what is the idiot who brought my car inside the building?" Yusuke sneered in a very snappy voice, upon seeing the foyer of the school, "Kuwabara, you were trying to bar me from seeing it, tell me you didn't do this."
"You caught me, I did it on my way in. You know my power to levitate heavy objects," Kazuma obviously lied.
Coming out of the Ladies Room with her daughter in one arm and a cell phone in her other hand, Keiko peered at he husband with a worried look on her face. "Honey I can't get a hold of the old woman. I have called my parents to see if they made it through the storm, they did. I called Atsuko; she's at a wedding in Kiyoto. Shizuru and Kazuma's parents are in Hawaii, Shiz told me earlier. Then I called Genkai but I couldn't get through. Honey…?"
"Give me the phone," Yusuke requested. His wife handed him her phone. He redialed his sensei's number.
"Maybe the tornado knocked the cell tower out in her area?" wondered the fox demon.
"No, we got a satellite phone for her and for ourselves," replied Yusuke, "Now that she is getting older, we keep track of her everyday."
"Maybe the batteries are dead in her phone?" suggested Shizuru.
"That can't be, I was up there yesterday and replaced the old batteries with brand new ones. She should be good for several months. Her phone is ringing but I am not getting any response," he replied in a worried voice.
Shuu shook his head, and looked at his distressed friend. "Maybe we should go up there ourselves and check on her. I am starting to worry about her and I am getting this sick feeling in my stomach about her, like something has happened."
"You all go and check her out," Keiko suggested, "I will watch the kids. I can't see anything spiritually as well as any of you can."
"All three? Are you sure you want all three? I'd hate to burden you," replied an uneasy Shizuru.
"We'll all be at the school and my parents. Besides it will give Megumi a chance to play with Saito, she would love it. I know he loves hanging out with her. And it will give me practice to handle a baby again, since this summer I will have this boy," Keiko insisted.
"Yeah, well Urameshi, since your car is in here, might I suggest my car. I have it parked outside."