Kayko sighed unhappily in her bedroom as she looked down at Puu, "I wonder where Yusuke is?"

Puu looked up at Kayko, "Puu?"

Kayko smiled slightly, "Well, you seem happy. Yusuke mustn't be in any danger, then, at least. Still, I wish I could go see him."

She looked at her phone for a moment and then picked it up. She dialed Kuwabara's number, "Hello? Oh, its you, Shizuru. Sorry. Has Kuwabara made any progress in finding Yusuke yet? Oh... Well, all right. Thank you for your time. Bye."

Kayko sighed again. Puu made a silly little attempt at a hug, "Puu! Puu!"

She patted the little spirit beast on the head.

A week had passed since that fateful day Yusuke and his mother had arrived at the Tendo Dojo. Since then, Ranma had obviously been cured from his poisoning and everything was back to normal... if anyone could call Ranma's life normal. The first three days had been a constant surprise for Yusuke. In those three measely days, he had learned many things about the new place in which he lived. He had learned of Amazons, of more curses, of an oknamiyaki chef, of Genma Saotome's cowardice, of fights between Ranma's fiances and fights between Ranma and his half-sister, Akane, of Nabiki's money-making schemes, of Ranma's adventures in finding a cure for his curse, and of two crazy siblings and their equally crazy father who happened to be principal of the school he was being forced to attend.

Of course, sometimes, he was able to come up with some sort of sneaky plan that would allow him to skip school, but most times he was dragged out of bed by... Akane Tendo. She wasn't as bad as Kayko in the sense that Akane didn't nag. The real problem was that she was a whole lot more physical than Kayko and it was really hard to sleep when someone was dragging you across the floor. Not to mention practically throwing you at the dining table. As if school wasn't trouble enough, he had also been made to get a job by his other half-sister, Nabiki. He was really beginning to get irritated with her cool, "strictly business" attitude.

Yusuke's job was as a janitor for a big department store. Cleaning up people's trash was not his idea of fun, but he really didn't have much choice. Almost all of his earnings went to Nabiki, which made the job even more displeasing. He found that there were a couple of things good about the job, though. First, it kept him away from the Tendo Dojo and surrounding areas, which meant he didn't have to deal with Mousse without his glasses on or have any of Ranma's fiances bug him about where Ranma was at that current point and time. Another good thing was that when no one was around he could shoot at the trash with his spirit gun, which was actually mildly entertaining.

Yusuke was getting along pretty well with Akane and it was hard not to like Kasumi because of her motherly-like ways; something that he really didn't have much experience with since his own mother only acted motherly on a few occasions. As previously mentioned, Yusuke was often irritated by Nabiki and everytime she said something to him, he was sure to grumble. He wasn't particularly warming up to Soun since he wasn't used to having a father. Soun, who wasn't used to having a son, often slipped away to his room for some quiet time to ponder how to go about father-son bonding. He never was able to come up with anything and didn't want to risk making his new found son angry with him.

Yusuke and Ranma just didn't get along very well. They would often take a moment to glare at each other when they were in the same room together. This happened several times considering that they shared the guest room. The two boys never said a word to one another, spending most of their time ignoring the other. Akane wasn't very certain on why they were this way, perhaps; it was because they got off to a rough start. She also reasoned, when she was angry, that it was probably because Ranma was a pompous jerk. Yusuke paid absolutely no attention to Ranma's father, either. This was fine with Genma since his being the center of attention usually meant trouble for him.

As mentioned, Yusuke wasn't too keen about Ranma's fiances, either. He supposed the Ukyou girl was kind of nice, but he wasn't the sort to get to know 'nice' people. The fiance he found most annoying, though, was Shampoo. Everything about her seemed to irritate him, her voice, her accent, and most especially the fact that Shampoo was incapable of entering a place without smashing down the walls. Shampoo's great grandmother, Cologne also not only irritated him, but gave him the creeps. On occasion, the shriveled up prune would give him an odd glance or so.

'What is it with old ladies and their stupid looks, anyway?' Yusuke wondered.

He found himself missing Kayko and even Kuwabara. Heck, he was even beginning to miss his old school where strange, crazy principals that had obsessions with cutting hair didn't exist. Little did Yusuke know, though; that the week was only the tip of the iceberg. After all, there was still the lost boy, the missing in action pervert... And what of the folks up in Spirit World?

Somewhere in a dense forest...

"I know Tokyo is here somewhere!" Ryouga panted.

He sat down to take a break and he crossed his arms, "I could've sworn it was Ranma that had thrown these suitcases at me..."

He looked at the three suitcases with a frown. He had checked to see what was in the cases and it had turned out they were all full of sake.

'Has Ranma become an alcoholic, now?' Ryouga wondered.

He sighed and began to worry about Akane. If Ranma truly had become an alcoholic, could it be possible that in his drunken state, he might've hurt Akane?

'I'll kill him! That's it! He won't get away with hurting Akane! I won't let him!' he thought.

He stood and shoved everything, including the suitcases, back into his huge pack. He started running, mentally cursing Ranma for hurting Akane. Once again, he was confusing his daydreams with reality. That is until he nearly ran off a cliff. He stopped just in time, 'Whoa, that was a close one...'

He breathed a sigh of relief and looked down.

"I don't think I've ever been this high up before... Guess it's a dead end. Maybe Tokyo was the other way," Ryouga muttered out loud.

He started to turn, but then he felt like someone's hands had pushed on him. He thought it was kind of funny at the time because he hadn't seen anyone for miles. But then, Ryouga lost his footing and his eyes widened as he started to fall. He reached for his umbrella, hoping to slow his fall, but he found that he must've forgotten to get it before he left. The weight of his pack was also causing him to fall at a rapid pace and as he hit several rocks that jutted out from the cliff and as he began to slam into many evergreen trees; he wondered how badly he was going to hurt when he reached the bottom.

This was a mindless thought on Ryouga's part. Because he was already beginning to feel an extreme amount of pain more than he had ever actually felt before. As one could imagine, this was saying a lot. Afterall, Ryouga had, at one time, allowed several boulders to slam into him. At last, Ryouga slammed into the ground, relieved to have stopped falling. It was unfortunate for him that he landed on the front side of his body, which meant that the impact of his fall hit him harder because of the weight on his back. He coughed up some kind of dark red liquid on the ground and he stared at it for a moment.

'Blood... I must've really hurt something... I better get up and...' he thought.

It was also unfortunate for him that he hadn't forgotten to get his umbrella, but he had actually let it carelessly hang on his pack. The umbrella was released from the pack during the fall, gravity pulled down on it, and it slammed onto the back of Ryouga's neck. He thought no more as he lost all of his senses and blacked out...

'Hey, wow... I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought. I don't feel a thing,' Ryouga thought when he was aware that he could think again.

He opened his eyes and stared up at the sky. He was smiling an odd little smile, 'Heh... With a fall like that I've probably become much tougher! I'll be unstoppable!'

He felt unusually confident in himself, 'And maybe after I've beaten Ranma, I'll tell Akane that I... I...'

His spirits sank again, "Oh, who am I kid-..."

He blinked when he had looked down. He could see his feet, of course... but... Why could he see the tops of the trees if he was supposed to be on the ground? Then, a wave of shock hit him.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I DOING ALL THE WAY UP HERE?" he shouted.

He began to hypervenhillate a little bit, but then he realized that he wasn't actually breathing. He looked at his hands... See through. His body was completely transparent. Ryouga couldn't understand, 'What is going on? What has happened to me?'

He floated around in the sky a little bit, his mind numb from his shock of being up in the sky in the first place. He examined the ground below and found something even more shocking.

'H-how... If I'm up here... What... w-what am I doing down there?' Ryouga wondered.

He was seriously becoming frightened, 'What if... what if I'm...'

"Hello!" a cheery female voice greeted.

Ryouga jumped and whirred around looking for who had spoken to him. His eyes finally landed on a blue-haired girl wearing a pink kimino and riding a... boat oar? He gaped at her, "W-who are you?"

"My name is Botan! Though, you'd probably know me better as the Grim Reaper. But really, I prefer being called Botan," Botan laughed.

"... The Grim Reaper?" Ryouga repeated.

The young woman before him certainly did not look like any sort of reaper, nor was she very grim, either. Botan waved her hand in front of him, "And you're Ryouga Hibiki, right?"

Ryouga nodded dumbly, "Uh... uh-huh..."

"Right. Good. And... you know that you're dead, right?" Botan asked carefully.

Ryouga looked as though he were about to nod again before his eyes bugged out of his head, "WHAT? I'm dead? I... I can't be dead!"

'Oh dear, I hope its not another one of those denial cases,' Botan thought.

She smiled at him and patted him on the shoulder, "Yes. I'm afraid so... But..."

"But I can't be dead! I shouldn't be! That fall was..." Ryouga began.

"Fatal. Actually, I'm surprised you survived as long as you did. The average human would've surely died before the impact with the ground," Botan told him.

Ryouga ignored the comment about the average human part, "I'm dead. I can't believe it. How could this happen to me? There was still so much I needed to do... Like..."

He thought of Akane and sighed, "Maybe I'm better off dead... I probably would've only gotten my heart broken, anyway... Oh, Ak..."

"Hey, hey, now! Don't think like that!" Botan exclaimed.

Ryouga blinked, "Huh? You're still here?"

"Well, of course I am, silly! It's my job to bring you to Spirit World, but..." Botan replied.

Ryouga cut her off, "Well, whatever, then. Go ahead..."

He looked rather miserable and his out of proportion daydreams weren't helping at all. Botan sweatdropped, "You haven't let me finish. Ordinarily, I'd just take you to Spirit World, where your spirit would be judged and you'd be put in a place you belong. But, the circumstances of your death are... really unusual."

"Huh? Unusual? What do you mean?" Ryouga questioned.

"Well, for starters, your death really caught us off guard. You weren't suppose to die, today. You still had a long way to go," Botan answered.

A puzzled expression crossed Ryouga's face, "Well, if I wasn't suppose to die, today... then... Why am I dead?"

"Well, Spirit World Intelligence isn't exactly sure. But it seems, that someone... or something... had caused your death. Someone or something that wasn't suppose to be there, at all... Unfortunately, that's all they know. Unless some new information springs up, the spirit detective won't be sent out to do anything about it," Botan explained.

"So, you mean... I'm just stuck, then. I'm dead for no good reason at all?" Ryouga wondered.

He growled suddenly and clenched his fists, "I have a horrible life!"

"Well, technically, you mean your afterlife," Botan giggled.

"Don't mock me! I'm dead! Why in the world are you laughing at me?" Ryouga shouted.

"Oh, don't get mad. I was just trying to lighten your mood, honest," Botan reassured him.

Ryouga sighed, "I don't think anything could lighten my mood."

"Oh? Well, I guess if you're so set on that, you wouldn't be interested in hearing about the possibility of a second chance," Botan whistled.

"That's r... Second chance?" Ryouga perked up a little bit.

"Yes. You have the opportunity to be brought back to life. This opportunity is very rare. Though, I suppose if I told you the last time we allowed someone this opportunity you probably wouldn't think so. Of course, he was an extra special case," Botan babbled.

"Uh... right. Well, what do I have to do?" Ryouga urged.

Botan looked really happy all of a sudden, "Oh? You mean, you're not having any second thoughts about being brought back to life?"

"Well...," Ryouga started.

Botan frowned, 'Why do they always have second thoughts?'

Ryouga waved his arms at seeing her frown, "N-no! I don't have any second thoughts!"

'She said it was a rare opportunity. I better take it,' he thought.

Botan went back to smiling again, "Well, that's good news! We better get going..."

Ryouga nodded, "Yeah! Wait... where are we going again?"

"To Spirit World. You have to be given your ordeal," Botan told him.

"Oh, right," Ryouga replied.

He looked back at his body and his shoulders slumped. It might be a while before he'd be back in it. Then, he blinked a few times, "Uhh, Botan? What about my body? I don't need it anymore, right?"

"What? Don't be silly. You're body needs to remain in good condition, so that you can be brought back to life. If it were to be burned, torn to shreds, incinerated, or cut into pieces... Well, it wouldn't be a very good thing, I assure you," Botan answered.

Ryouga's eyes widened and he looked back at his body, "We have to do something!"

"Huh? What's the matter?" Botan queried.

Ryouga pointed wildly at the location of his body. Wild animals were starting to surround the area. Botan looked wide-eyed herself, "Oh no! That's not good!"

Ryouga was already speeding down and tried to keep the animals away. Of course, nothing he did had any effect. Botan hurried down towards him, "You can't do anything. You're a spirit, remember?"

"But what am I going to do? My body is going to be eaten!" Ryouga cried.

"Now, now. Don't panic. Maybe I can...," Botan started.

Suddenly, peculiar sounds engulfed the area. The forest seemed dead silent except for the odd noise of fast feet parading through the trees. Ryouga and Botan looked up to see a blob-like blur move in, chase off the animals, and then come to a stand still. It was a little old man. Unfortunately, Ryouga recongized this little old man.

'He's... that...,' Ryouga's thoughts plummeted to negativity.

The man was Happosai, the notorious Master of Anything Goes Martial Arts. He was perverted to the core. In fact, the very sack he was carrying contained various lady unmentionables. Botan was unaware of that and of Ryouga's despair, "Wow! That was close. Ryouga that old man saved your body! You should be..."

"I'm doomed! Doomed," Ryouga moaned.

Botan gave him an odd glance, "What do you mean?"

Happosai looked around and spotted Ryouga's body. He walked over to him and kicked him lightly, "Hey, kid. Wake up. Don't you know how stupid it is to just lie there with all these crazy wild animals running around?"

Ryouga's body, of course, did not respond. Happosai poked the body with his pipe, "Hello, anyone in there?"

Ryouga watched the old man continued to prod his body and he whimpered slightly, "Someone in Spirit World hates me..."

"Nonsense! Come on, I'm sure your body is in good hands, now," Botan insisted.

"No! It's not! We can't leave!" Ryouga shrieked.

"Calm down... I don't see what the fuss is," Botan told him.

Happosai thought for a moment, "Hmm... Maybe he got knocked out. Better make sure he's okay... After all, I am a kind, simple old man..."

Botan smiled, "See, Ryouga?"

"He's lying! He's a bigger liar than Saotome!" Ryouga growled.

"But why would he lie to himself?" Botan countered.

"Because... because... Well, I don't know!" Ryouga responded.

Botan giggled, "Am I going to have to drag you to Spirit World?"

Ryouga's shoulders slumped as he watched Happosai try to find a pulse. Happosai's face suddenly turned an unusual color, "Wah... He's dead!"

He bowed his head, "Poor young boy. His life cut so short."

He shook his head, 'Hmm. I've seen this boy hanging around Akane. She probably would be crushed if I just took his body to her. Hey, wait a minute! Isn't he cursed, too?'

He pulled out a bottle of water from one of his pockets and squirted Ryouga's body with it. Ryouga cursed under his breath, "He has no respect for the dead! I don't want to be caught dead as a pig!"

Botan blinked in surprise, "Wow... Oh wait! I remember, now! You're cursed, aren't you?"

Before Ryouga could answer such an obvious question, Happosai picked the dead little black pig up and carelessly through it into his bag of lady undergarments.

"Poor Akane will be so sad to see her pet pig dead... She'll need to be comforted in her time of need! Of course, I'm just the one to comfort her! Eh heh heh heh heh!" he squealed in a manner that made him sound like a dying crow.

Ryouga growled to himself, 'If that pervert dare lays a hand on Akane... I'll... I'll...'

Staring down at the scene, Botan tried to figure out what just happened. She turned to Ryouga, "Was that a bag of women's underwear he just threw your body in?"

Ryouga groaned weakly, "Yes..."

Botan looked disturbed, "Perhaps you were right, afterall... But he said he was taking your body to some girl, right? I'm sure your body will be okay for a few moments. We really need to get to Spirit World, so you can get your ordeal. Koenma doesn't like to be kept waiting."

She also didn't like the idea of getting yelled at. Willingly, Ryouga allowed himself to be dragged off to Spirit World by Botan. That's when he began to worry.

'What if this Koenma guy decides I don't deserve a second chance?' he wondered.

Meanwhile, Happosai gathered up some of Ryouga's belongings, specifically the three suitcases since they had sake in them. Then, he bounded off again towards the Tendo Dojo. Genma and Soun were already beginning to feel his approach.

"Soun... There's an odd chill in the air," Genma remarked.

Soun nodded, "I noticed, Genma. Do you think it's him?"

Genma shuddered, "We knew he was going to come back, sometime..."

Soun nodded again, looking a bit frightened, "What do you think we should do?"

A loud splash was heard and Soun turned to look at his companion. Genma the panda stared back at him. Soun sweatdropped, "Saotome, you know that's not going to work."

The panda simply shrugged. Yusuke overheard the small conversation and couldn't help, but find it a bit odd. Overhearing the conversation as well was Ranma, who knew without a doubt who they were referring to. Ranma grumbled loudly to himself, "Everytime they talk like that... Every single time... It's like they have some kind of built-in radar that detects the old fart or something..."

Yusuke decided to go back to the guest room, 'I guess everyone around here is paranoid. I don't feel a thing. Odd chill in the air... Ha. What a laugh.'