Chapter Two: Prelude of Darkness

"Yusuke! Yusuke, where are you?" Scouring the city, Botan called for the spirit she had left behind. Her oar whipped invisibly through the air, carrying her delicate frame as she scoured every corner of the city. "Yusuke!" Where could he have gone off to? It should have been easy to find him; a lingering spirit in the ethereal plane of the human world glows like a beacon, at least to a trained reaper such as herself. As a ghost, he should be easier than this for her to find.

Yusuke had been trying to help out his rival, Kuwabara, when last Botan saw him. But that was hours ago; she might be able find Kuwabara by searching the school building of Sarayashiki Junior High, assuming he was still there. If not, she could try his home, or the vacant lots where the boys liked to fight. She could find him, given a little time, but there was no guarantee Yusuke would still be following him after the test was over.

"Oh, where could he have disappeared to!" It wasn't like Botan to lose a spirit. She didn't want to think about what Koenma would do if he found out Yusuke had vanished in the middle of his ordeal. As her oar soared majestically over the food court near the school, her eyes searched frantically for some trace of a wandering spirit lingering in the air, scanning for the presence of a ghost somewhere in the area.

Little did she realize that the missing spirit she sought sat below, in a white lawn chair just underneath a large umbrella, with a metal table painted white in front of it, with a delicate frame that should have only been temporary, arms tucked uncertainly over the two alien lumps on its chest and legs tight together, unused to the open fabric of the garments that covered it.

"Four hours," the strange girl whispered to herself, oblivious to the looks those seated at the other tables shot at her. "Four hours..." Botan had said that any spiritual possession only lasted for one hour. After that, the body would reject the foreign spirit. Yusuke knew he should have been rejected two hours ago, but something wasn't letting that happen. For some reason he didn't understand, he couldn't separate from the body that confined him.

Maybe he'd done something wrong. Messed up the possession somehow, or something. Or maybe that stupid black cloud thing that had attacked him had done something to him, something that trapped him here. Or maybe he was just being an idiot, and didn't have any freaking clue, because HIS FREAKING GUIDE WASN'T HERE! "Dammit, Botan, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!"

Several students jumped when they heard the young girl scream, slamming her hands down on the table hard enough to make it jump. In a furious rage, she stood, fuming in anger and muttering to herself, though those around her could not hear or understand what she was saying. They were lucky; the words of anger pouring from her mouth would make a embarrass a Yakuza.

Yusuke was angry. He was angry at the cloud for whatever the hell it had done to him. He was angry at Botan for leaving him to make an idiot of himself, when she should have known better. He was angry at himself for putting himself in the position he was in now, just to try and protect Kuwabara, of all people! He was angry at Kuwabara for his stupid test, and for needing to be protected because he was too stupid to do it himself! He was even angry at the girl whose body he was trapped in, for letting him get ensnared like this!

"Misato!" A voice called a foreign name, a soft, delicate voice filled with worry and fear. "There you are!" Yusuke turned, his anger paused a moment by curiosity and dread, when he turned and saw the other girl from before, just a little shorter than his new self and with short, dark hair. "Where did you run off to? You missed class!"

"Uh..." Testing the tone and pitch of his new voice, Yusuke quickly turned his attention away. He'd lingered here too long, and Botan wasn't showing up. He needed to do something, needed to find help, but...he didn't know where to start looking. "I...uh...I have to go...away...now." Wanting to avoid an awkward body-stealing conversation, Yusuke did the only thing he could think of: he ran.

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"Guys, I just took the test and I cleared fifty points!" Pride was strong in Kuwabara's voice, as he stood happily before his three buddies. All dressed in the blue school uniform, blue slacks with a blue, buttoned up jacket, the tallest had brown and scruffed up hair. Before him stood another, with buzzed dark hair, kept very short. But neither of them were the focus at the moment, as Kuwabara's attention was turned to the short, stout fellow on his left, with greased black hair and a nervous smile; Okubo, his friend whose job had been placed on the line by Akashi if they couldn't all score more than fifty points on the test.

Okubo was shocked and relieved, but he couldn't be sure. "How did you already get the results?"

Kuwabara grinned. "I copied down my answers on scratch paper so I could check them in a textbook after it was through, and I already looked over it four times! I scored fifty-three big ones!"

A wave of relief fell over Okubo, as he stepped forward and gripped Kuwabara's hands, grateful. "Then you saved me."

"Wow, Kuwabara!" the tall boy exclaimed. "You really licked 'em!"

"Nah," Kuwabara smiled, "it was nothing. Just a promise between men."

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Four hours now since school had started, and Yusuke found himself wandering the halls of the school building. He couldn't go home; his mother wouldn't even recognize him in this girl's body. Problem was, he didn't really have anywhere else to go. Keiko wouldn't recognize him; at least, he hoped she wouldn't. He didn't know which would be worse, if she knew this girl or didn't.

Walking through the hall, he didn't know where to put his hands. This stupid skirt the girl had been wearing was starting to piss him off; it blew around and waved with the slightest breeze, and he'd learned at the food court that he had to be careful when just sitting down. He also had to watch his back; he remembered too well the times he would lift Keiko's skirt to embarrass her, and this caused him to tense any time a boy walked near. He definitely needed to find some pants; if he was going to be trapped in this girl's body, he was NOT going to be wearing this stupid thing all day.

"Hey, baby," a predatory voice spoke to his left. "If you're not–" before the sentence could even be finished, fist struck face hard enough to shatter a nose, and she walked on. She didn't even get a look at him; she didn't care. It was bad enough she had to occupy this body, she would not be dealing with idiots. Let the real girls deal with the idiots; she just wanted to find Botan.

It was funny...she'd walked this hallway so many times before, on the rare days that she decided not to skip class. It just seemed so different now, though. It was strange and foreign, and she kept finding herself looking over her shoulder, in case that dark-haired friend of her body's had found her again. Especially here, she had to be careful; she was doing her best to avoid that girl, but she'd already had two unfortunate encounters that she'd had to end fast.

Looking back once more over her shoulder, she came around the corner, still looking for some–

SLAM

And she was on the ground, toppled over by something larger than she was. Her frame was lighter than she was accustomed to, and she had gone down easier than she would have hoped. This was not swirling in her mind, however, as at the moment, the only thing she could think of was 'ow'.

She had walked into something, and she needed to take a moment to gather herself as the world swirled around her. "What the hell..." she muttered to herself; she'd been struck in the face harder than this, and it had never left such an impact. Looking up, angry, she searched for whoever had stopped her walk. "Okay, who the hell–Kuwabara?" She knew that blue uniform and red hair anywhere, and for a moment, her heart stopped beating. If Kuwabara recognized her, she would never live this down. After getting his body back, this would haunt Yusuke to the day he died.

Sweat beaded on her forehead as she struggled to stammer out something to get her away. This was worse than that girl that was looking for her. Staring up at Kuwabara, who had managed to stay on his feet probably because of her small, light frame, she tried to think of something to end this fast enough to preserve the reputation of Yusuke Urameshi. Inside, she knew Kuwabara had no way of identifying her, but she didn't want to take the chance anyway.

"Are you okay?" Kuwabara smiled, offering his hand to help the lady up. Yusuke's eyes narrowed, watching him carefully. Did he know something? Why was he being nice? He didn't even know her. But...Yusuke had seen a powerful difference in Kuwabara earlier, in the way he protected his friends. Admittedly, all he really knew before was another face to beat in, but still...he didn't trust him.

Ignoring Kuwabara's hand and pulling herself up, the girl's eyes remained cautiously on Kuwabara. "Yeah," she said slowly, "I'm fine."

Kuwabara smiled. "Good." He started laughing, a sound that both startled Yusuke and confused him.

"I have to get to class," Yusuke threw out quickly. Looking behind Kuwabara, he saw the three boys that ran with him, the only one whose name he knew, Okubo, in the front. He'd learned Okubo's name while haunting Kuwabara, but he still didn't know the other two.

Kuwabara smiled, and Yusuke was frightened by the gleam he saw in his rival's eyes. He'd seen anger a few times, seen pain so often that it was burned into his brain, but he'd never seen something like this before, and it freaked him out. "I'm sorry I ran into you," Kuwabara started, taking one of the girl's hands in both of his and looking into her eyes. "If you need anything, the angel of love is always here to lend his hands to a beautiful lady in trouble."

Time stood still. Yusuke had never felt anything so powerful before, anything as strong as this sense he was getting inside now. Deep down, what had once been dislike and rivalry was now turning to DEEP LOATHING AND DISGUST. Trying to wrench her hand out of Kuwabara's, the girl was positively mortified by this display. This was a side of Kuwabara she strongly wished she had never seen, and the images running now through her mind made her feel disgusting inside, as if worms were crawling through every orifice of her body.

In a state of complete shock, the only thing she knew how to do was strike. Balling her left hand, her free hand, into a fist, she slammed it as hard as she could into Kuwabara's face, using the impact to free her right before running as fast as she could down the hallway. She didn't know where she was going, but she had to go now. Run fast, run now, just run.

Kuwabara fell back against the wall, a strong, red mark appearing on his face. Surprise and confusion played across his face as he struggled to keep himself upright; there was power in that attack that seemed very familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place it. He didn't know any girl who could hit that hard.

"Struck out again, huh?" Okubo comforted. "What did you do to her?"

Already getting his balance back, Kuwabara's right hand gently rubbed the impact on his right cheek. "I–ow–I don't know. Must be having her special time or something. I've never even seen her before."

"She knew your name," Okubo pointed out. "She called you Kuwabara. Heh...maybe that's why she hit you. Maybe she's heard your reputation." Okubo laughed.

"Of course she has," Kuwabara grinned, no longer even feeling the blow. His ego had returned in one mighty stroke. "Because I'm Kuwabara, baby! I'm the baddest punk of--"

"Is that so?" a voice of the past spoke from just around the corner. "Forgotten me already? It's only been a few days." Kuwabara turned, spurred by the voice that he knew so well, and his eyes fell on a sight he couldn't believe. He had thought for sure he would never hear that voice again, but...there was something different about it. Something powerful, something...dark. There was darkness in that voice that he had never noticed before, and for a moment, he was afraid. He had always had a powerful sixth sense, and right now it was screaming at him. Something in the air was telling him to run.

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"Koenma, sir? I think we have a...a problem..." Botan's voice spoke over her communicator, a small, pink compact whose mirror acted as a radio back to the palace in Reikai. Koenma had given it to her for her other responsibility, one she hadn't had the opportunity to speak with Yusuke about. But right now, that other responsibility was forgotten, abandoned for the sake of the crisis she had just stumbled upon.

Standing in what should have been Yusuke's bedroom of the Urameshi residence, Botan was trying to figure out what had happened here. She had expected to find Yusuke, but he wasn't there to be found, in any fashion. When she had come into the bedroom, it had been empty, save for Yusuke's few meager possessions. No spirit, but more importantly, no body.

"Yusuke's body has disappeared. I think he might have found a way back into it prematurely." Botan's eyes scanned the room for any sign of a clue before returning back to the compact. "I don't know where he's gone, though. But what does that do for his ordeal?"

Koenma was silent a moment in thought. "We'll have to push our plans ahead a bit, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Keep the compact with you and find Yusuke. If he's in his body, he's probably going to be trying to resume his life. It's earlier than we expected, but we can move ahead with this. The human world needs a Spirit Detective, and I suppose the earlier, the better. Tell Yusuke...I don't know. Tell him–what are those?"

Koenma had seen something on the screen, something sparkling in the room. Botan turned her head, following the prince's gaze on her compact and looking towards the bed. They were small, easily missed, but she saw them now. "I don't know," she whispered quietly, as she sat slowly down onto the bed. Brushing them into her hand, she lifted them up and tilted the compact, so that Koenma could see them on his viewscreen back in his office in Reikai.

"...this is not good," she heard Koenma say. Resting in her hand were shards, golden fragments of eggshell that had been broken open from the inside. Koenma recognized the fragments instantly, and dread filled his voice when he spoke. His plans...he hadn't even considered this complication from the interference with his plans. It was still so early...how was this possible? "That thing was never supposed to hatch. Find Yusuke. Now. Tell him to be careful...he's in greater danger than he realizes."