It was a sunny day, and Yuiko was glad to be alive. "Come on, Kuwabara! I want to see Keiko! I've been dead for so long I've forgotten what everything feels like! Maybe the three of us can go get a burger or something and see that movie. I know we were planning on seeing it on Saturday, but we should celebrate on me being back, right?" Yuiko ranted excitedly, running down the sidewalk and jumping up and down from time to time just to make sure she was completely solid. She was wearing an orange waist jacket, blue jeans, and a green tee-shirt. Kuwabara was still in his school uniform. Yuiko turned around and started walking backwards, waiting for Kuwabara the best she could. Walking and nursing bruises on his cheeks wasn't exactly working out for him.
"Yeah, sure." Kuwabara replied vaguely, his hand covering a particularly black bruise. Suddenly, Yuiko ran into someone behind her. Yuiko twisted her head around to get a better look at the person.
"Oops, sorry." Yuiko apologized.
"Quite alright." said the person. Yuiko turned around fully and saw that the person was a red-haired, green-eyed boy in a pink school uniform. Yuiko recognized him instantly as the boy that she had mentioned to Botan. The boy's eyes widened as he took a better look at her. He sensed a major amount of energy erupting from her aura. And it felt very powerful. To Yuiko, the look he was giving her was a dazed look.
"Uh, are you okay?" Yuiko asked.
"Oh." the boy sounded, flushing. "Yes, I'm fine." He put on a smile, but Yuiko puzzled him.
"Hey, Yuiko, why'd you stop? I know you didn't just to wait for me." Kuwabara said, turning the corner and saw Yuiko and the boy. "Hey, you're that guy I ran into yesterday!"
"How flattering that you remembered me. From what I gathered from our little run-in, you have a short memory span, seeing that you shouted at me for a blunder you made." the boy commented. Kuwabara narrowed his eyes at the red-head and growled.
"Come on, Yuiko. Keiko's not gonna be home all day. You know her. Either sitting at home doing homework, hanging out with you, at school, or at the library." Kuwabara grabbed Yuiko's arm and started pulling her away from the boy.
"Okay, okay! Don't have to be so rude! Not like you're my older brother or anything!" Yuiko retorted, put her hands into her pocket and they continued to walk. The red-headed boy gazed at them until they were out of sight before continuing on his way. 'Hiei might be interested about this.' the boy thought as he turned the corner Kuwabara had appeared from.
Meanwhile . . . . . . .
"You can be such a jerk! Do you know who that was? That was Suiichi Minamino! He's known around here as the smartest student in the entire city, not to mention he's the main talk in the girls' bathroom." Yuiko scolded Kuwabara, who had his arms crossed. She made her voice sound like an excited cheerleader's. '"Oh, Suiichi's so cute!' 'I wish he was my boyfriend!' 'Yeah, me too!' 'Oh, he's so dreamy!' If you want girls like that to like you, you shouldn't have been rude to him the first time you met him!"
"Since when do you care what they think? You're always saying how those girls aren't even worth listening to, let alone quoting." Kuwabara snapped.
"Not the point!" Yuiko argued.
"Then what is the point?" Kuwabara demanded. Yuiko opened her mouth to reply but decided that she was wasting her time so she didn't. They soon reached Keiko's house. Yuiko knocked on the door four times, then Kuwabara did his trademark knocking and ringing the doorbell. After a few minutes of waiting, the door opened and Keiko was standing in the doorway. Yuiko smiled at Keiko and the other girl gasped.
"Yu-Yu!" Keiko exclaimed, hugging her. Yuiko grinned slightly and didn't push her away like she normally would.
"How about we go get something to eat?" Yuiko suggested.
"Okay! Let me get my wallet!" Keiko agreed and ran to get it. In no time, they were walking down the street, trying to decide which restaurant to go to. After they ate (they had decided on pizza) they were walking in the direction of the movies when someone called to them.
"Young ladies and man!" called a gypsy in an alleyway. "Come here, and see your future!" The gypsy's face was pretty much covered, but they could see blue eyes and that the gypsy was a girl. Yuiko walked forward, but Keiko grabbed her elbow.
"Yuiko, you're not!" Keiko stated.
"Oh, come on, what's the harm in just seeing what the old lady thinks is gonna happen?" Yuiko asked. Keiko couldn't think of a retort. Yuiko walked up the gypsy and her table with a crystal ball on it. The gypsy waved her hands around the crystal ball.
"Oh, spirits, tell me what you see." said the gypsy. Now that Yuiko thought about it, the gypsy sounded familiar. She didn't have time to dwell on this, because of what the gypsy said next. "You have been in the realm of the Spirit World, yes?" Yuiko just stared at her. "I thought so." The gypsy continued to wave her hands around the crystal ball. "Yes, I see, I see indeed." Yuiko leaned forward and squinted her eyes at the crystal ball.
"What do you see? All I see is swirly white stuff." Yuiko commented. The gypsy ignored her comment.
"You will fight demons and apparitions in the near future. That is what I see." the gypsy answered. Yuiko blinked.
"O-kay." Yuiko replied. "Well, see ya later!" Yuiko ran back over to Keiko and Kuwabara.
"What did she say?" Kuwabara asked.
"Let's just say, that gypsy was kind of familiar. Like I met her before." Yuiko admitted.
"That's crazy, Yuiko. If you met someone like that, we'd know, right Kuwabara?" Keiko stated. Yuiko laughed nervously. They hadn't met Botan and Koenma, which was probably a good thing.
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When they had exited the movie theater, Yuiko and Kuwabara were talking animatedly to one another and Keiko just smiled. "It wasn't my kind of movie, but you two sure liked it, didn't you?" Keiko said.
"You're just saying that because you don't like violence." Yuiko replied, grinning. "Want us to go home with you?"
"No thanks. See you tomorrow!" With that, Keiko sprinted off toward her house.
"See ya, Keiko!" Yuiko and Kuwabara yelled after her. Kuwabara grinned stupidly at Yuiko and Yuiko closed her eyes and frowned.
"No, you may not walk me home." Yuiko answered the unasked question. "You can go back to your home now."
"Aw." Kuwabara sounded and he sulked off into the distance. Yuiko smirked and took her time walking home. It was when something strange and unusual ran across the sidewalk that Yuiko stopped dead in shock. The strange and unusual something was a gray imp-looking creature that would barely have been able to reach above Yuiko's ankle with some sort of caveman cloth around his waist. Yuiko walked up to it and picked it up.
"What the hell are you supposed to be?" Yuiko asked. The little imp stared at Yuiko, just as shocked as Yuiko was to find such a creature running across her path.
"A demon." came a familiar female voice. Yuiko turned to see the gypsy.
"What do you mean a demon?" Yuiko demanded. The little imp tried to get out of Yuiko's grip, but she only tightened it.
"I mean that he's a demon, and a wanted criminal in the Spirit World." the gypsy explained. Yuiko narrowed her eyes at the gypsy. Yuiko knew that she had met this gypsy before, she just couldn't put her finger on it. Then it hit her. The female gypsy knew about Spirit World, and Yuiko could see strands of blue hair.
"Now I know where I've met you before! You're Botan, Keeper of the River sticks! And the most ditzy Grim Reaper I've ever met." Yuiko added thoughtfully. Botan threw off the gypsy attire to reveal herself in a copper-colored waist jacket, blue jeans, and a pink tee-shirt. Yuiko narrowed her eyes even more. "You sort of stole my outfit."
"It was on accident." Botan snapped indignantly. "And FYI, no one in Spirit World has ever been able to catch that demon, and you did it just by picking him up! Sir Koenma knew you'd be a great Spirit Detective once you came back to life, and he was right!"
"I'm . . . a . . . what?" Yuiko asked dumbfounded, staring at Botan, the little horned, gray creature in her clutches.
"A Spirit Detective. And Sir Koenma already has your first mission ready." Botan replied. Yuiko sighed.
"And I thought I wasn't going to have to deal with any more death stuff." Yuiko sighed. She stuffed the tiny demon into her pocket and followed Botan reluctantly, small retaliations and squeaks coming from her pocket.
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When Yuiko and Botan returned to Koenma's palace, Botan led Yuiko into a dark room where a white screen stood in front of a wall, Koenma sitting in a chair sullenly. "Ah, Yuiko, you're here." Koenma stated, turning around to her. "Good. I have a mission for you. And don't roll your eyes at me like that!" Yuiko closed her eyes and held her chin up, Koenma glaring at her.
"It's not that I'm not grateful that you helped me come back to life, but I'd rather not having anything else to do with Spirit World now." Yuiko announced. Koenma ignored her.
"You have to track down these three demons: Igor, who's known for murder in the files that we've got on him, Hiei who we know nothing about, and Kurama who we also know nothing about." A picture of the three vandals appeared on the white screen and Yuiko gasped. One of the 'demons' was Suiichi Minamoto.
"Okay, this has to be some kind of prank. That red-head is human. He goes to a high school in my area. He's one of the only things the other girls talk about, and he's the smartest student in the high schools of the city. And his name is Suiichi Minamino, not Igor, or Hiei, or Kurama." Yuiko explained, turning around to leave.
"Really?" Koenma asked, turning around in his chair to get a better look at Yuiko. "He goes to a high school in your area?" Yuiko nodded. "Have you had any contact with him? Any at all?"
"Uh, yeah. I bunked into him this morning when I was going to see if Keiko was home with Kuwabara. We had started talking, and if Kuwabara hadn't been such a jerk, he might've wanted to see the movie Keiko, Kuwabara, and I saw with us." Yuiko answered. Koenma made a thoughtful sound.
"Any other relations with him? And how do you know all of this information about him?" Koenma questioned. Yuiko turned to face him with a raised eyebrow.
"No, and I've been getting all of this from being forced to listen to gossip in the girls' bathroom at school. The girls there other than me and Keiko practically live in there, swapping gossip and talking about the cutest boys. They've talked about him constantly every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from homeroom to the end-of-school bell." Yuiko replied. Koenma made another thoughtful sound.
"I hadn't any idea. But I'm telling you, this is not a practical joke! This is for real! These three are really demons, unless Hiei and Igor just think that Kurama's a demon when in reality, he's human. Anyway, you've got to stop them! They've stolen three precious items that my father, King Yama, thinks highly of! Those items are:" The picture changed to a black orb with ghostly green spots. "the Spirit Orb," The screen changed again to show a hand-held mirror with a gray handle with gray-green vines adoring it. "the Mirror of Forlorn Hope," The picture changed yet again to show a magnificent sword with a golden hilt with brilliantly red rubies melted into the hilt. "and last, but certainly not least since Father thinks it's the most precious of all the other items, the Shadow Sword. Now go and find these demons!" Koenma snapped. Yuiko stood there and crossed her arms. "What are you waiting for?!"
"How am I going to be able to fight them? If they're" she raised her hands to make quotation marks. "demons, then won't it be a little hard for me just to fight them with my bare hands?" There was silence.
"Oh. Er, right. Just hold your arm out!"
"Which arm?"
"The one you write with!" Yuiko did as told. "Now tuck in your middle, ring, and that smallest finger as though you're making a fist. Okay, now turn your hand over a little." Yuiko blinked at her hand. It was just a gun made out of her right hand. Like little boys always did when they couldn't get their hands on toy guns.
"Now what? Am I supposed to poke them to death?" Yuiko asked sarcastically. Koenma glared at her.
"No. Pretend you're pulling a trigger, and you'll let loose a bullet of energy which will blast your enemy away. But I must warn you, you can only use it once a day." Koenma replied. Yuiko shrugged.
"Sounds simple enough. Okay, I'm going." Yuiko turned around and walked out the door with Botan. Yuiko was starting to think of how she was going to find three demons when Botan tapped her on the shoulder.
"You're going to need your gadgets." Botan said. Yuiko raised an eyebrow. "I'll be right back!" Botan then scurried off. Yuiko stood there in the pink-wallpapered hall for fifteen minutes before Botan came back, but she was in her pink kimono and she was carrying a black suitcase. Botan knelt down on the floor, set the suitcase down, and opened it, revealing a wristwatch, a spyglass, and a golden ring. Botan took out the wristwatch and showed it to Yuiko. "This is a Demon Detector Compass. It detects the energy, which is called Spirit Energy, that a demon is casting off and points you in the right direction of where the energy is coming from." Yuiko took the wristwatch from Botan and strapped it on her wrist. It strangely matched her outfit, seeing that the band was black. Botan took out the spy glass. "This is called the Spy Glass. It can look through anything! Walls, the ceiling, the floor, trees, anything!" Yuiko took this as well and put it up to her eye, staring at the wall. Yuiko whistled in awe as she saw Koenma's desk, which was filled up papers to be signed, and two ogres kept bringing in more papers.
"Koenma has a lot of paperwork." Yuiko commented, pocketing the Spy Glass.
"And last but not least, this ring!" Botan took out the golden ring and Yuiko took it and examined it. "It can make your Spirit Gun twice as powerful." Yuiko raised an eyebrow again.
"Spirit Gun? So my weapon has a name?" Yuiko questioned, and Botan nodded vigorously. Yuiko just shrugged in response.
"Okay then! Ready to kick demon butt?" Botan asked.
"Sure." Yuiko replied. Botan smiled.