Running in a crowd
In a faceless town
I need to feel the touch of a friend.


In the countryside
I wander far and wide
The isolation gets me again...

I don't know where to go
When I feel like crying
Oh my!

It's time to open myself
Do something new
I want to stop...
and grow up a bit!

Then suddenly, my power and confidence
starts swelling up.
Magically erupts
And it's all because of kindness that I feel
From people I don't even know!

Then suddenly, my intuition and my wisdom grow
And then I know
But most of all I sense compassions that's real
Thanks to strangers where ever I go...

Thank you

for waking me

up!

Chapter Two
The Ruler's Proposal

"Alright...Botan...where are we?"

The moon was covered with clouds suddenly, it melted into a pink, fluid color and slowly the horizon met its pigment with the same hot pink. They were flying through mountains now, Kuwabara screamed as the clouds descended farther and farther until the clouds vanished completely, Botan told him to not freak out lest he accidentally let go of the oar and plummet into limbo for all eternity. Naturally, he could only think of how long eternity would be, all the way to their destination.

"Yes, the gateway of decision." she said, "Kuwabara, we're about to meet with King Enma. Be on your best behavior."

"Gk...King!?"

"Yes, so we'd best not dilly-dally." they landed on a small ledge, Botan unmounted the oar, which abruptly stiffened, allowing Kuwabara to crash onto the cliffend and hurridedly scramble up, panting madly.

He gazed upward toward a giant gate with a single gray line running down it in blocks. Botan pressed a button on the panel on the left door, talking to an unknown assistant with a grungy voice who promised to open the gate. When it opened, Kuwabara stared in amazement, the entire entrance was at least fifty times bigger than the both of him, it looked like one of those "intestines" he had learned about in biology class, only so big that a human...ex-human could fit inside of it.

"Bota..n...are you sa...sure this is safe!?" he studdered, prodded onward by Botan who ignored the ignorant statement.

A minute passed and they were still inside of the humongous palace, Kuwabara figured he'd be out of breath but once again being dead came back to remind him that he could have simply "floated" his way through the hallway. He jumped in the air and landed back on his feet, trying it again and again with different forward hops before he collided with Botan. She almost tripped, glaring back at him.

"For goodness sake! What are you doing!?" Botan asked, frustrated with his stupidity. Kuwabara smiled uneasily.

"Say, why can't I fly anymore?" he replied, in between more jumps.

The doors to the main building creaked, Botan faced him and answered, "If we let anyone fly in here, we'd be overrun with traffic and lallygaggers, and potentially thieves as well. Now come inside, and watch your feet. Our staff isn't responsible for your clumsiness."

"As a matter of fa-" Kuwabara's eyes followed the doors sliding back into the palace.

Two giant shadows danced before him, their clawed arms reached for him as he screamed but they swung back as if they were playing with his fear and drawing out his paranoia of the supernatural. As they moved farther away, and the lights dimmed to a level his eyes could properly read, he noticed that these two figures were not human, and had horns on their heads. And they hadn't been reaching for him to pull him into some dark, scary abyss, no, they were lunging towards each other, fists raised and arms pulled back. The second creature on the left had two horns and crimson skin, while the right one was blue and had a beige beard.

"I NEEDS' INFORMATION ON MR. GANNON IN TWO MINUTES!!!"

"MR. HICKS ISA' HEAD OF SCHEDULE!!!!"

The two ogres clashed and went beside each other, punching the air and then sprinting away as more of the ogre-like monsters followed them, many had stacks to foothills of blank papers in their arms, everyone was yelling at each other to hurry up. To be honest, it was just like Sarayashiki during lunch time, a fist fight was inevitable. He only wanted to get away from these guys, most were obese and just had a great amount of body fat supporting their tough, outward appearances. However, there were those like the first one he'd seen, who were extremely muscular, almost to the point that a boulder probably couldn't have killed them.

"Woah...never thought that monsters lived in big castles like these."

"Silly, they're not monsters. There the Spirit World's primary workforce, there called Ogres." Botan explained, guiding Kuwabara through the messy office, down a trial of stairs, and through a pink, gold-dressed door labeled 'JUNIOR'.

"Sir, I've brought you the boy you requested to see." she said formerly, supposedly to thin air.

Kuwabara glanced around her shoulder, around the desk in the back of the small room, and just about every place he could see. There was no other person there except for Botan, who seemed oblivious to the fact that she was addressing thin air.

He finally asked, "Where is he!?"

"Down here." an additional voice shocked him.

He whipped around, expecting to see one of the "ogres" running in to check on their boss. But the voice was too child-sounding, almost babyish, at worst a newborn child. A newborn child..ogre, tha could TALK!? But that was impossible. Then again, so was a world where ghosts and spirits roam around and file documents all day. And so was Botan, technically, wasn't the Grim Reaper supposed to be "dead"? She was the most healthy, young, and quite frankly, beautiful woman he had ever had the fortunate of accompanying. He refocused on where the voice had come from, as something small and blue neared the bottom of his eyes. He winced downwards and saw a large, vase-shaped hat at his knee.

"Yo." the humanoid creature greeted.

"This is Kazuma Kuwabara and he's honored to meet you." Botan bowed.

Rather than give his usual surprised gesture and try to defend himself, Kuwabara's expression went from one of shock, to manic snickering, to laughter, and finally to uncontrollable laughter. He fell onto his back, pointing and kicking at the toddler standing in front of him.

"Grrr, what ARE YOU doing!? Stop laughing!!!" Botan commanded. Kuwabara didn't listen.

"You've got to kiddin'me! You mean you take orders from a two-year old! Ha-ha, and I was scared of the boss guy! Hahahahahahaha!"

"SO IMMATURE."

Koenma's brow furrowed, "Boss Guy? I'm afraid you're mistaken, but let's not dwell on this and move onto the matter at hand. Kazuma Kuwabara, you have been judged by Spirit World's topmost judges and your potential for sensing the supernatural as well as your...erm.. relation, to one of our most wanted criminals have been evaluated. You're a useful subject you see, and we're willing to grant you your life back if you simply agree to help us with a few ongoing tasks. To begin the process, you must complete a difficult ordeal, in the form of THIS egg."

The child ruler extended his hand, rolling on his palm was a smooth, golden egg, "Your ordeal: A Spirit Egg. Beware Kuwabara, for this is not your typical egg. Don't even THINK about eating, cooking, dropping, throwing, or smashing this, if you EVER want to return to the living world. The true test is not solely to keep this egg safe from harm and hatch it, but the inner workings of your own character. Inside of this egg is an animal we here call a Spirit Beast, it feeds off of your own spirit energy and everything you do and feel. If you per say perform good deeds and your soul is righteous and honorable, then so will be the beast inside, and it will guide your soul back to your body. However, if you are cold, cruel, and sadistic then the beast will become a negative side of you, becoming a nightmarish creature that will swallow you, and no force Icould possibly summon could do anything to change it. Take care of it Kazuma."

When the egg first touched his hand, Kuwabara felt an instant hotness washing his hand recklessly. He almost dropped it, to the Grim Reaper and Spirit World Ruler's great aggravation, but eased his grip around it as the warmth became placidly cold, almost familiar. He didn't want to think about the last time his hand had ever felt so cold...

OOO

A week passed and most of Kuwabara's adventures as a ghost had been...well, unnatural.

On Monday, the very day he died and met the son of the Ruler of the Spirit World, Koenma Jr., Botan had reminded him at the last minute that his sister and relatives would obviously plan a funeral service for him, where his body would inevitably be cremated. Here, Botan taught him one of the perks of being a ghost beyond physical infinities, but the ability to converse with living people and their minds while they were asleep. He, in a rare moment, used this wisely and got the message through that his body should not be cremated. It was a matter of time to find out whether or not the rest of their extended family would accept this proposal as well, but if his sister was anything but annoying, she was smart.

Even if she had been drunk out of her own sardonic wit in her dream.

Tuesday brought even more surprises, as Kuwabara struggled to grasp with the realization that he could no longer drink soda or beat up rival street gangs or blow off school and hit the town with his best friends.

To top that, he had discovered from eavesdropping on his house's next door neighbor's televisions that Urameshi, a lowly urchin who had done nothing wrong except murder Kazuma, his best friends, and if the reports were accurate and not just precise, a dozen other kids from other schools, was recently incarcerated. It was like he'd had some sort of demonic goal behind him, Kuwabara rubbed his chin as he recalled the strength and relentlessness of Yusuke's punches, they were more ferocious and powerful than what he believed a human was capable of. And yet he seemed exactly the same, for all of the four seconds he could see him. 'How did he move so fast?'

Wednesday was average except for two dogs he'd caught in the act behind a neighbor's cherished mulberry tree, which they planned to mail away to their family in Tokyo. (Though no one would ever know, the eldest Higurashi would have simply tossed the tree to the bottom of the Higurashi Family's ancestral well, out of fear it would attract dangerous spirits or demons.)

Thursday showed the funerals for his friends Komada and Okubo. Kirishima's had been postponed due to the requests of parents, but it didn't take long for a curious, completely-invisible, inaudible by mortal ears, fourteen-year old Junior High student to properly investigate and discover that Komada and Kirishima's bodies had truly never been found. He watched with a sulk as Okubo's funeral was the only one with a body to bury, even though he had never gotten to say goodbye himself. He asked Botan again and again if he could ever see their ghosts the same way he could see her and "ogres", but he received the same, somber response every time.

And then they came to Friday. Kuwabara was smashing his fists through solid concrete, laughing as he felt no pain or abstraction charge up his his arms. He toyed with things, flinging himself into the sky and then forcefully rocketing down, plopping on top of spikes, poles, or traffic cones and waiting for the usual feeling someone would have gotten being like a bull goring a matador. The first three days made him desire physical contact, but he worked through that emptiness by simply messing around in the dreams of others. Again and again, as it came to him in the dream of eight-year old Judai Yuki, who seemed to be dreaming of some strange card game where the cards became actual living, breathing creatures that he and another controlled, that had couldn't feed any "negative karma" into the Spirit Beast Egg he carried.

At first, the plan for tonight was to make the kid, who had cheated him out of his lunch money not too long ago in Janken, to transform his dream into a bunch of girls chasing him around trying to smooch him. Despite being the intermediate nightmare of almost all schoolboys, Judai actually seemed to mellow. Then Kuwabara tried to make him eat vegetables, but the kid simply poured butter and cheese over it and happily consumed it all. The last measure was to introduce him to the boogeyman, but the reminder from Botan clicked and he settled upon challenging Judai to his favorite card game.

"And that's game!" Judai laughed.

Kuwabara stared blankly for a moment, then stood and clutched his temples frustratingly. He screamed and yelled and jigged in front of the boy, baffled at how he could have been overwhelmed so quickly by a kid. A white light enveloped him, and before he knew what was going on, he was floating inches above the boy's bunk bed. Judai got up from the covers, rubbing his eyes as he left his room and zipped into the bathroom.

"Kuwabara? Kuwabara, up here." Botan called, waving towards him, "I've got news from Koenma."

He dashed upward, finally comfortable with the sensuality of self-sustained flight, "Hey Botan, where ya' been?"

"No time to chat. Koenma told me your Spirit Beast would hatch soon, and I could feel it's energy vibrating from the Gates. I hope you understand how important this is, these kind of situations are rare for a human spirit."

"Wait, what do you mean? Humans don't ever get revived?"

Botan grimaced, "Well, no, most humans don't have the same spirit awareness as you and those that do are to evil to be revived."

"Gah!" Kuwabara gasped, his entire leg throbbed and he scooped the egg from his pocket. It was beating, loudly and strongly, and sounded off with a lively, goldish-orange color. He switched hands and learned the same feeling back and forth, sighing as he turned and looked in the direction of his house. The two flew off into the moonlight, hovering above his household's roof. He grinned nervously.

"I'm coming home, sis. Just a little' bit longer."

"Actually, we need to do this post-haste." came a familiar voice.

Kuwabara spun around, the casually-royal dress toddler was floating behind him, the same baby blue pacifier chewed between his teeth. Botan bowed to him again, but Kuwabara made an angry gesture only for Botan to pull him back and cover his mouth. She translated his muffled cries, "Er-hrm, uh, Koenma sir, Kuwabara was just saying his Spirit Beast was kicking you see. Wait, post-haste?"

"Yes, grab my hand and close your eyes Kazuma, we've got less than a day to get this done or you'll be in for quite a wait." Koenma snatched Kuwabara from Botan's arms and took off at incredible speeds. Kuwabara's screams of terror echoed across the intangible air, Botan easily trailing behind them in his vision until Koenma stopped at his house, gently lowering the bewildered student into his own darkened bedroom.

Shizuru was asleep at his window, her own mattress fashioned into a miniature bed for herself under the window seal.

"How tranquil. Now Kazuma, I'll keep this simply. I'm preparing your body to unite with your own soul which requires the fusion of both your own Life Energy, which comes from your body, and your Spirit Energy, gathered in th egg. When these two are properly mixed, your soul will join and you'll be alive again. The only other problem is that we need someone in the Living World who cares about you to supply the Life Energy your body lost when you became a ghost so that it can be channeled with your soul. As I said before, you have 10 hours before the energy wavelength is perfectly aligned, or else..."

Kazuma looked at himself in his bed, then at Koenma, "Or else...?", he gulped.

"You'll have to wait another year before we can attempt this again, and the process will become twice a s difficult because your Spirit Beast is likely to have died by that period, as your own Spirit Energy has been channeled and collected in your body. Most likely, if Shizuru does keep her hopes up, she'll be charged as a necrophiliac and be forced by family or state officials to surrender your body to a morgue."

OOO

"Its been a pleasure talking with you Kuwabara, I wish you a prosperously long life!" Botan wished him farewell. Of course, the Grim Reaper was needed in many places and she couldn't stay to see him back in his own body. He had already signed Koenma's contract that officially labeled him as Spirit World's privately-owned "Spirit Detective", a private investigator who dealt with matters too grave to be left in human hands, such as the arrival or threat of great and merciless demon creatures. It was a hard pill to swallow, he had conjured up monsters TWICE the size of Koenma's own workers. Would he REALLY be going up against such beasts?

"Umm...Kuwabara, you can jump into your body anytime now. The Life Energy's had over six minutes to gestate-"

"GWAH, oops, I'm going! See ya!" Kuwabara sped downward, flying right through the ceiling and entering his glowing, yellow room.

"URH...that boy. Could he be any more oblivious? Still, I'm so happy things went so smoothly. I guess this is the start of something brand new. I'm so excited!" said Botan, twirling on her oar in a semi-circle. Koenma nodded substantially, offering little comment as the light in Kuwabara's room died.

OOO

"Alright listen, I'm having a bad day. So either get out of my bed, or I send your head through the freakin' wall." the young, black-haired juvenile delinquent threatened, his orange prison uniform bent unnaturally around his muscular form, which complimented the strict, emotionless demeanor he'd carried since his first night in the prison.

"Heh heh heh...big TALK from such a puny kid." the inmate, Jason, laughed. He was 8"2, and clutched the boy's head playfully, scratching his hair before a strong, diamond hand grasped his wrist. A sharp pain rang through him to the point that he bent down and sobbed, blood running down his temples as he begged for mercy and kissed the floor.

The guards scrambled from every corner of the prison as a bullish noise erupted throughout the prison, a gaping new hole decorated the western end of the Closed Conan Penitentiary, with one man gazing outside with his hands at his sides. A red star winked inthe sky, he turned to meet the guards about to attack him, and watched as they all collapsed via a startling shock. Then he ran forward, leaping out from the hole and plummeting into a three mile drop down an assortment of cliffs, rocks, and slate-shaped hills.

The night shuddered at the dark presence escalating its own symmetry.