A/N: Sadly, I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Spirit Detective Saga
Chapter Two - Test for Resurrection

As they rose higher into the sky, Keiko and Botan left the living world behind. Clouds swirled around them unnaturally as they headed straight toward the glowing disk of light brighter than the moon but not so blinding as the sun. It grew larger and larger as they drew near until they passed straight through it and emerged out of a cloud bank into an entirely new land.

"Welcome to the Spirit World," Botan said.

A vast plain sprawled out far below them extending off to the horizon. Keiko couldn't say what grew there, but her eyes picked out the odd tree scattered about even from their height. The most distinguishing feature, however, was the truly massive river snaking its way through the land toward a mountain range off in the distance.

The pair flew through the air at what felt like a casual pace but must have been faster than a plane. It was hard to judge scale this high up and with so few landmarks, but those mountains looked comparable to Mount Fuji and grew very quickly as they traveled. Keiko wondered if it was some property of the oar, Botan, or just being a ghost that enabled them to move so quickly but discarded the distracting thought for a much more pertinent question.

"Is that the river Styx?"

"Well, of course." Botan leaned to the side as they entered into a narrow mountain valley and pointed toward a large structure at its end. "And just up ahead is the Gate of Judgment."

Keiko swallowed.

Botan glanced back and then pressed the sleeve of her kimono to her face to hide a smile and probably a bit of laughter. "No need to be nervous. You'll only be crossing over if you want to, remember."

"Right," Keiko said with a nod, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt.

The Gate of Judgment was a gargantuan wall easily surpassing any skyscraper. The decorative aspects of the architecture had a distinctly historical Japanese air about them, although Keiko didn't know enough to give a more accurate guess as to the particular style than something maybe from the Edo period. The gate itself was constructed on the edge of a cliff with a yawning canyon separating it from the mountains. The river Styx fell into the gorge and vanished into the fog concealing the depths from view. Keiko judged by the lack of a roar from the waterfall emanating back up that the bottom was far further down than anyone would ever want to go.

The pair followed a thin bridge of land up from the mountain valley over the canyon to the very edge of the precipice. The towering wall only just allowed them to stand on it with room to walk past each other if absolutely necessary. At the end of the bridge was a more reasonably proportioned but still massive pair of doors. Unless Keiko was much mistaken, they served as the entrance to the gate.

"It's Botan. We're coming in."

The doors slid open without a sound to reveal a long stone corridor. Botan entered without hesitation, opting to walk along the floor instead of fly. Keiko bit her lip and gave one last glance back as she planted her feet firmly on the ground. She saw, to her surprise, another ferrygirl in a kimono on an oar floating along in the distance at, in her experience so far, a lazy pace. In hindsight, she didn't know why some part of her brain had thought Botan ferried every lost soul when there must be hundreds or thousands more every day.

"Keiko?"

The girl in question jumped and spun toward her own guide. "Right. Coming!" she said and then hurried along.

Botan led them down the corridor past dozens of side passages until they arrived at another set of doors at its far end. There was, of all things, an intercom mounted on the wall with a button and speaker. While Keiko wasn't sure how she felt about the afterlife's apparent modernization in general, she would take the calming sense of familiarity it provided now.

The intercom button made a pleasing click upon depression. "Botan here. I've brought Yukimura Keiko."

A surprised voice replied, "The girl? No, never mind. Come in."

The door rumbled as it opened, and Keiko immediately heard the pounding of dozens of feet. Then came the voices. It was too wild a cacophony to make out more than a word or two at a distance, but even had she, nothing would have prepared her for what she saw: ogres. Ogres of every color, shape, and size sprawled out before her in a hall easily surpassing the size of a stadium and littered with support columns. They had horns and wore loincloths and yet acted nothing like the way the stories portrayed them. They sat at desks, did paperwork, scrambled around with piles of documents, screamed about deadlines, dug through filing cabinets, drank from coffee mugs, and a few even wore glasses. They were salarymen in all but name.

"The afterlife," Keiko began, barely able to believe her eyes, "is a bureaucracy?" Why did that make so much sense? "Run by ogres?" That one, however, left her wanting to scratch her head.

"Oh, yes," Botan said with a level of polite disinterest that showed this was far from the first time she'd gotten that question. "They're really quite good at the work." Without missing a beat, she stepped through the door into the throng and added, "Come along now, Keiko. His Highness is very busy, and we have an appointment to keep."

They passed through the crowd without much fuss. It parted around Botan without a word from her or them. Keiko wondered what the lack of explicit recognition meant, but on some level, ferrywomen (or at least this one in particular) clearly had considerable rank and respect over the ogres.

Regardless, they soon arrived at, if Keiko were to be frank, a palatial cubical at the back of the great hall. The gold trimmed doors opened at their approach to reveal an empty desk overflowing with paperwork on the other side. Keiko didn't see anyone in the office, but Botan nonetheless bowed and spoke as though there were.

"Sir, I've brought the girl you requested to see."

Not sure what else to do, Keiko likewise bowed. She paused halfway, however, when she noticed a very short figure standing just in front of them on the other side of the doors. It was a human toddler at an age where gender was impossible to distinguish, though everything so far had predisposed her to assume Koenma (if this was him) was male. He wore a blue robe trimmed with pink over tan pants with a red obi at his waist. The large, spheroidal hat atop his head had the kanji for king embroidered on it with Jr below. And then there was the pacifier in his mouth.

The surprises kept on coming today.

But what was one more bit of weirdness? It was no concern of hers who ran the heavenly bureaucracy. Besides, maybe her reaction was intended as a secret test of character. Was that the test she had to take? Or was she supposed to say something to demonstrate her lack of gullibility? Perhaps she was overthinking things. But her entire life was literally riding on her test, whatever it was. She couldn't fail. Caution would serve her best. And insulting royalty was almost never a good idea.

"Welcome," Prince Koenma said. "How do you like my castle?"

Keiko blinked and rose from her bow. "It's…nice?" Such matters had been the last thing on her mind upon arrival.

Before anyone could say anything more, an ogre swept past them carrying a comically large load of paperwork. Comically large, that was, until he set them down on the prince's already full desk and said, "More documents awaiting your signature, Sir," before hurrying back out. The mere idea of having to read and sign every one sounded like a nightmare. The underworld administration clearly needed more employees, but where was the bottleneck? Money or the labor pool? Both answers had awful implications.

Prince Koenma breathed out a weary sigh. "As you can see, we're busy as hell down here. I'll get to the point."

He beckoned them to enter and returned to his seat at his desk. They could barely see him through the piles of documents until Botan helpfully reorganized the mess. As she did, he pulled open a drawer and rummaged around inside until he found whatever he was looking for.

"Yukimura Keiko, I present to you—" Prince Koenma paused for effect. "—your ordeal."

In the prince's hand, which he held out to her, Keiko found a golden egg. She reached out for it tentatively, waiting until he gave her the nod, and then leaned across the desk to grab it. The egg felt warm in her hand and pulled on her in a way she didn't know how to describe. It felt…heavy, she supposed, but emotionally rather than physically? That didn't sound right either, but it was all she had right now.

While Keiko explored that strange sensation internally, she outwardly listened to the prince explain the details of her ordeal.

"The test is simple. Keep the egg with you at all times. When it hatches, it will guide your soul back into your body."

Before she could help herself, Keiko asked, "That's it?"

"I did say it was simple," Prince Koenma observed archly.

He had, Keiko admitted to herself. "May I ask what will come out of it?"

"A spirit beast," the prince replied. "Curious creatures, and lifelong companions. Both before and after shedding the mortal coil. They feed off of the spirit energy of those who possess their egg to form a deep symbiotic bond. When you're happy, it will be happy. When you're in pain, it will be in pain. In nearly every way that matters, it will be a living reflection of your innermost self. As such, the precise form it will take depends entirely upon you."

That was at once both fascinating and terrifying. What must it be like to live as a spirit beast? What would it be like to have a spirit beast?

"How long will it take to hatch?" Keiko asked.

"For a human," Prince Koenma began, "a hundred and twenty years, usually."

Incredulous, Keiko said, "Then what's the point?"

"I said usually."

Keiko had a growing feeling that the prince loved wordplay a little too much. She hadn't missed the unspoken catch that her spirit beast would probably eat her or something if she were a horrible person. That was how these sorts of things always worked.

"This is a special case," Prince Koenma continued. "A ghost more freely emits spirit energy than a living body, so the egg will develop quickly. Just have patience."

Patience? Keiko could do that. She hadn't murdered Yūsuke yet, after all. Some had called her a saint for that alone. And if that really was all she had to do, then she could pass this test for sure. Relieved, she bowed and said, "I will. Thank you for this opportunity, Your Highness."

The prince nodded in turn. "I look forward to watching your case develop. These sorts of incidents are rare and always interesting." He then turned to Botan and said, "See to it that Keiko's body is in good condition. This whole exercise will be pointless if she spends the rest of her life waiting for her death."

Botan offered the prince a loose salute and promised, "I'll get right on it, Sir, just as soon as we return to the living world."

"Excellent. And do look after Keiko while you're there when you can."

"Of course, Sir."

With that, the prince dismissed them. It was time to return to, if not home, then Keiko's home world.

It was a decidedly surreal experience to visit a mortuary to see her own body. Keiko would have to ruminate upon those feelings later. Or not. Honestly, she didn't want to think about it too deeply even though she probably would anyway if she didn't find something to distract herself with. This whole situation was just weird. How much did the body really matter, after all, when souls existed and fully contained the personality of the person involved? Come to think of it, what exactly was a body? A puppet? Was brain damage analogous to cutting a string? She hoped she didn't have brain damage. Botan said she could fix her up 'as right as rain', but what if she missed something? Could Keiko just get a new body instead? Maybe that would be better. She should ask if—

"Here we are!" Botan declared, breaking Keiko from her rambling thoughts.

They stood in front of a freezer meant for preserving bodies for viewing and then cremation rather than, thankfully, an autopsy or a burial. That meant her body would be more or less intact and unmodified. The morticians had left for the day as well, so she and Botan had the room all to themselves, for what little that mattered to ghosts. On the front panel of one unit, Keiko read her own name.

She placed both hands over the egg Prince Koenma had given her and clutched it a little tighter.

Botan hummed as she considered how to approach their task. "This would be much easier if we waited until after your wake." She pushed up her sleeves and set her oar aside to hang where she left it in the air. "Oh well. We'll just have to break a few things."

If that's all it took to make this work, then Keiko — "Wait. Break things?" Once the initial objection to vandalism died down, the question of how bubbled to the surface. "We can touch things?"

Botan stepped inside the freezer, which should have answered that question but didn't. "Yes and no," she said, her voice unobstructed. "Ever heard of a poltergeist?"

Had that question been rhetorical? Keiko certainly hoped not. Thankfully, Botan proved willing to offer a bit more of an explanation.

"The short answer is spirit energy can interact with the physical. If you know how to use it."

A sharp snap and the crackle of an electric arc came from the unit containing Keiko's body.

"There, that should do it," Botan said. On her way out, she knocked the front panel open hard enough for it to swing on its hinges and slam against the adjacent unit. A blast of presumably cold air swept out and blew a few loose papers on a table nearby onto the floor. "Now we wait for your body to warm up. Good thing you haven't been in there that long."

Keiko declined to comment on that.

"In the meanwhile, have you thought about how you plan to pass the time before your egg hatches?"

In all honesty, Keiko hadn't. The only thing she really could do was chat with Botan. She certainly wouldn't pass up the opportunity to get to know her ferrygirl a little better and maybe make a new friend, but what else was there? She supposed she could attend class to keep up with her studies. Despite herself, that felt…frustratingly mundane in a way Yūsuke would tease for until she died again and maybe even longer if she ever admitted it to him. Still, it seemed like the smart thing to do. Maybe she'd even visit a few other schools to expand her horizons. If she asked Botan nicely enough to ferry her around, she might even be able to travel to other countries. This could turn into an interesting opportunity for her if she used her time right. Besides, it wasn't like she could read a book. She couldn't, after all, turn the pa—

A wonderful idea occurred to Keiko. "Could you teach me how to use my…spirit energy?" She thought she recalled the term correctly.

If she hadn't, Botan evidently knew exactly what Keiko meant anyway. "Can? Yes. Willing? That could be interesting. Shall? Well…" She withdrew her little black book from earlier and flipped through it. Either she was skimming for keywords or she had an incredible reading speed. Both, of course, were impressive in their own right. As she did, she said half to herself, "There are quite a few rules about this sort of thing. Though human psychics aren't unheard of, and yours is a special case amongst special cases. Hmm…"

After a few minutes of searching, Botan snapped her book shut and tucked it away. "I don't think there's anything prohibiting me from offering you specifically a few pointers if you want to become a poltergeist. But you should know that the manipulation of spirit energy is much easier as a ghost. It might all have been a waste of time once you're back in your body."

Keiko pressed her lips into a thin line. There was a word for this that she'd heard of at some point. Opportunity cost, she thought it was. "I…would very much like to have a way to communicate with my family." Even if she never got to use the skill again, that would be worth it. And Yūsuke! He dearly needed to know that she could come home eventually.

"Oh dear."

That didn't sound good.

"There are a few rules about your test that I haven't told you yet."

Of course there were. The afterlife was a bureaucracy. Keiko should have expected red tape.

"While undergoing the ordeal, you're not allowed to speak with those you were close to in life outside of emergency situations. That includes your parents and your boyfriend, of course."

Between disappointment and embarrassment, the latter won out. "Yūsuke isn't my boyfriend," Keiko protested. Not that she hadn't thought about it. On several occasions. She felt certain he liked her too if he'd only grow up and admit it instead of teasing her. Oh gods (or whatever she was supposed to swear by after today), and now Botan looked like a cat deciding whether or not to play with its food.

"Well, in any case," Botan said, "you are allowed final words with your loved ones before the test officially starts tomorrow, but you can simply enter their dreams to do that. I suppose you can decide what that means."

"Oh," Keiko said, nearly squeaked. "That's wonderful." What did it take to get rid of this blush? "But I think I would still like to learn. It would help pass the time. For now, at least. Perhaps we can see how it goes and then reevaluate?"

And so for the next few hours, while they waited for Keiko to thaw, which were words that would have a very different meaning for her for the rest of her existence, Botan introduced her to the most basic of basics: an unordered burst of power. If she did it right, she could move things around via what amounted to spiritual shockwaves. This was the quintessential poltergeist ability. It usually happened accidentally during an emotional breakdown and knocked over chairs, rattled chains, made strange sounds from displacing the air, tossed small objects, and the like. Classical spooky ghost shenanigans, in short. Strong directed emotions could trigger it. Someone good at it could move things about at will.

Keiko was absolutely, one hundred percent certain she'd managed to make the pencil on the table wobble.

"Why don't we try something different?" Botan suggested.

Keiko sighed, defeated. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, if a large, unordered burst is giving you trouble, how about something small and concentrated?" Botan held up a hand with her thumb and index finger extended perpendicular. She mimed firing a gun with them.

It couldn't hurt to try, Keiko supposed. "How do I…" She copied Botan's little performance.

Botan took a few seconds to think about it. "In healing, we learn how to channel our spirit energy to specific outlets. I'll lead you through a visualization. Imagine you're in a pool."

That was very different than the tantrum approach, and although she had no idea where it was headed, Keiko already found she liked it far more.

"Close your eyes."

Keiko did so and let Botan's soft voice become her whole world.

"Let yourself drift.

"You're floating.

"Give yourself a soft push.

"Concentrate on how each part of your body flows differently yet all together.

"There's you. The water. And the water inside you.

"Your skin is a thin membrane.

"The prick of a needle will let the water flow between each side.

"But outside the pool, that wound drains you.

"It's on the tip of your finger.

"Focus on the flow out."

Keiko felt an odd warmth grow there.

"Now increase the pressure.

"As you shrink, the leak becomes a stream."

This was becoming tiring in a way Keiko had never felt before.

"Cover the hole.

"Hold it.

"Wait until it feels like too much.

"Now open your eyes, aim, and fire."

Keiko's eyes snapped open. She felt the warmth. She saw the glow at the tip of her finger. With utter surety, she imagined a trigger in her mind and pulled it. A burst of blue light few from her straight toward her target.

And at long last, the pencil went flying. It spun wildly as though she'd flicked it with her finger. It arced up, fell short of the ceiling, and then finally smashed into the far wall with the satisfying crack of the tip breaking.

"I did it. I did it!" Keiko laughed and spun about in the air in celebration. She'd finally done it!

Botan joined in soon after with a, "Well done, Keiko!" and some hearty applause.

And then Keiko realized how utterly exhausted she felt. Not physically, because ghosts, Botan assured her, didn't sleep, but in some other manner. Some part of her she'd never once exercised had just gotten the workout of its existence.

"Is it supposed to fell like I just ran a marathon?"

"Give it time," Botan replied with a chuckle. "You just need to build up your spiritual muscle, so to speak."

"So this is normal?"

Botan pressed her index finger to her jaw and gazed upward. "For the vast majority of humans, I'd say so. Though I've never been one, so take that as you will."

It was enough, and Keiko felt a little better for it.

Botan clapped her hands together. "Now then," she began, "I think we've waited long enough. You should be warm and ready for us."

Disregarding the particular phrasing Botan had chosen, Keiko agreed. This was Botan's show, so she took the lead and flew into the freezer again. Keiko followed after to observe and kept as out of the way as the limited space for an unobstructed view would allow. Botan intended to reconstruct her entire body from a state of mild decay. Who with an ounce of curiosity wouldn't want to watch that?

Botan, in contrast to Keiko's fumbling attempts at controlling her spirit energy, was the consummate professional. Power flowed in a healthy green glow through Botan's hands as she worked her way up and down Keiko's body. She mumbled a few details here and there that suggested she was first evaluating the extent of the damage. Once she finished with that, her spirit energy changed to a blue color and slowly diffused through Keiko's body to encompass the entirety of it.

"I put you in stasis," Botan explained. "The body is a complex, interdependent system. When in need, your cells will rapidly cannibalize themselves to survive. Healing part of you will only repeat that process if you're not brought back online all at once."

After that short break, Botan rolled her shoulders and got back to work. She moved slowly from the feet upwards, never tiring, always focused, occasionally mumbling a word or two about what she'd moved on to next or what was giving her trouble. The brain, she assured a visibly nervous Keiko, would be in proper working condition, although she apologized in advance for any temporary memory recall issues Keiko might experience after returning to life. With any luck, her spirit beast would take long enough to hatch that her body would get over that on its own while she was away.

"And now the moment of truth."

Botan lifted the stasis from Keiko's body. Immediately, her chest began rising and falling in slow, blessedly ordinary motions. Color returned to her face. She was alive! Or at least she was in the most technical sense. She still needed to put her soul back into her body for it to really count, but it was the principle of the thing.

When all was said and done, they retreated back into the mortuary proper. Keiko had only three words. "That was amazing." The current state of medical science couldn't even begin to compare.

"They're just basic healing powers," Botan said in an attempt to humbly deflect the so very much deserved compliment. "It's actually much easier to work with someone who's not alive. Mistakes are meaningless. Your patient won't fight you even subconsciously. So on and so forth."

Keiko didn't think Botan understood how valuable those 'basic' powers were, but then she'd never had to go without them, now had she? More importantly, Keiko asked, "Could I learn how to heal?"

"Not in the time you have as a ghost," Botan replied bluntly.

Unfortunate, but Keiko had seen that coming. One didn't become a doctor in a day, a week, a month, or even a year. Why would healing be any different? She could content herself with only striving to perfect telekinesis, she supposed.

How was she ever going to return to an ordinary life after she'd witnessed such wonders?

"It's getting late," Botan said, changing the subject. "Your deadline is tonight for your last words. Have you thought of who to speak to and what to say before your test officially begins?"

There was her parents, naturally. She would offer them a basic explanation of her situation. Between the two of them, hopefully they would remember enough after waking and would, when someone inevitably discovered her alive while trying to fix the mortuary freezer, believe what she told them. On the off chance Atsuko wouldn't be up the entire night, Keiko could visit her dreams as well. And then, of course, there was…

High above even the tallest building, Keiko screamed to the heavens, "Yūsuke, you idiot! Where are you!"