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

Spirit Detective Saga
Chapter Six - Stand Back! I'm Going to Try Science!

Keiko was on the hunt for ghosts. Or rather she was on the hunt for a ghost, though not any one ghost in particular. The only requirement she had was that it not be herself. She had an experiment to run and needed a test subject.

Equipped with the ability to sense spirit energy, if not with the precision Keiko would have preferred for this endeavor, she found one surprisingly close to home. In the middle of a market square, the ghost of a young woman just past the cusp of adulthood sat on a bench staring forlornly down at her hands in her lap. She was dressed for the cold weather, perhaps hinting that she'd died recently. That would explain why Botan hadn't sorted her out already, at least. Of particular note, the woman had a dazzling ruby the size of a chestnut embedded in a silver pendant hanging from her neck.

Keiko settled onto the ground and approached on foot as well as any ghost could. When she neared, she said, "Hello," and received a lukewarm, though not hostile, greeting in return. She thought it might be best to get straight to the point before prying. "Would you mind doing me a quick favor?"

The woman tilted her head to the side. "A favor?" she said, sounding out the words as though she'd been expecting something else entirely.

"Mm-hmm," Keiko hummed. She proffered her spirit beast egg with her next question. "Could you hold this for me for a few moments? I need some assistance with an experiment."

Again, the woman proved dumbstruck. She blinked and then echoed, "An experiment?"

"Yep! I would tell you what it's for, but that might affect the result."

Although uncertain, the woman said, "Okay," and took the egg without rising from the bench. "Do I just hold it like this?"

Keiko informed her that that was perfect and then backed off a step. To stick with Minamino's metaphor, spirit energy was light. It radiated out from its source and could be blocked by things that absorbed it. If, as he proposed, her egg preferred her spirit energy to all others, it should be highly transparent to this woman's. If, however, it was opaque, then he (and Botan as well) had his facts wrong.

To obtain the best results, Keiko would have asked a third party to do this part for her, but she would work with what resources she had available. The woman's spirit energy felt like a weight in the world, impossible to miss for anyone paying the slightest bit of attention. But it was the cone from her through the egg that interested Keiko. She noticed a slight obscuration of that heaviness radiating from the woman. That likely meant her egg was consuming some of the woman's spirit energy, although only a sliver.

The question that remained was what proportion that sliver comprised compared to how much of Keiko's own energy it consumed. She had a test for that, too, but it required a bit more involvement from her assistant.

"Thank you for your time," Keiko said as she retrieved her egg. "If you wouldn't mind sparing a bit more, there's a second part you could assist with as well."

The woman smiled faintly and shrugged. "I have nowhere else to be anymore."

While a little morbid, Keiko would take that agreement. She quickly ran through the same explanation Botan had given her for sensing spirit energy. A little practice allowed the woman to pick up a knack for it more quickly than Keiko had. She then held up her egg and instructed the woman in performing the side of the experiment she'd just gone through.

"I can't sense you at all through the egg," the woman said. "It's like you're not even there."

Keiko breathed a silent sigh of relief. That settled it, then. She would entrust Minamino with her life just as he would her with his own, if in two different senses of the word. It would be on one additional condition, however.

But that would come later. For the moment, Keiko bowed and thanked her assistant for her participation.

"It was no trouble," the woman said with her own little respectful bow from her seat in return. There was a life to her voice now that hadn't been there when they'd first met. She then dared to ask, "Though if it wouldn't be too much of a bother, I should appreciate some company from time to time. I'd be happy to help with any more experiments you have."

Keiko's heart went out to the lonely ghost. It struck her now how most people in her situation were far less blessed with companionship than herself. "Of course. I need to get back to school, but where can I find you later?"

"Oh, here is fine. Anytime."

And that brought Keiko to a second realization. She's a fixated ghost! How did I miss that? In hindsight, the woman hadn't moved once from her bench. "Well, I'll see you soon, then. My name's Yukimura Keiko, by the way."

"Teijō Ami."

With their introductions made, Keiko departed to return to Meiou for the remainder of today's lessons. She didn't make it far, however, before Botan suddenly appeared before her. She jumped, startled, in the weird way that ghosts shot up and had to then consciously float back down.

"Botan!" Keiko breathed out. "You scared the life out of me. What are you doing here?"

"And a good morning to you too, Keiko," Botan replied, an amused smile playing out over her face. "I sensed your spirit energy and wondered what you were up to." Unspoken was that Keiko was not where she was supposed to be, or at least where she'd said she'd be. "You didn't happen to get anywhere with that fixated spirit, did you?"

Glancing back at the square, Keiko said, "Teijō?" Something about how Botan asked clued Keiko in to why she wanted to know. "Have you met her?"

"On Christmas." Botan stuck her thumb out. "She hoped someone special would show up. Long story short, he turned out to be a real class act." The sarcasm was palpable in that line. "Poor dear fell to pieces. Still refuses to move on, though. I swear, it's like fixies enjoy their misery."

Keiko hadn't gotten that impression at all. "I think she's just lonely and needs a friend." Not that ghosts had a lot of options in that regard, especially… Fixies? Is that a slur? It'd kind of sounded like it, but at the same time, she couldn't imagine Botan using one. Besides, it was too farcical to take seriously.

Meanwhile, as Keiko mentally tripped over usage, Botan beamed. "Well then, she's your assignment now. Have fun with her."

"Wait, what?"

But it was too late to protest. The ferrygirl sailed off on her oar and, cackling like a madwoman, slipped away to Spirit World.

"Botan!"

A silently fuming Keiko returned to Meiou High that day. She couldn't believe Botan had the gall to straight up dump work on her. No, on second thought, she could believe it, and that made it that much worse. They would be having words when Botan returned.

It was the middle of lunch when Keiko poked her head into her classroom. The students were busy eating, chatting, and generally not paying attention to anyone's business but their own. Maya would know she was around by virtue of sensing a ghost nearby but would remain blind to what had her preoccupied. It could be Botan, another ghost, or even just a moment of idleness. As such, it proved easy to get Minamino's attention without drawing Maya's as well. She merely slipped in through the floor behind Maya and whispered to meet her outside by the flowers where they'd had their last little exchange.

He showed his face a few minutes later after having to walk through doors, corridors, and down stairs. In her current mood, she found that quaintly amusing. He appeared as he had before, relaxed, confident, and with eyes that said he was at least three steps ahead of everyone. Since they both wanted the same things, this should go over well and quickly.

On a side note, Keiko found it slightly alarming that she'd started to regard walls, and doors, and such as mundane inconveniences. Going back to being corporeal was going to be rough when it finally happened. She didn't look forward to that. Or physical therapy for her atrophy.

Not important right now. Keiko faced Minamino and met his eyes. "We have a deal." She quickly held up a hand with only her index finger raised. "On one condition."

"Which is…"

"I expect not to mysteriously forget my time here."

Keiko watched Minamino carefully for the slightest hint of a tell, but not so much as a twitch passed across his face. "You suspect I'm responsible for Kitajima's memory loss," he stated plainly. "Not unreasonable. We could entertain each other for hours fencing with words, I'm sure, but the truth is ultimately irrelevant. I see no harm in accepting your condition."

In the privacy of her own mind, Keiko admitted that Minamino was good at this. She was certain he was at fault for Maya's memory loss, but he did a fantastic job selling his innocent act. She almost felt a little doubt. Almost.

"Just so long as that's clear," Keiko said. She stepped forward with egg in hand to stand right before Minamino. "I'm going to assume you're either a scared boy who wants to be left alone or you have a dark, secret past you're running from." Both made perfect sense of his actions, and the more…unpleasant theories she could concoct were unlikely. So she paused to take all the unpleasantness from their initial encounter and pushed it aside. Smiling now, she held out her lifeline for him to take. "In either case, if you wish to remain in the shadows, I'll take no offense. Otherwise, consider this me extending the hand of friendship."

Minamino returned the smile with a small one of his own. "A tempting offer," he said as he took her spirit beast's egg. "I will keep it in mind."

That was a polite rejection, something Keiko accepted for what it was. She had no vested interest in Minamino's affairs, no pressing need for his abilities, and no particular interest in imposing herself upon his life. As she'd said before, she took no offense. If he wanted nothing more than a working relationship, then so it would be.

At any rate, this concluded their business. Keiko left first and zipped up to their classroom on her own. There, Maya welcomed her back from her truancy. She naturally protested that she'd been engaged in important ghostly affairs, whereupon some good natured teasing proceeded.

Maya thankfully failed to notice when Minamino returned a few minutes later.

The egg looked the same as it always had in the sunlight. Its golden shell had a polished shine, and so far as Keiko could tell from awkward self-examinations, it devoured her spirit energy as greedily as ever. It weighed the same in her hand, and a tap upon its shell sounded as unremarkable as it had the day she'd received it. From the perspective of what limited tools she had available to her, she concluded that a few hours with Minamino hadn't done her growing spirit beast any harm. She'd continue monitoring it just in case but otherwise pushed such concerns from her mind.

Leaning back, Keiko stretched out atop Meiou's roof while she awaited Botan's return (and reckoning). She closed her eyes and pretended she could nap under the warm sun.

"Well, someone looks comfortable."

Keiko peered out through narrowed eyes. At a growl, she said, "Botan."

The woman in question made a strained attempt at laughter before faltering under her charge's glare. "Oh, come on, Keiko." Ferrygirls, Keiko was sure, weren't supposed to whine, yet here they were. "I'm the third to approach Teijō. The third! Our usual strategies obviously aren't working, so…" She rolled her hands about each other a few times and then held them out toward Keiko with a final flourish. Her wide, open-mouthed smile was so full of expectation and hope.

Reluctantly, Keiko grasped Botan's hands with her own and, as her ferrygirl pulled her upright, said, "Fine," in as sour a voice as possible. "I'll try my best."

"That's the spirit, Keiko!"

An ambivalent hum was the most positive response she could deliver to that. "If I end up sending Teijō to some eternal nightmare afterlife, it's not my fault."

They left Meiou for the usual nightly wanderings to the tune of Botan's attempts at a pep rally. She expressed far more confidence in Keiko than Keiko felt in herself in a long series of attempts to hype her up for the work. She would do it in her own time, however, and only planned to treat Teijō as she would any other friend. If that helped, then great. If it didn't, then hopefully no harm would be done.

"Oh!" Botan cried as she clapped her hands together. "I have good news!"

If it caused offense, Botan would have to forgive Keiko for her silent skepticism.

"Tomorrow, you'll get to return to your body!"

Keiko's eyes widened. "What? But…" She glanced down at her egg.

"It'll only be for a day," Botan added. "Your body might die again if it remains soulless for too long. Explaining away another mysterious revival would be a bit much, so we'll just sort of jury-rig you into it to recharge your vitality."

Keiko was struck speechless. Both by the opportunity and the questionable means. But if it would let her spend a day in her body again, she could live with it. She'd get to touch things and press every button and flip every page she came across just because she could. She'd get to eat something—

No, she wouldn't get to eat. She'd been asleep too long. Her body wouldn't be able to tolerate real food. At best, she'd get liquids to drink. Even so, to taste anything again would be a true earthly delight.

But perhaps best of all, she'd get to talk to anyone who happened by. Her caretakers wouldn't look right through her, and they'd call her parents, who would drop everything and rush straight to—

The rules still apply, don't they? Keiko asked Botan. They did. She couldn't see her parents.

Worse, as a minor, the long-term care facility her body was in would probably be legally obligated to inform them if she awoke. Which meant no one could find out when she did. And that, in turn, meant she had to act out the poor little comatose girl. And she and Botan would have to break any monitoring equipment she couldn't fool.

The more Keiko thought about the logistics of this, the more she realized how tortuous tomorrow would be.

She eyed the egg in her hand, silently begging it to hatch as soon as possible. Her deal with Minamino now looked like a stroke of pure fortune in disguise.

A/N: I tried. I really tried. At this point, I'm 99% sure Togashi never named the ghost in chapter five of the manga. I can indefinitely work around Keiko's parents not having names but not so much with 'that one ghost lady Keiko found on a bench'. Thus Teijō Ami (lit. Stationary Beauty).