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

Spirit Detective Saga
Chapter Nine - The Quest for Botan's Oar

Come Monday morning, the ghostly group saw Maya off to school before leaving together to hunt down Botan's missing oar. The journey over to the next prefecture passed quickly, flying high in the clouds so Keiko could more easily recognize their destination.

A familiar mountain came into view over the horizon, and Keiko redirected their group straight toward it. When a small town joined it off in the distance, she knew they were close. Using it as a second fixed point, she eventually managed to find the approximate area where she and Sayaka had found Botan a few days ago. If nothing else, she thought she recalled the large knoll in the forest below them.

"All right, here we are," Keiko said. "Sayaka, Botan, can you provide any insight on where we should look?"

Sayaka only mentioned that her blast had hit the oar as well while Botan said, "I vaguely recall it slipping out of my legs early on, so it's probably nearer to the ground."

That wasn't much to go off of. Keiko could work with it, however. Each of them had the ability to sense spirit energy to varying degrees, and the oar, as a semi-permanent construct invested with a portion of Botan's power, felt exactly like her, so they all knew what to look for. A little experimentation gave Keiko the maximum radius each of them could reliably notice something in, and a little geometry determined a reasonably efficient formation for them to sweep the countryside. They were, after all, only trying to efficiently pack differently sized cylinders to cover a volume.

Botan, with the largest range by far, would scout at her own pace with minimal overlap in a staggered grid. Keiko came in a distant second with a modest but nontrivial lead over the other two and would fill in most of the gaps Botan left. Sayaka and Teijō would cover the remainder together. This also conveniently gave them time alone to chat with each other, something they'd not had the chance for at the party. While Teijō had all but explicitly stated that she was ready to move on, Keiko still hoped Sayaka could get something out of their meeting before that happened.

There was just one problem.

"No! I'm staying with you."

Sayaka had become a haunting ghost fixated on Keiko.

"I won't be far away. You'll be able to see me most of the time," Keiko tried. "The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can do something fun instead."

"No! I don't wanna!"

Botan smirked, probably figuring that this was Keiko's comeuppance for flouting regulations, and said that she'd go on ahead while they sorted this out on their own in a singsong voice. Keiko cursed her under her breath as Botan ran away. It took a lot of coaxing after that to get Sayaka to finally agree to the plan.

Once they set out, however, progress proceeded apace. They had a lot of ground to cover, but with any luck, Keiko would only have to skip one day of school.

Deep into the afternoon, Keiko sensed something strange as she flew over the town nearest to where they'd started searching. It didn't have the same flavor, for lack of a better word, as any of the ghosts she'd encountered before. Neither did it possess any familiarity to Minamino's carefully concealed aura. If felt most similar to the faint yet distinctive living human presence Maya or Kuwabara gave off, only orders of magnitude more intense.

Keiko slowed to a stop as she examined the odd spirit energy further. There was something off about it, something underneath it. Her brow furrowed as she closed her eyes and concentrated.

Then she had it! It was Botan's oar!

Coincidence, or did someone find it before us? That could be inconvenient if he or she didn't want to give it back.

Regardless, Keiko followed the spirit energy to its source at, of all things, a primary school bordering the forest on the edge of town. Only once she'd drawn close enough to peer through the windows did she realize that the one living source of spirit energy was actually two extremely similar ones very close together. From that, she assumed she was looking for a pair of siblings, possibly twins, near enough in age to want to hang out at school.

And there they were. Two long-haired brunettes roughly Sayaka's age with a distinct resemblance, a boy and a girl, wearing matching yellow jackets walked through the school corridors after class had let out for the day. The boy had his messy hair tied back in a low ponytail while the girl wore hers in an intricate hair bow. It was the latter who had Botan's oar, swinging and thrusting it around like a sword without much care for how she looked or what hazards it would pass through without harm. They were children. Imagination was their demesne. They could do whatever they wanted and no one would think it odd.

"Well then," Keiko said to herself, "let's see how this goes."

Keiko followed the children until they wandered out of the school building and into the forest behind it. From the sidelong look the boy had given her earlier on, they knew she was there. But now that they had some privacy, the time had come to make her move. She quickly flew over the kids and then landed in front of them. The pair stopped and glanced at each other, unconcerned, unsurprised, and mostly uninterested. If it hadn't been apparent already, they'd obviously seen ghosts before.

"Hello, there. I'm Yukimura Keiko. My friends and I have been searching for that oar. Could I trouble you to return it to us?"

The siblings looked to each other again and shared some silent words exchanged entirely in facial cues.

The girl swung the oar up to rest against her shoulder. "Sure," she said.

"But you'll have to catch us first," the boy added.

Keiko rolled her eyes. Living humans were terribly slow creatures, what with all their mass, air resistance, and such slowing them down. This wouldn't take long.

The children only grinned.

Out of a sense of fair play, Keiko throttled her speed to something the kids could enjoy. But as soon as she moved, they vanished in a blur of motion.

Keiko blinked. "What?"

"Come on," the boy said, his voice emanating from the canopy above. "Even the weakest ghosts are faster than that."

The girl, from her own perch in the tree branches, added, "You'll have to do way better than that." She still had the oar, but she now held it over both shoulders wedged between her neck and the arms bent over the shaft.

Keiko's mouth opened again, but no words came out this time.

With a mock salute, the boy said, "See ya," and leapt further into the forest. The accompanying flare of his spirit energy carried him far faster and further than any living human should be capable of jumping. The girl followed after with equal swiftness.

This just became much more difficult.

Keiko gave chase.

The children couldn't or didn't hide their spirit energy, but the dense forest hid their movements for them. When she caught up to one, they juked out of her reach. She could only guess which way they would escape before she caught a brief glimpse of them through the trees. She was still faster, thankfully (if they were giving it their all while openly playing with her), but they were more agile and had, as far as she could tell, inexhaustible stamina.

Even so, Keiko would not lose them. She hounded them deeper and deeper into the forest.

Then opportunity came! She caught the girl by surprise. She reached out with her spirit energy as she passed to extend her reach and firmly grasped the oar in her power. It ripped out of the girl's hands as she let out a cry of triumph. This had just validated all the work she'd put into learning telekinesis!

And then Keiko realized that she was holding a big stick.

Laughter came from the canopy. It was the boy's. The girl pulled down an eyelid and stuck her tongue out at Keiko. Then the boy showed himself. He had the oar now, obviously, and told her to try again.

"Children," Keiko huffed.

It was then that Sayaka entered the picture. She made a wild dash straight at the boy, missed when he sidestepped her, and plowed down into the ground. She'd be back, but it would take her a few seconds to turn about.

"Huh," the girl said. "Guess you did mention you have friends."

The boy chimed in next. "She can join your team. You'll need the help."

And with that, the two children vanished into the forest once more.

Keiko let out a frustrated groan. She briefly considered hunting down Sayaka to properly join forces, but she figured it was better to keep the pressure up on the mystery children in this strange game of tag.

Fortunately, Teijō joined them soon as well. Keiko gave her a run down on the situation and asked her to fill Sayaka in when she returned. Working together, all three of them should have a chance to corner the children.

Keiko was exhausted — mentally, not physically or spiritually. She'd been chasing the kids for what felt like hours now and hadn't managed to catch them once when they hadn't intended her to. Needless to say, they still retained possession of Botan's oar.

This thrilling, dramatic, and entirely unnecessary game of tag came to an abrupt end when Botan arrived on the scene.

"Ah, there it is." Botan reached out with her spirit energy and caused her oar to dematerialize. The power she'd invested into it to give it form returned to her, after which she remade it from scratch. Once she'd sat herself upon her new oar, she said, "Much better," and then finally took in the scene properly. "You five look like you're having fun. Don't let me get in the way."

Keiko glared at Botan, though her heart wasn't fully in it. She lacked the energy for that.

"Ah, well, looks like the game's over, Fubuki," the boy said.

The girl (Fubuki, apparently) placed her hands behind her head with her fingers threaded together. "Yeah, but it was fun while it lasted." To Keiko, she added, "Come see us again sometime. We promise not to destroy you so long as you don't bother our mom."

And with that strange and somewhat disturbing statement, the two children vanished into the forest. Keiko had no idea who they were, how they'd obtained their powers, or if they'd had any goal here other than a bit of fun. She'd guess not on the latter point, though. They were just children. Probably. Botan, for what it was worth, didn't seem concerned about them.

"Well, that was exciting!" Teijō declared, happily clapping her hands together.

At least one of us had fun.

In all honesty, Keiko couldn't say that she hadn't enjoyed herself a little bit as well. This hadn't been anything like facing down Sayaka at her worst. That had been terrifying. This had been…pleasant, she supposed, in the way that running a mile could be.

At any rate, with Botan's oar recovered, they departed for home.

The return trip home passed without incident. School had long since let out for the day, so they headed straight for Maya's house to relax after the incident with Fubuki and her probable brother. Upon arrival, they reported the success of their mission and held a small celebration into the night without revealing themselves to Maya's parents. It lasted until she had to go to bed to get up in time for school tomorrow.

Then came the moment Keiko had expected to come ever since they'd made it back.

The group gathered around Maya's bedroom window, one inside and the rest outside. Botan sat waiting patiently and silently off to the side while the other four said their goodbyes.

"Really, it was wonderful to meet you all," Teijō said, eyes wet. "I'll never forget the time we spent together. And Keiko, thank you for dragging me away from my bench. Had you not, I'm unsure if I ever would have left."

The two shared a hug, and Keiko replied, "It was no trouble at all," while conveniently not mentioning that doing so hadn't exactly been by the book. If she were a ferrygirl, she would have gotten into some trouble had anyone who cared found out. As a mere ghost, however, Botan had chosen to overlook the matter.

After they broke apart, Teijō moved to hug Sayaka next. The girl allowed it reluctantly, and Keiko overheard Teijō say, "Do remember what we talked about, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," Sayaka agreed morosely.

Maya came next. To her, Teijō replied, "I fear my smile will have to suffice for you."

A wistful chuckle escaped Maya. "And mine, you. I would have liked to get to know you better."

"When your own time comes," Teijō said, "feel free to knock upon my door."

With their goodbyes exchanged, Teijō lastly came to Botan.

"Ready?"

Teijō nodded. She settled onto Botan's oar behind, now, her ferrygirl. She shared one final farewell with everyone, and then they were gone. The pair faded away into the night sky, off to Spirit World.

The silence stretched on for far too long to be comfortable. Keiko had never said goodbye to someone she'd really known before, only ghosts that she had met in passing with Botan. The only friend she had who she'd ever cared about enough to truly miss was Yūsuke, and she'd not gone a day without seeing him since they'd met until after she'd died. Even now, she peeked in on him more often than she probably should. This new feeling in her chest was…unpleasant. It reminded her far too much of the first impression Sayaka's spirit energy had made.

From the window, Maya sighed. "Sometimes I forget that all of you are, you know, dead."

"It's easy to forget," Keiko added. There was a much smaller difference between the two states of being than she used to think. She gave her own sigh and then held her hand out for Sayaka to take. "Goodnight, Maya. I'll see you at school tomorrow."