//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 (Edited thanks to Alticron) // Story: Spirit Fighter: Yusuke Urameshi // by PhantomTypist //------------------------------// "About two days ago, back in my world...I was officially declared dead." As soon as Yusuke Urameshi uttered that sentence, he could feel everyone's eyes on him. "You're kidding right? There's no possible way for a being to come back from the dead. Therefore you must be joking." Twilight stated matter of fact tone. However Yusuke still held an un-amused look on his face. "Twiley, I don't think he's kidding, did you really die two days ago?" Shining asks as he looks at Urameshi. "I did, and Botan can vouch for me as well." Yusuke looks at Botan briefly before looking back at everyone at the table. "How is it that you came to know Urameshi? Let alone know about his passing, Botan?" Cadence asks. "Well to make a long story short, I was there to escort Yusuke's spirit to spirit world." She replies, leaving everyone wondering what was she talking about. "Botan's basically a grim reaper." Yusuke says as everyone but Celestia looks on at Botan with wide eyes. "B-But! She too beautiful to be a grim reaper!" Spike exclaims causing everyone to look at him. "What? It's true." "Awww...what a cute thing to say." Botan smiles as she gently pats Spike's head, making him blush. She stops patting him as she looks back at everyone. "But Yusuke is right, I am a grim reaper. Or you can refer to me as guide of the river styx." "So tell me, if this mongrel did indeed die, then why isn't he burning in the afterlife?" Blueblood asks, causing Celestia to glare at him, while Yusike gives him the stink eye. "Well believe it or not, his sudden death caught us by surprise." "Really? So an individual's death happens on a schedule then?" Twilight asks, holding a quill and parchment in her hands. "In a way, yes. You see when a human like Yusuke, or pony, or dragon like yourselves is born, a worker in spirit world makes a file on the newborn. Eye color, hair color, blood type, and gender, plus a photograph to properly identify the individual. As the individual gets older their file gets updated, listing their talents, habits, and most importantly, what good or bad things they've done in their lives." Twilight quickly writes down each and every word Botan says. "That's amazing! But how do you determine when someone's time is up?" "Well, we determine one's death by evaluating the individuals lifestyle, plus their decisions in life and calculate their time of death. And before you ask, no we have no way of determining on how someone dies, and our evaluations are one hundred percent correct, however Yusuke is the only exception. Originally he was going to pass away in his late eighties, but ended up dying two days ago." Botan glances at the human teen as he sighs a bit. "Hey Yusuke," Spike looks at the him getting his full attention. "How did you die?" "Spike! You shouldn't be asking him something like that, it must be very troubling having to retell something like that." Twilight scolded. "Don't sweat it Twilight, it's okay." Yusuke assure's her as he starts remembering that day. "It was noon at the time, I had just graduated from high school and I was feeling pretty good about myself, not only did I prove my teacher wrong about me, but I also knocked him on his ass right before I left with my diploma." "You struck your teacher?! Why would you do such a thing?!" Twilight asks in shock. "Believe me when I say this, if you had Mr. Iwamoto as your teacher, you'd want to kick his ass too." "Me?! Physically attack a teacher?! Never!!" "Trust me you would. Anyways, I was heading back home, thinking about what I should do to celebrate when I happen to notice a soccer ball rolling up to me. When I picked it up, a little kid came running up to me." He glances at Spike for a moment. "He's probably the same age as you are Spike. I had scolded him for playing too close to a busy street and that he could get seriously hurt. I guess my tone was a bit too harsh, on account he looked afraid of me, so I did the one thing that I'd rarely ever do." "And that was?" Cadence asks. "Make a complete fool out of myself." Yusuke chuckles a bit as he thinks back to that moment. "I started making goofy faces, making weird noises, and finally using the kid's soccer ball as a make shift hunchback, making myself look more ridiculous, hoping around like a goofball." Everyone except for Blueblood was chuckling at the thought of Urameshi acting in such a way. "And the little one?" Cadence grins. "He was laughing a whole lot, even though I was being gawked at by passers by. After the kid calmed down, I handed him his ball, and told him not to play near the street. I started walking away when I heard the one thing that made me stop in my tracks." "And what was that?" Twilight asks. "I heard the kid's soccer ball bounce and roll again, only this time it rolled in the middle of the street. Sure enough, the kid was walking right after it, unaware a speeding car was heading right towards him." "A car?" "You have carriages here, right?" Yusuke asks as Twilight nods. "Basically a car is like a carriage, but made entirely out of metal and can move twice as fast, and one them was speeding so fast it was going to hit the kid in the road. I remember shouting at him to get out of the way, but he didn't seem to notice and the car wasn't slowing down. So I made a mad dash toward the kid, pushing him out of the way, and the last thing I remember was getting hit hard, the sound of broken glass, and screeching tires. When I came to, I found myself floating in the air and as I looked down, there was a crowd of people gathered around my body. I still hadn't really realized I was dead yet till paramedics came by and took my body, I tried to stop them, but sure enough my hand phased through one of them as they took my body away. After floating for a while, Botan showed up to escort me to spirit world, but we made a quick stop at the hospital to check on the kid." "How was he?" Cadence asks. "He was just fine, just a few scratches and bruises, after that I escorted Yusuke to spirit world to see Lord Koenma." Botan replies. "Who's Lord Koenma? He must be important to be a lord." Twilight asks. "He is, he's the one that decides who ascends to Heaven and who goes to Hell, he's a very wise being." "For a toddler." Yusuke says which makes Celestia chuckle for a bit. "Yusuke! Please show Koenma some respect." Botan snaps at him. "If he wants some respect, then he should look his age, not some four or five year old." "He only looks like that to conserve energy." "And I suppose sucking a pacifier conserves energy to huh?" Yusuke snaps, leaving everyone, but Celestia imaging a toddler with a pacifier judging spirits. "So tell me Botan, what brings you here other than checking up on Urameshi?" Celestia asks. "Well, Koenma believes it's time for Yusuke to earn his keep..." Botan replies as she pulls out an envelope from her sleeve and hands it to Yusuke. "...in this envelope is a set of instructions to arm your spirit energy, plus a spirit tool for an emergency." Everyone's attention was drawn toward the letter then at Urameshi. "Arm his spirit energy?" Shining sounded concerned when hearing this new information. "Yeah, apparently humans have the ability to wield a power called spirit energy, only a few of them are able to do so on account of them being spiritually aware." Yusuke explains. "So you're a spiritually aware human then?" Twilight asks. "Apparently so, although I wasn't when I was back home, I'm guessing I only became spiritually aware when I was brought back from the dead." He replied as he opened the later taking out the instructions. "The spirit gun...huh...that's a catchy name." He says as he looks in the envelope again and pulls out the spirit tool. "A ring? This is the tool to use in an emergency? A ring?" "Concentration ring to be exact, you put it on your pointer finger and it'll double the output of your spirit energy. However the only draw back is it'll leave you drained. One other thing Koenma wanted me to tell you, with the strength of your spirit as it is, you'll on be able to fire off two shots at the most." Botan explains. "So basically I need to make my shots count and to only use the spirit gun and concentration ring if I don't have any other options." "Bingo! In the meantime, Koenma will be looking for a teacher to help strengthen your spirit energy. Before I go, you should know that both your legal guardian and the little boy's mother made a little shrine for you. It's at the site where you saved the little boy's life." "That's nice, I hope no one goes messing with it." "Actually your old teacher, Iwamoto, thought he'd get back at you by trashing your shrine, but your old rival put a beat down on him before Iwamoto could start anything." Botan snaps her fingers as an oar appears out of thin air, she holds it with one hand as she sits on it side saddle style. The oar floats a few feet in the air holding her. This surprises everyone except for Yusuke and Celestia. "I'd better be off, I've got spirits to escort to spirit world, but I'll be sure to check up on you from time to time." "Fine, see you when I see you." Yusuke replies. "Bye Botan." Twilight waves. "Farewell." Celestia says. "Have a safe journey." Cadence waves. "Take care." Shining says. Spike gets up from his seat and goes up to Botan to give her a hug. "Bye Botan, I hope you come back and visit soon." "Don't worry Spike, I will." Botan said softly as she hugs him, then lets him go. "Take care everyone." She waves as she zooms out of the banquet hall through an open window. "Shining Armor, do you think you could help Yusuke out with his Spirit gun?" Celestia asks. "Of course your highness, I'll take him over to the unicorn firing range right away." Shining takes his napkin and wipes his mouth and hands as he stands up. "Twilight, I would like both you and Spike to accompany Yusuke as well. Once he's done, I want you to teach him our customs so that way he'll be able to get along with other ponies." "You can count on me Princess Celestia." Twilight gets up as well as Spike, while Yusuke sighs a bit and stands up. "All right, I'll be seeing you later Tia." Yusuke says as Twilight looks shocked at him. "Yusuke, don't you think it's a bit rude to address the princess like that?" She asks. "Tia doesn't have any problem with me calling her Tia, do you Tia?" He looks over at Princess Celestia as she giggles a bit. "No, not at all Yusuke." She smiles as Twilight's ear twitched a bit while Yusuke laughed. "All right you two, let's get going, I'm actually curious to see Yusuke's spirit gun in action." Shining opens the door at the other end of the banquet hall and leads Urameshi, Twilight, and Spike out. "Auntie? Are you sure it's wise to let that barbarian wield a power that we don't know anything about?" Blueblood asks. "Blueblood, I'm very sure he can be trusted. Right now I'm giving him the one thing that nobody in his world has given him." "And what pray tell is that?" "A chance to prove himself." She stands up as Cadence gets up as well. "Come along Cadence, we have a long day of day court ahead of us." "Coming auntie." Cadence replies. "Have a pleasant day Blueblood." Celestia leaves with Cadence as Blueblood sits in his chair and waits for his breakfast. ---This is a line--- Back in the human, world a very tall young man with red/orange punk style hair, wearing a bright blue school uniform walks down a sidewalk, grumbling to himself. "Damn coward. Too afraid to face me, so you end up getting yourself killed." He continues to walk until he stops in front of a little memorial on the side of the street. It has various flowers and a picture of a young man with slicked back black hair and brown eyes. He grits his teeth as he shuts eyes hard, using the back of his hand to wipe his eyes. He starts walking down the street again, heading for the bad part of town looking for trouble when suddenly he hears a male voice yell out in pain fallowed by the sound of dozens of voices wailing out in agony. He quickly runs down the street and spots a middle aged man with long grey hair, an eye patch over his left eye and wearing samurai clothing while using a bokken sword to help keep him up right. As the young man runs up to him, he notices that this samurai was banged up pretty bad and was having a tough time standing on his own two feet. "Hey, what the hell happened to you?" He ask while the samurai looks up at him. "Listen to me, it's not safe here, you need to get out of here." The samurai winces in pain as he collapses onto the ground. The young man moves up to him quickly. "Not safe? Look old man, I'm one of the toughest guys on the street. And there's nothing I can't...handle...?" He starts trailing off as he looks down the alley way, he starts to tremble a bit as the one eye'd samurai takes notice of the young man's reaction. "You can sense it can you? Two dark presence with malicious intent, right?" "Yeah...what the hell is that? Is it even human?" "No, they're not, they'll look human, but in reality they're actually demons. Very dangerous and powerful ones. From what I could tell, they came here to test out some new items they plan on using for some tournament in the future. If they sense that you have a strong spirit, they might see you as a threat and kill you on the spot." The samurai lifts up his bokken sword up and hands it over to the teen. "You'll need this to help defend yourself. "A big wooden stick?" He asks taking the wooden sword. "This is no ordinary wooden stick. This is a bokken sword, it was made from an ancient tree and rinsed in a sacred stream. By doing this, this bokken is able to channel the users spirit energy into it, thus making it a powerful weapon against any demon. Use this to defend yourself." The older man hands the young man the wooden sword when suddenly they hear a shout. "CHORUS OF A THOUSAND SKULLS!!!" Both men looked forward and saw ghostly skulls fly through the air before shooting towards them. The samurai used the last of his strength to push the young man out of the way. As the young man fell backwards, the one-eyed samurai let out one last yell as the ghostly skulls exploded on impact. The young man leans up and is freaked out to see the older man's body slumped over and smoldering with smoke, it was clear that he was dead. "I must say, your new weapon works quite well, wouldn't you agree Shishi Wakamaru?" A older voice asked as the young man looks back down the ally way to see an old man, much older than the samurai from earlier, with medium length grey hair, mustache, and fuzzy eyebrows. His face had a big nose and long pointed ears as he wore orange pants and vest, green shirt, sandals and a black beanie. "Yes, I'm quite amazed at what my Banshee Shriek can really do against an opponent." Said a much younger voice belonging to a young man at his age with dark purple eyes and long blue/purple hair tied into a pony tail with bangs and a widows peak. He wore a samurai outfit just like the man he met before, except he was wielding a katana sword. However the sword's handle looked longer than a normal sword and it bared a distorted head that looked to be made of flesh. After taking notice of his work, he happened to glance over at the young man holding the bokudon sword. "Who the hell are you?" Shishi asks as the young man stands up with both hands on the bokken's handle, getting ready to start a fight. "The name's Kazuma Kuwabara, the worst punk of Sarayasaki High School." He held the wooden sword up expecting a fight, but what he got was... "A high school student? What a joke!" Shishi laughed as Kuwabara looked at him like he just dropped kicked his cat. "Listen you boy band wannabe! I am one of the toughest guys on these streets, no one has ever beaten mean in a fight, and if you think you can beat me, you got another thing coming!" Kuwabara yelled as the bokken glowed a bit with yellow spirit energy. "What do you think Onji? Is he worth the time and energy?" Shishi asks as he looks at the old man. The senior looked over Kuwabara carefully and gave his input. "Well he does have unique spirit energy I'll give him that much, but he's not on the same level as you are, it'd be a waste of time fighting him." Onji replied as Kuwabara looked more pissed off than he was before. Then suddenly the old man had an idea. "Say, why don't you test out the other item I gave you?" Shishi thinks about it for a second but smirks as he reaches behind his back and pulls out a clear cloak and holds it around him. "Come at me if you're as tough as you claim to be." Shishi mocks as Kuwabara grits his teeth and charges with a battle cry, just as he got close enough Shishi wraps the cloak around Kazuma and suddenly the young man disappears into thin air. "It worked, it actually made my opponent vanish." "Just as I said it would, this item will send any adversary to any of the four worlds, fate will decide on what happens to him. By the way what are you going to call your second item?" "I'll call it my CAPE OF NO RETURN!" Shishi wraps the cape behind him as both him and Onji walk off and disappear into the crowded streets, unaware that they will run into Kuwabara again sometime in the future.