Surprised To Be Dead

            The episode begins on a normal day. Suddenly we hear screeching tires and see a boy get killed in a car accident. The witnessing crowd all gathers around the boy’s body in concern and one person says they need to call an ambulance. Mean while about a hundred or so feet up in the air the boy awakens as a ghost. The Narrator then says “This is Yusuke Urameshi, he is fourteen years old and is the hero of our story. But oddly enough…he’s dead.”

            After some confusion Yusuke settles down and starts to think as to what lead to this moment.

            “Today did start different. I went to school.”  Yusuke says as the flash back begins. Yusuke had been cutting school for ten days. His childhood friend Keiko finds him on the roof and scolds him for being irresponsible. He responds by lifting up her skirt. Keiko slaps him silly and then walks down the stairs. Two of her friends come up to her and ask how she could even talk to him. And even tell her that there were rumors that he has a gang of two-thousand thugs. Keiko tells them that wasn’t possible because Yusuke didn’t have many friends and that he wasn’t dangerous. He only acts like that because that’s what people think him to be.

            Yusuke in the mean time is walking past some equipment sheds when he hears two of his school mates talking. One of them was saying he was telling people that he was Yusuke’s cousin so that he could scare people out of their money. Yusuke starts to teach the two boys a lesson when one of the teachers. Iwamoto arrives. Iwamoto is a strict teacher that hates students that are labeled as trouble makers. Yusuke is one he despises in particular. He sees a wallet on the ground and accuses Yusuke of trying to take the money of the other two boys. Then he tells Yusuke to get out of school and never come back.

            Yusuke gladly does so but just as he’s leaving the principal, Takanaka, pulls him back saying that he and Yusuke need to have a talk about his behavior. Yusuke manages to escape him and heads home only to find his mother still in bed smoking. His mother grumbles for him to make some coffee. Then she asks why he wasn’t in school.

            “I left because they pissed me off.” Says Yusuke.

            “Well, if you’re not going to go there you should quit and get a job.” Says Yusuke’s mother. Yusuke walks out angrily and runs into his rival. A horse faced boy named Kuwabara and his three friends. Kuwabara tells Yusuke that he’s going to succeed in beating him up this time.  Yusuke proves him wrong by pounding Kuwabara yet again. Kuwabara’s three friends then ask Kuwabara to stop trying to fight Yusuke because it could be hazardous to his health. Seeing as he had won zero of the hundred-and-fifty-six fights they had gone through with Yusuke.

            Yusuke runs into a little boy playing with a soccer ball. He yells at the child that it was dangerous to play soccer on the sidewalk. Then he starts making faces to entertain him. When Yusuke leaves the child goes back to kicking his ball down the side walk. Suddenly the ball goes flying into the road and the boy goes into the street to get it. Yusuke sees a car coming and runs into the street to save the child.

            Yusuke realizes he must have died and become a ghost.  He hears a girl’s voice and turns to see a girl with light blue hair riding an oar. The girl tells him her name is Botan and she is the Grim Reaper. Yusuke tells her she couldn’t be the grim reaper because the Grim Reaper is supposed to look like a skeleton and wear a black robe. Botan reads from her guide book that Yusuke as brash and rude, prone to violence, hates authority, and is a lousy student. Yusuke asks her about the child he saved. Botan takes him to the hospital and he learns all the child had was a few scrapes and nothing serious.

Seeing that the little boy was all right Yusuke tells Botan to take him where ever he’s going. Botan tells him that no one expected Yusuke to do that act of heroism not even the Spirit World. Then she says the child was to have survived miraculously without a scratch so in short Yusuke’s death was a total waste. However the Spirit World has decided to bring Yusuke back to life.

Yusuke says he’s better off as a ghost so Botan advises to check out his wake before deciding. Yusuke does and sees all his classmates laughing. Keiko comes out of Yusuke’s apartment sobbing. Yusuke is surprised to see this. Kuwabara appears and demand that Yusuke come out and fight him. He ends up braking down and two of his friends drag him away apologizing for the disturbance. Yusuke’s mother is sitting by a wall in a daze. Two of Yusuke’s teachers talk about their theories about what really could have happened. Takanaka over hears them and scolds them for not being respectful. He then goes and pays his respects to Yusuke’s dead body.

“I was surprised to hear you had died saving a child’s life. You were always more selfish then that. I don’t know why can’t seem think well of you. Why didn’t you stay? You would have made something great out of yourself.” 

Yusuke’s mother starts crying. The little boy arrives with his mother. When they leave the little boy asks if he could play with Yusuke the next day. His mother sadly says no. The little boy then says that he didn’t understand why all those people were crying. Maybe they wanted Yusuke to wake up so he could play with them too.

Botan appears and Yusuke tells her he’ll give this resurrection thing a shot.