Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ My Downfall ❯ The Problem ( Chapter 7 )

A/N: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of the characters herein, they are all the property of Yoshihiro Togashi.

 

Recap: Botan was bitten by a snake, and Hiei came to her rescue, leaving both confused. Hiei abandoned the mission to return to demon world, taking the mystic whistle with him.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Chapter 7: The Problem

 

“Spar with me.”

 

Mukuro sat up slowly, blinking a few times to confirm that she was not imagining the sight before her.

 

“I'm bored,” he added. “So just spar with me.”

 

Mukuro sat forwards, resting one elbow on her knee.

 

“Hiei, you've been gone for days, you look awful and you stink of cheap alcohol and human blood,” she said frankly. “Don't you think you need to explain yourself?”

 

Hiei blinked slowly.

 

“…No.”

 

Mukuro nodded.

 

“Get back to work,” she ordered.

 

Hiei stood staring blankly at her as though he had not heard her. She sighed, lying back and closing her eyes, indicating to him that the conversation was over. A few seconds later she heard him leave her room again, his departure as sudden, loud and unexpected as his entrance had been only moments before.

 

Outside of Mukuro's room Hiei stomped along the corridors, barely noticing the other demons he passed, who either flinched out of his path fearfully or else stopped to stare. Hiei was angry and he was bored, and he had no desire to spend his time running errands for spirit world or even going back to work with the border patrol. He needed an outlet for his excess energy, and he could not think of anyone who was fit to stand toe-to-toe with him in battle but Mukuro, and since she had just refused to fight, he was going to have to find another avenue for the release he needed.

 

After several minutes of angry thumping about, Hiei eventually found his way to the yard at the back of Mukuro's fortress, which was mostly used as a training ground by her finest soldiers. Although Mukuro no longer held a position of power in demon world, her men had remained loyal to her and still trained as though they were readying to charge into battle in her name. When Hiei arrived, there were several one-on-one sparring sessions going on between some of Mukuro's finest; but his attention was not on the fighting. He had gone there to look for one person he knew only too well would be there, and so he began weaving his way through the crowds of spectators and soldiers until he saw the face he sought.

 

“Yeah!” a shrill voice cried out. “Cut his head off!”

 

Hiei hesitated briefly, a small part of him questioning his own sanity for what he was about to do.

 

“Oh, yeah!” the voice groaned, suddenly much deeper in tone. “Do it again, but this time do it harder!”

 

Hiei walked on.

 

“You,” he said.

 

The girl turned to him, looking a little confused at first before grinning at him.

 

“Well if isn't everybody's least favourite miniature fire demon!” she said cheerfully.

 

“Shut-up,” he responded. “I'm bored. Follow me.”

 

“I'm busy!” she protested. “I have to practise my voice calling matches. The next big tournament is just around the corner, you know, and a girl has to be at her best!”

 

Hiei slowly ran his eyes over the fox demon in front of him - or at least, he thought that she was a fox demon, she did have a fox's tail, though she often acted and sounded more like some sort of cat. Whatever she actually was, she was a pretty pitiful excuse for a demon.

 

“I'm bored,” he said again.

 

“Then maybe you should fight too!” she suggested. “Fights are always brutally violent when you get involved.”

 

“Last chance,” Hiei warned her.

 

She sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

 

“I suppose I can give you five minutes,” she said, as though what he was asking of her was an onerous task.

 

“Fine,” he agreed.

 

He turned and walked away and she followed after him, sniffing at his shoulder as they walked.

 

“You smell weird,” she commented. “Like really bad alcohol, human blood and… What is that?”

 

Hiei did not answer her, but he did know what she was talking about. Although he had not taken the effort to sniff himself, he already knew that he must be reeking of Botan after being in such close contact with her. She had quite a strong smell about her, the smell of grassy meadows and wild flowers, presumably from all the time she spent flying about the open countryside on her oar. In a place like demon world, where the stench of blood and decay hung heavy in the air, the light and airy smell of Botan stood out worse than a silly, flimsy little fox demon screaming at a yard full of serious S-Class demon warriors.

 

“Is that a human smell?” the fox asked as they turned into a wider corridor.

 

“This is far enough,” Hiei said, stopping abruptly.

 

“It's not very nice,” she complained, looking about the dark walls. “Can't we at least find a cupboard somewhere?”

 

“Just shut-up,” Hiei replied.

 

She met his eyes, and upon seeing the determined look on his face she shrugged her shoulders and then grabbed her arms around him as he pounced at her, flattening her to the floor.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“Hello, Ayame!” Botan said, grinning brilliantly at her dour friend.

 

“Lord Koenma sent me,” Ayame flatly replied, sliding off of her oar. “He wants you to go back to spirit world. And take the mystic whistle with you, there's a little racoon demon raising hell in the records room.”

 

“Oh dear!” Botan said, still smiling. “Ayame, have you ever met Kuwabara?”

 

Botan stepped aside to indicate Kuwabara, but Ayame's eyes did not move from hers.

 

“If I'm taking over here, do I have to wear that outfit?” Ayame asked, eying Botan over.

 

“Oh dear, no!” Botan hurriedly assured her. “I just had a little accident, is all!”

 

“I see. So where's the rest of the “team”?”

 

“Oh, well, Yusuke and Kurama are in demon world, Kuwabara is here, as you can see, and Hiei is… Well we're not really sure, but we think he's just gone back to demon world too. I think he might have quit the team, but I haven't had a chance to tell Lord Koenma yet.”

 

Ayame's eyes thinned slightly.

 

“Didn't Lord Koenma send you to demon world when he wanted to find Hiei?” she asked.

 

“Yes, that's right, he did!” Botan replied. “It's a very unusual place.”

 

Ayame took a definite step back from Botan.

 

“I didn't really want to come here, you know,” she said.

 

“Really?” Botan asked. “But why ever not?”

 

Ayame's eyes narrowed further.

 

“Do you want to go back to spirit world right now?” she asked.

 

“Well I was enjoying helping the team…” Botan said slowly.

 

Ayame nodded.

 

“Okay, I'll go back to spirit world, you stay here,” she said.

 

With a great effort, Botan managed to make herself look confused.

 

“Just give me the mystic whistle, that racoon will drive me mad if we don't catch it soon.”

 

Botan's face dropped and her joy at being able to stay in the living world vanished.

 

“The… The mystic whistle?” she asked.

 

“Yes, the mystic whistle,” Ayame replied. “You do have it, don't you?”

 

“Not exactly, no…” Botan said slowly. “I've sort of… Temporarily misplaced it…”

 

“Does Lord Koenma know about this?”

 

“Not yet, no.”

 

“That's pretty serious, Botan.”

 

“Yes. Yes it is.”

 

Botan lowered her eyes, finding it impossible to look Ayame in the eye any longer. In the chaos of the last few days she had almost forgotten the severity of the sentence she faced for losing the mystic whistle. She was almost certain that she was Koenma's favourite ferry girl, but even that was unlikely to lessen her punishment any. In fact it only made her predicament all the worse: she felt guilty for letting him down after he had placed so much trust in her.

 

“I think you should go back to spirit world and tell Lord Koenma yourself,” Ayame eventually said.

 

Botan lifted her head, meeting Ayame's eyes again. She knew that her friend was right, but that did not make agreeing with her any easier.

 

“Hey Botan, is everything okay?” Kuwabara asked her.

 

“No, I'm rather afraid it's not,” she said with a small sigh. “You see, I've lost the mystic whistle, and Lord Koenma has a need for it.”

 

“Whether or not Lord Koenma needs the whistle right now is irrelevant,” Ayame pointed out. “It's the fact that you've lost it. How long ago did you lose it anyway?”

 

Botan glanced back and forth between Ayame and Kuwabara, her mind slowly replaying the night Hiei had taken the whistle from her in painstaking detail.

 

“Hey, wait a minute…” Kuwabara muttered. “The mystic whistle? I think I know where it is, Botan!”

 

Botan turned to glare at Kuwabara, but he failed to sense her warning.

 

“Yeah, I'm sure of it!” he continued. “The little worm had it when he left!”

 

Botan tried her best to glare at Kuwabara in a look that Hiei himself would be proud of, but still Kuwabara grinned and did not seem to notice her ire.

 

“Who?” Ayame asked.

 

“The tiny di-oof!”

 

Kuwabara's words were lost in a groan of pain as Botan yanked her oar out of the ground in a swinging motion, driving one corner of the blade into his stomach and causing him to double over.

 

“Ow!” he complained as he straightened up again. “Watch where you're putting that thing, Botan!”

 

“Oopsie,” she said in a harsh tone that suggested anything but remorse. “But I should really be going now.”

 

“Did that strange-looking boy say that he knows where the whistle is?” Ayame asked Botan as she turned to face her.

 

“Hey, who's strange-looking?” Kuwabara snapped.

 

“He's a little bit confused,” Botan said, wringing her hands around her oar nervously: she was a hopeless liar. “I really have no idea where it might be right now, and neither does Kuwabara.”

 

Well at least that last part was not completely a lie, Botan consoled herself. After all, neither of them knew exactly where Hiei was, and wherever Hiei was, so was the mystic whistle.

 

“I'm not strange-looking, I'm distinctive,” Kuwabara muttered. “Wait… Or is that distinguished?”

 

“You're certainly distinctively something,” Botan muttered.

 

“What was that?” he echoed.

 

“Well I'll be off then,” she said brightly, hopping onto her oar. “Good luck Ayame, and Kuwabara I hope you can manage without Hiei today.”

 

“I don't need his help, I'm twice the man he is,” Kuwabara assured her. “Hey wait… Twice the man, I'll have to remember that one!”

 

Botan rolled her eyes and smiled at Ayame, who was looking increasingly displeased with her predicament, her face creased as though she had a bad taste in her mouth.

 

“Goodbye!” Botan called to them as she took off into the sky.

 

As she gained altitude Botan relaxed, at first just enjoying the cool air rushing past her. It had been quite warm on ground level, so it was pleasantly relieving to escape into the cooler air higher in the sky; but the lower temperature quickly reminded Botan of her current predicament: she had no shoes on, she was still mostly wet from her fall in the lake, and she was still wearing Hiei's coat.

 

But, she told herself, Koenma was unlikely to care or even to notice any of these things once she told him that the mystic whistle was gone.

 

With a gulp of anxiety, Botan passed through a portal into spirit world.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“I really think that we have to agree on a better meeting venue than this,” Kurama said, looking about himself with a small frown.

 

“Are you kidding me?” Yusuke echoed in disbelief. “This is the perfect meeting place! It's crowded, it looks natural meeting here, and there must be one of these joints in every town we've been to! Easy to find, easy to remember… And a great atmosphere.”

 

Yusuke grinned and raised his mug of beer. Kurama smiled tightly and pushed away the tankard Yusuke had ordered for him.

 

“All frivolity aside, how are things today?” he asked.

 

Yusuke did not answer immediately, as he was sipping at his drink. As he lowered his mug to the bar he nodded his head before swallowing and wiping his sleeve across his lips to remove the foam that had gathered there.

 

“Yes, it's very quiet for me too,” Kurama said.

 

Yusuke looked at him curiously, silently wondering how he had known what his answer would be, before shrugging and picking up his drink again.

 

“This can't continue,” Kurama said as Yusuke starting drinking again. “None of us has the time to waste chasing our tails.”

 

“I don't have a tail,” Yusuke replied.

 

“It's a figure of speech,” Kurama patiently replied.

 

“Right… I just wondered because when you're Youko, you do have a tail.”

 

“We're running out of time. I think we need to take action to try to draw out the suspects. Otherwise this will not resolve until the tournament begins, and that is something we must take all necessary steps to avoid.”

 

Kurama looked about himself again, his eyelids lowering a little on instinct as the acrid, smoky air around him began to sting his eyes. Their meeting place of choice - or rather, Yusuke's meeting place of choice - was crowded and it was true that nobody glanced their way even once: but it still seemed a little demeaning to visit such a place every day, which is exactly what had been happening ever since Kurama had found himself paired with Yusuke to search demon world for signs of the uprising they had been warned about.

 

“I know what you mean,” Yusuke said, sounding more serious. “If this comes to a head during the tournament it will be a disaster. They might cancel the tournament altogether, and that would really piss me off.”

 

Kurama shifted his eyes to Yusuke, watching him take another drink from his mug, apparently unaware of how small-minded his remark had been. And, infuriatingly, his eyes were still on the stage at the top of the room.

 

“I have an idea, though it will be a difficult one to pursue,” Kurama began.

 

“Oh yeah?” Yusuke responded, his eyes still locked on the performance playing out at the other end of the room.

 

“Yes,” Kurama continued. “Are you familiar with the story of the Trojan Horse?”

 

“What?”

 

“The Trojan Horse. The idea is simply that when a group of people wish to hide something - or indeed to hide themselves - they do it in the last place anyone would think of looking.”

 

“In spirit world, right?”

 

“No. Directly in front of those they wish to hide from.”

 

Yusuke nodded slowly before affording Kurama two quick, successive sideward glances, apparently unwilling to take his eyes off the action for any length of time.

 

“Now you're not making any sense, fox boy,” he said.

 

“I'm trying to say that I think what we're looking for isn't going to be found in any dark alleyways or criminal hideouts,” Kurama replied. “Or even in a seedy, underground strip club like this…”

 

“I know, isn't it great?” Yusuke responded, grinning like a little boy.

 

Kurama contained a sigh, inwardly reminding himself that Yusuke would soon tire of meeting in the same string of clubs, as the next day was the one day of the week that the club had male strippers performing: something he intended to “forget” to tell Yusuke about, if only to see the look on his face when the time arrived.

 

“I think what we're looking for is being hidden in the heart of one of the former ruler's fiefdoms,” Kurama said.

 

Yusuke glanced at Kurama briefly, his smile fading. His eyes returned to the stage until the current act had finished before he turned his attention fully to Kurama for the first time since their arrival.

 

“What did you just say about thief domes?” he asked.

 

“I miss Hiei,” Kurama muttered.

 

“What?” Yusuke echoed.

 

“Nothing, I was just thinking aloud,” Kurama replied.

 

“About thief domes?”

 

“Not thief domes, fiefdoms. Kingdoms, if you like.”

 

“What?”

 

Before Kurama could explain himself Yusuke's attention was once more drawn away from him as another woman stepped up onto the stage to start her act. And a second later, Yusuke's attention was drawn further away as a ruckus started by the entrance to the club.

 

“Check it out, it's another under-age kid trying to get in!” Yusuke said, pointing over at the door and laughing.

 

Kurama craned his neck and squinted against the smog of tobacco smoke and fumes from burnt food orders to focus on the struggle taking place by the entrance, his face slowly contorting as his initial fears were confirmed.

 

“That's not an under-age child trying to gain access,” he said solemnly. “That's Hiei.”

 

“That's Hi… What?”

 

Yusuke shot up from his bar stool and turned around, stretching onto his toes to try to see the source of the problem. His face dissolved into a grin of delight as the bouncers at the door finally stepped aside and an irate demon less than a third of their size stumbled into the club, glaring up at them angrily.

 

“Did they stop him for being under-age?” Yusuke asked, turning to Kurama.

 

“Perhaps,” Kurama replied.

 

“But they've got kids working here that only look about ten years old!”

 

Yusuke pointed at a small boy with pointed ears and a long scaly tail who was carrying a tray of drinks. As he and Kurama watched the young boy, Hiei approached him, helping himself to a drink from the tray, ignoring the boy's complaints.

 

“They've got kids working here that only look about ten years old, but are still bigger than Hiei,” Yusuke said flatly.

 

They watched Hiei stomp up to the bar and clamber - a little awkwardly, owing to his short legs - up onto a stool. He thumped his mug down onto the bar and clattered his elbows down on either side of it, his face tight and threatening.

 

“Hey, Hiei,” Yusuke said.

 

Yusuke and Kurama watched expectantly, but Hiei appeared not to have heard him.

 

“Hey!” Yusuke said, raising his voice a little to cut through the drone of the crowd. “Hiei!”

 

Hiei turned at the sound of his name, the look on his face enough to make even Yusuke take a step back.

 

“Oh it's you,” he muttered.

 

“Yeah… Hi…” Yusuke warily replied, feeling no more reassured when Hiei's expression did not lighten any even upon recognising them.

 

“Everything alright, Hiei?” Kurama called over to him.

 

“Yeah, you look a little worn out there, little guy,” Yusuke added. “Do you need a fake ID? Because I know a guy, I could fix that for you.”

 

Hiei's face darkened further and Yusuke grinned nervously.

 

“That was a joke, Hiei,” he quickly added.

 

“What is it with you humans and your jokes?” Hiei spat back.

 

Yusuke and Kurama both tensed at Hiei's use of the word “human”, glancing about themselves nervously to confirm that nobody else nearby had heard it.

 

“I don't like jokes,” Hiei continued, seemingly oblivious to his mistake. “They're so infantile and unnecessary.”

 

Once Kurama was confident that nobody had overheard Hiei's faux pas he turned to Yusuke to voice his concerns over Hiei's presence there to begin with: only to find Yusuke staring, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, at the stage as a female dog demon did something shocking with a beer bottle.

 

“Yusuke?” Kurama said, watching him patiently.

 

“Woof woof, bitch,” Yusuke muttered, his eyes still locked onto the stage.

 

Kurama moved over to Hiei, deciding to take a direct approach since Yusuke was apparently too absorbed in what he saw to concentrate on anything else at that moment.

 

“Hiei, not that I'm not pleased to see you, but why are you here?” he asked, sitting down on the stool next to Hiei.

 

“I came here to forget about pesky fox demons and stupid humans,” Hiei bluntly replied.

 

Kurama nodded lightly and slid from his stool. Without so much as a backward glance he left the club, deciding to continue on alone.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“Good morning Lord Koenma, Sir!” Botan said brightly as she entered his office.

 

“Ah, Botan,” Koenma replied, his head down as he studied a stack of papers in front of him. “Good to have you back. Ogre, take Botan to the records vault and have her use the whistle to catch that racoon.”

 

Botan turned to George, who was standing as faithfully as ever at Koenma's side, the only real difference in the picture before her being that George was staring at her, his jaw hanging open.

 

“Move ogre, I don't have all day!” Koenma said, snapping his fingers at George.

 

Botan cleared her throat quietly, hoping to attract Koenma's attention, but still he focussed on the papers in his tiny hands.

 

“Um, Sir?” she eventually said, stepping closer to his desk. “I have some bad news and I have some good news.”

 

“Oh, Botan,” he groaned, lifting his head. “Oh, Botan! What are you wearing? And why are you all wet and sticky?”

 

“Sticky?” Botan yelped, looking down at herself. “I was just…”

 

She put on her best smile and twirled around in a circle, Hiei's coat flaring out around her thighs as she did so.

 

“I was trying out a new look Lord Koenma!” she said confidently. “What do you think?”

 

“I think you look like a witch,” he frankly replied. “The point of changing your clothes when you're in the living world is to look inconspicuous, but that just makes you look ridiculous! It's completely the wrong size for you, too.”

 

“Yes…” Botan said quietly.

 

She looked down at the sleeves that ended halfway up her forearms and then pinched at the excess material by her shoulders. Apparently Hiei's coat had been made quite specifically for him, as the material around her shoulders would not flatten or fold to mould around her narrower back and shoulders, instead standing up rigid, making her look like she was wearing armour underneath the coat.

 

“Well anyway, I have good news and bad news,” she continued, trying not to lose her momentum.

 

“Give me the bad news first,” Koenma groaned.

 

“The bad news is, I've lost the mystic whistle,” she said, deciding to just be direct.

 

“Botan, that's not bad news!” Koenma yelled, leaning over his desk towards her. “That's terrible news!”

 

“It's not permanently lost, Sir,” she hurriedly added, sweating a little as she tried to maintain her smile. “I almost know where it is, I can get it back.”

 

“Then what are you waiting for?” he demanded. “Get it back! Now!”

 

“Right now?”

 

“Yes, right now! If my father finds out you've lost that whistle, he'll make me suffer, and if I have to suffer, I'll make sure that you do too!”

 

“R-right, Sir, understood.”

 

Koenma sat back down with a sigh.

 

“Can you get it back here within a day?” he asked, his voice softened.

 

“Of course, Sir!” she replied.

 

“Good,” he said with a nod. “If you can get it back here by tomorrow morning, I'll pretend that we never had this conversation and I'll make an excuse to my father until you get here.”

 

“Oh, thank you, Lord Koenma Sir!”

 

“Now cheer me up, Botan: tell me the good news.”

 

Botan froze, still bowed over in the position she had adopted to praise thanks upon her boss.

 

“Um…” she said, slowly straightening up.

 

“You said you had good news and bad news,” Koenma reminded her. “What's the good news?”

 

“Well…”

 

Botan chewed at her lip, silently wondering just why she had said that there was good news when clearly there was none. She reasoned that she had probably said it to soften the blow of telling her boss the bad news, but now she was obliged to tell him something good, and in light of the chaos of the past few days, she was bereft of inspiration.

 

“The good news is…” she began slowly, looking up towards the ceiling in thought. “That I do know where the mystic whistle is, and I can get it back to you by tomorrow morning?”

 

Koenma quirked an eyebrow at her and George slid back a step from the desk.

 

“I'll be back in a jiffy, Sir!” Botan hurriedly added. “You won't even notice me gone! I'll fly like the wind, get the whistle, and come straight back here!”

 

“Twenty-four hours, Botan,” Koenma said.

 

“Understood, Sir!”

 

Botan turned and ran from his office, pausing at the door as he called her name. She turned to see him standing up on his chair and leaning over his desk.

 

“And for goodness sake, Botan, get a change of clothes!” he yelled.

 

She nodded to show that she had understood his order before running off again, skipping through the chaotic swarms of ogres and ferry girls outside, barely noticing them as her mind screamed the question she had no idea how to answer: what was she going to have to do to get the mystic whistle back from Hiei?

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Botan folded her arms and tapped her foot against the ground angrily. Of course, her gesture lost some of its intended effect since she was still barefoot and dressed in Hiei's coat, but she persisted nevertheless.

 

“What is it with you boys?” she hissed. “Honestly, every time I turn my back, another one disappears!”

 

“It's the demons that are the problem, Botan,” Kuwabara volunteered. “I've been loyal to this mission from the very beginning.”

 

“Oh poppycock, Kuwabara!” she snapped. “You didn't even want to come along in the first place!”

 

“What's a “poppycock”?” Kuwabara asked her.

 

“Look inside your underpants,” Yusuke whispered to him.

 

They both snorted amusedly but Botan merely became more irate.

 

“Boys, please!” she yelled. “This is serious! First Hiei, and now Kurama! Kuwabara, how could you let Hiei go? And Yusuke, why weren't you keeping an eye on Kurama?”

 

“Hiei left because of you,” Kuwabara said quietly.

 

“Hiei's in demon world,” Yusuke said with a shrug. “Kurama and I met him at the club. He was still there when I left.”

 

“The club?” Botan asked, turning her glare to Yusuke.

 

Yusuke faltered slightly before laughing nervously and waving a dismissive hand at Botan.

 

“It's just a place Kurama and I meet to have lunch and to um… Discuss important things,” he said.

 

“Indeed,” Botan said, before turning her attention to Kuwabara. “And as for you, poor Ayame was a wreck when I found her. I don't know what you did to her.”

 

“Kuwabara has that effect on all the girls,” Yusuke said.

 

“Shut-up, Urameshi!” Kuwabara snapped.

 

“This whole mission is falling apart, and I'm going to get the blame for it as mission manager!” Botan cried.

 

“Who made you “mission manager”?” Yusuke snorted.

 

“Yeah, I thought Kurama was in charge,” Kuwabara added.

 

“No, I'm in charge!” Yusuke argued.

 

“You?” Kuwabara spat. “Oh please, Urameshi! Everybody knows I'm way more dedicated to this mission than you are! I should be mission manager. This is a problem about missing humans from the living world, and I'm the only human from the living world here.”

 

“That's not how it works. The strongest is the one in charge, and that's me!”

 

“Oh yeah?”

 

“Yeah! You need me to prove it? Again?”

 

“Boys, stop it!” Botan yelled.

 

They both turned to her eying her over before turning to each other and slowing grinning in a way that instantly made Botan uneasy.

 

“So Botan, you've really got no idea what Hiei got up to today?” Yusuke asked, as both boys turned towards her again.

 

Botan frowned slightly, silently wondering why Yusuke had put so much emphasis on the words “got up”.

 

“No, none at all,” she innocently replied. “One minute he was there helping me, the next he was gone.”

 

“I hear he got up pretty quickly,” Yusuke said.

 

“Yes, he did!” Botan agreed, frowning again as the boys sniggered slightly at her response. “He was up like a flash and then he went off on me!”

 

Kuwabara covered his mouth with one hand but his laughter still came out of his nose in a series of ungracious snorts. Yusuke elbowed him in the ribs but Kuwabara did not stop.

 

“Do you like it when Hiei goes off on you?” Yusuke asked.

 

“Of course I don't!” Botan replied. “Why would I? It's very cruel and selfish of him!”

 

“Selfish, right,” Yusuke said, nodding his head slowly. “Because it's one sided? He gets off but you don't?”

 

“I never get off!” Botan said. “I'm always faithful to you boys, I would never walk out on anyone, not even Hiei!”

 

Kuwabara took a few deep breaths before composing himself.

 

“Are you sure you never got off with Hiei?” he asked.

 

“What do you mean “with Hiei”?” Botan asked. “He went off by himself! That had nothing to do with me!”

 

Yusuke began sniggering slightly, ducking his head as Botan looked his way in a vein attempt to hide his grin.

 

“I'm just saying, it looked like you were “with Hiei” earlier,” Kuwabara continued. “Think about it Botan. Come on, think long and hard.”

 

Botan rolled her eyes upwards and touched a finger to the corner of her mouth as she tried to think about what Kuwabara's obscure reference might actually mean to her.

 

“Are you thinking long and hard, Botan?” Yusuke asked her.

 

“I'm thinking very hard!” she snapped back.

 

The boys began sniggering again, only adding to her confusion.

 

“I'm very confused…” she muttered, lowering her eyes to the boys and pouting at them.

 

“So are we,” Yusuke said. “But I guess that old saying is true after all. We're all the say size lying down, right?”

 

Kuwabara burst out laughing and Botan began to get angry.

 

“Stop that!” she whined. “It's not fair to laugh at jokes you don't share with your own mission manager!”

 

“You're not much of a mission manager, Botan,” Yusuke said, trying to look stern but failing miserably. “I mean, you're not even on top of Hiei right now.”

 

“I am absolutely on top of Hiei!” Botan argued back. “I am on top of him, I am all over him, and I have him exactly where he's meant to be!”

 

“So, uh…” Kuwabara said between guffaws. “You're taking charge of Hiei?”

 

“Yes I am, as a matter of fact, Mister Kuwabara!” she snapped. “And when I get my hands on him, I am going to put him on a leash to make sure he doesn't try any more of his nonsense!”

 

The boys almost collapsed onto each other in a fit of laughter, leaving Botan swaying between confusion and anger as she watched tears streaming from their eyes from the force of their hilarity.

 

“Well I'm glad that the two of you find it amusing that Hiei disobeys me all the time!” she said, blushing a little when her words only seemed to make them laugh even harder than before.

 

“H-Hey Botan!” Yusuke chuckled. “What happened at the lake earlier? I hear… I hear Hiei got you really wet?”

 

“Oh no, that wasn't Hiei's fault at all,” Botan replied. “I did that all by myself.”

 

Botan frowned.

 

“Why is that so funny?” she asked.

 

“All by yourself?” Yusuke asked, ignoring her question. “You mean Hiei didn't lend a hand?”

 

“Oh yes, he did help me,” she replied, her face turning redder still when the boys laughed harder still.

 

“It looked like he was going down on you when I came over,” Kuwabara said.

 

“What the hell?” Yusuke snapped, punching Kuwabara in the side of the head.

 

Suddenly both boys were deadly serious, and Botan was unsure whether or not it was an improvement.

 

“You've ruined it!” Yusuke hissed. “She didn't know what we were talking about before, now she'll be really pissed off!”

 

“Um… What?” Botan asked, her face draining of colour.

 

“I was running out of clever things to say!” Kuwabara defended himself.

 

“Next time, just let me do all the talking!” Yusuke warned him.

 

Yusuke glared at Kuwabara for a moment longer before walking up to Botan with a suddenly sad look on his face.

 

“I'm sorry, Botan,” he said. “We were just having a laugh. We didn't mean anything by it. Maybe Kuwabara's gone crazy but I know for sure that Hiei wasn't actually going down on you by the lake earlier today.”

 

Botan frowned curiously up at him and together they stood for several seconds exchanging increasingly confused looks.

 

“I-I don't understand…” she said slowly.

 

“You don't?” Yusuke asked, his face twisting in shock.

 

“Hiei was just sucking out the poison,” Botan replied.

 

Yusuke's eyebrows shot up and Kuwabara grunted a half-laugh that turned into a noise of confusion.

 

“I was bitten by a snake on my leg,” Botan explained.

 

“And Hiei was…?” Yusuke said slowly.

 

“Sucking out the poison,” Botan finished for him.

 

“So he had his head down between your legs, and he was sucking on you?” Yusuke asked.

 

Kuwabara started laughing again.

 

“Yes, but I really don't see what's so funny about that,” Botan tersely replied.

 

“You really don't?” Yusuke asked in disbelief. “But surely you can see how it must have looked to Kuwabara? You're lying there and Hiei's got his head between your…”

 

Botan was shaking her head and Yusuke's voice trailed off.

 

“It looked like he was performing oral sex on you,” he said bluntly.

 

Botan blinked, but otherwise did not respond.

 

“Botan?” Yusuke asked carefully. “You okay?”

 

“No,” she said quietly. “I'm even more confused now than before. For a start, what does oral sex mean? Can you even put those two words together like that?”

 

Kuwabara and Yusuke both made the same noise and both straightened their backs and glared at Botan until she started to blush again.

 

“Wh-what's wrong?” she asked, glancing back and forth between each of them. “Was it something I said?”

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kurama had been running so hard and for so long that he felt as though his legs had forgotten how to move slowly. It was getting dark by the time he arrived back at the small hotel the others were staying in, and he worried he might be locked out: some smaller hotels were known for locking their external doors during the night, and after the day he had endured, Kurama wanted nothing more than to relax in a human bed indoors.

 

Kurama was running so fast and concentrating so hard on reaching the hotel doors he ran right past the figure sat at the side of the road.

 

Kurama paused, his hand hovering by the doors of the hotel. As far as he could see, they were not locked, but as he stood there, his chest heaving, he slowly became aware of just who it was that he had passed sitting out on the street. He slowly turned around, walking back out onto the street, peering around the streetlight at the figure sat just outside of the pool of light it was casting onto the road.

 

“Botan?” he called out softly.

 

She lifted her head but did not turn towards him.

 

“Botan, are you alright?” he asked, slowly walking towards her.

 

“Oh, I'm fine!” she said, scurrying to her feet and turning her back on him.

 

Kurama paused on the other side of the circle of light, feeling less than convinced by her response.

 

“You should get inside,” he advised her. “Hiei isn't coming back, you can stay in his room tonight.”

 

“I didn't think that he would come back,” she said, her tone tightening a little.

 

“Don't worry, he won't do anything to sabotage our mission,” Kurama assured her.

 

“He already has,” Botan replied in a muffled voice.

 

“I'm not sure that I understand…”

 

Botan sighed emphatically before turning around to face Kurama. Her head was lowered and her features cast into shadow against the glare of the light between them, but he was almost certain that she had been crying or was about to.

 

“Hiei has the mystic whistle,” she said quietly.

 

“Oh dear,” Kurama said with a smile. “A devilish device in the hands of the devil himself!”

 

“It's not funny, Kurama,” she replied, her tone flat and lifeless. “Lord Koenma told me that I have to bring it back by tomorrow morning or…”

 

Botan left her sentence hanging, though Kurama was wise enough to guess how it would end.

 

“I see,” he said. “Then that is indeed a problem.”

 

“Yusuke said I can blame him if I like, which was surprisingly noble of him,” she replied, sounding momentarily more like her usual, cheerful self. “Though I think he was only offering because he felt guilty for laughing at me earlier. And unfortunately Lord Koenma won't accept any more excuses. I have to bring it back to him, but Hiei refused to give it back, and now I don't even know where he is.”

 

“Well, it's simple enough, so try not to worry,” Kurama assured her. “I know exactly where Hiei is. He was going back to Mukuro's fortress the last time I saw him and I will be retuning to demon world early tomorrow morning. I will go to Hiei, get the whistle, and bring it straight back here.”

 

“Hiei might not give it to you either,” Botan miserably replied.

 

“I have ways of convincing people to do things they don't want to,” Kurama said with a dark smile.

 

Botan lifted her head and Kurama stepped into the light, playing the fingers of one hand through his hair. He held out his hand to reveal a selection of seeds and he heard Botan manage a small laugh.

 

“That sure would be super if you could get it back for me, Kurama,” she said.

 

“I'll do it on one condition,” he replied, running his fingers through his hair again, embedding the seeds back in. “You go inside and get some sleep. You won't be any use to us tomorrow if you are half asleep all day.”

 

Botan nodded and Kurama smiled politely before turning and starting back towards the hotel doors.

 

“Are you coming, Botan?” he called over his shoulder.

 

“Go ahead,” she called back. “I'll just be a little longer, there's something I have to do first.”

 

“Alright, but don't be too long.”

 

Kurama proceeded into the hotel and to his room, leaving Botan out on the street alone. She waited there, watching as a light came on at the window of Kurama's room. She watched the window until the light went out before stepping forwards into the pool of light from the streetlight. From the corner of her eye she saw that a couple walking past were staring over at her in a mixture of fear and curiosity, and she could understand why: she had gone to great lengths to make herself look as terrifying as possible.

 

“Sorry Kurama,” she said quietly. “I appreciate your kind offer, but this cannot wait.”

 

She took a deep breath and wiped a tear from her cheek with one hand, simultaneously summoning her oar with the other. With one last forlorn look up at the hotel she leapt onto her oar and took off into the night sky, aiming herself towards the portal to demon world.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Next Chapter: Botan confronts Hiei to recover the mystic whistle, and when he still refuses, she is forced to take his advice and take drastic measures to get it back. Chapter 8: The Innocent.

 

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews so far, this story was meant to be quick and based around the events of chapters 9-11, but like most of my other stories, it's grown arms and legs and is turning into quite a long one! Hope it continues to be enjoyable, and as always, reviews are muchly appreciated!