Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ My Downfall ❯ The Storm ( Chapter 18 )

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 and Hiei had a little tryst on the beach that ended in disaster. Forward nine and a half weeks, Koenma invited Botan to join him as a spectator for the demon world tournament and after breaking down she confessed to him that she is in love with a demon.

 

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

 

Chapter 18: The Storm

 

“Ow!” Yusuke cried, touching a hand to his throbbing jaw and glaring up angrily at the shadow standing over him. “Don't you know how to throw your punches? I thought you said you wanted a warm-up! Gees, you're so uptight and hitting so hard it's like you're really trying to kill me!”

 

“Hn.”

 

“Eww!”

 

Yusuke barely managed to shirk out of range as Hiei spat at his side.

 

“Maybe you're the one who needs to learn how a sparring session should be conducted,” Hiei said darkly. “Do you think your opponents in the tournament are going to be throwing their punches?”

 

“You're supposed to be my friend, and this is supposed to just be a bit of exercise, you crazy bastard!” Yusuke replied through tightly clenched teeth.

 

“Clearly I am going easy on you,” Hiei replied with a slight shrug. “I'm not attacking you while you are down.”

 

“Wow, that makes me feel a whole lot better!”

 

Yusuke got to his feet, barely diving out of range as Hiei swung a fist at his head. He yelled out the worst curse he could think of in the heat of the moment and concentrated his spirit energy into one fist, aiming a punch at Hiei's gut. Yusuke grinned as Hiei doubled over and leapt back to avoid the blow, the whites of his eyes showing for the first time since they had begun their workout.

 

“Hn, is that what you call “throwing punches”?” Hiei said as he straightened himself out. “My mistake, I thought you were asking me not to aim to kill. This suits me better though. I believe a sparring session should be performed with as much force as a death-match.”

 

Hiei's fist began to glow and a feral grin appeared on his face. Yusuke returned the gesture, though he did worry that perhaps he was about to get more than he had bargained for. He tensed defensively, knowing only too well that Hiei's speed and his ability to distort the true location of his spirit energy would make it difficult to sense and avoid a serious attack. However, to Yusuke's surprise, the glow of energy around Hiei's fist faded and his eyes wandered upwards as though something in the sky had captured his attention.

 

“I'm not falling for the old “look behind you” trick!” Yusuke warned him. “And I'm surprised that you would even try something like that!”

 

“Your pet bird is returning,” Hiei said flatly. “And it looks like it did what you asked it to do.”

 

“Puu?” Yusuke turned his head, smiling and waving as he saw Puu gliding down towards them, supporting a passenger on his back. “Hey, how's it going?”

 

Puu landed by Yusuke and Kurama leapt off of his back, nodding a greeting to Yusuke.

 

“Hn, so that overgrown sparrow does have its uses after all,” Hiei muttered, eying Puu over critically.

 

“Watch it with the insults, Hiei,” Yusuke warned him. “Puu is my spirit beast, after all. We're connected spiritually, remember?”

 

Hiei's face tightened a little, his eyes freezing on Puu's face.

 

“Connected spiritually?” he asked quietly.

 

“Yeah!” Yusuke replied.

 

“What… What about telepathically?”

 

“What?”

 

“Can you communicate with it?”

 

Yusuke pulled a face at Hiei's seemingly ridiculous question, but the look of mild concern on his face soon captured Yusuke's interest, and he quickly made himself look pensive.

 

“In a way, yes,” he lied. “I mean the bird doesn't speak in words, but he makes it really clear what he's thinking of or what he wants. That's how I was able to send him for Kurama. It's like I can put a picture of something inside his head to explain it to him.”

 

“…Does that work both ways?” Hiei asked.

 

“Absolutely! Puu tells me everything he sees. In my head. In my head he tells me everything.”

 

When Hiei turned to glare at Puu again Yusuke gave Kurama a huge wink, in reply to which Kurama gave him a nervous smile that suggested he wished to be left out of the game.

 

“He even told me about… Well, I think you know,” Yusuke said, grinning menacingly at Hiei.

 

Hiei's eyes shifted in Yusuke in a sideward glance that fell somewhere between threatening and suspicious.

 

“It's okay though, I didn't tell anyone else,” Yusuke continued. “Not even Kurama.”

 

Kurama gave a small shake of his head and his awkward grin widened as he again tried to convey that he wanted no part of what Yusuke was doing.

 

“I don't care anyway,” Hiei muttered. “I'm not ashamed of anything I do.”

 

“Not even that one thing Puu caught you doing in the forest?” Yusuke asked, elbowing Kurama unsubtly.

 

Hiei turned abruptly, his eyes thinning into dangerous slits of red.

 

“Do you send this bird to spy on others for your own delight?” he snarled.

 

“Sometimes I do,” Yusuke said, trying unsuccessfully to fight off a smile. “But sometimes he just happens to be in exactly the wrong place at exactly the right time.”

 

“Forget about it,” Hiei said quietly. “And don't ever mention it around me again.”

 

“It's nothing to be ashamed of, Hiei,” Yusuke said casually. “I do it all the time.”

 

Yusuke started laughing, slapping a hand against his leg.

 

“Ah, Hiei, the look on your face is priceless!” he said.

 

Yusuke almost choked on his own laughter as he felt the air around him change. He sobered, looking towards where Hiei had been, his eyes widening as he saw that Hiei had vanished. He saw a flash of light and heard a whistling sound in the air in front of him, Hiei landing in a crouch at his feet an instant later.

 

Yusuke staggered back a step, looking down open-mouthed at Hiei, who was clutching his sword in one hand, his other hand pushed into his hair. As he stood up he dragged his hand down one side of his face, smearing blood from a laceration along his temple. He turned his glare to Kurama, and following his eyes Yusuke saw that Kurama was standing poised as if ready to attack, his rose whip hanging from one hand.

 

“…What the hell just happened?” Yusuke demanded, glancing back and forth between the two demons.

 

“I believe swords in a sparring session between friends is bad form, Hiei,” Kurama said, narrowing his eyes slightly as he regarded Hiei.

 

“Cheap shots with a whip aren't especially honourable either,” Hiei spat back.

 

“Hey!” Yusuke protested. “You were aiming that blade at me?”

 

“Hn,” Hiei grunted noncommittally.

 

“Gees, you really need to learn how to take it easy sometimes, Hiei!” Yusuke yelled. “We're supposed to be friends!”

 

“There are no friends in war, and that's what we're facing over the coming days,” Hiei sternly replied. “Don't expect me to go so easy on you if we face off in the tournament.”

 

Yusuke cursed as Hiei took off in a cloud of dust, gone entirely from sight by the time the air had cleared.

 

“Damn!” Yusuke muttered, shaking his head. “What's his problem?”

 

“Hiei doesn't appreciate jokes like you do, Yusuke,” Kurama reminded him.

 

“But it wasn't even anything to get upset about!” Yusuke argued. “What could Puu possibly have seen Hiei doing in the forest that's so embarrassing he had to kill me over it?”

 

“Well, unless I'm very much mistaken, I think Hiei may have shared a tryst with Botan in the forest outside of Genkai's temple a short while back.”

 

“A what?”

 

“A tryst.”

 

“You mean they…?”

 

Kurama frowned curiously at Yusuke as he began dancing his hands through the air in an array of ambiguous positions.

 

“Yes, well, it seems to be somewhat of a sore subject for Hiei and I don't recommend teasing him about it,” Kurama eventually said.

 

“Are him and Botan still…?” Yusuke asked, wriggling his hands in the air again. “I thought he went back to Mukuro?”

 

“Hiei's relationship with Mukuro has always been a professional one, as far as I am aware,” Kurama corrected him. “As for Hiei's relationship with Botan, I believe it took a turn for the worse at the end of our last case.”

 

“Why, what happened? Would she not put out for-”

 

“Yusuke, comments like that will lead to your blood staining Hiei's sword. I strongly advise you to never mention any of this again.”

 

Yusuke scratched at the back of his head and pouted.

 

“I don't get what the big deal is,” he grumbled.

 

“If not for Hiei's sake, then perhaps for Botan's sake?” Kurama tried.

 

“Botan's an idiot,” Yusuke moaned. “And she always makes fun of my relationship with Keiko!”

 

Kurama started to argue with Yusuke but resigned part way through with a quiet sigh.

 

“Perhaps you would like to spar with me, since Hiei appears to have abandoned you?” he offered instead.

 

“Okay,” Yusuke said with a shrug. “But no weapons and no death-blows.”

 

“Naturally,” Kurama agreed.

 

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

 

Botan huddled over her bowl of tea and sniffed sharply. She was not crying any more, but the occasional tear was still welling up in her eyes, and her nose refused to dry. It was the steam from the tea, she told herself, lifting her eyes from the fragrant liquid, her first sight being a nervous and awkward blue ogre sat on a hard chair in front of her.

 

“How's your tea?” he asked her.

 

She smiled sweetly, sympathising with his situation. She knew that he was just trying to make small talk to ease the tension, but she was still too numb to care for such false pleasantries.

 

“Fine,” she replied, even though she had not taken a single sip from it.

 

Koenma passed between them and George glanced at his boss briefly before offering Botan another awkward, fang-filled grin. Koenma continued pacing back and forth across the room, which was becoming quite dizzying to watch as he was still in his adult form, and his long legs could cross the room in only a few strides before he was forced to swivel on the spot.

 

“I'm still waiting for an answer, Botan,” he said as he passed between her and George again.

 

“I can't answer your question, Sir, I'm sorry,” she replied, lowering her head to stare into her tea again.

 

“Well I'm sorry too Botan, because you're going to have to answer me,” he insisted. “I can't let you go until you do.”

 

“I don't understand the problem, Sir,” she muttered into her tea. “I already told you, it is strictly a one-sided affair, an unrequited love. The demon in question has no feeling for me whatsoever. He doesn't even know my name.”

 

Koenma stopped, planting his hands on his desk and leaning over it. Botan lifted her head to meet his eyes, feeling torn between amusement and fear as she considered the irony of her sitting in Lord Koenma's grand chair and him approaching the desk from the angle she usually did to await her orders.

 

“Should he know your name, Botan?” Koenma asked.

 

Botan shook her head.

 

“It's not normal practise for a ferry girl to socialise with demons,” Koenma reminded her. “Least of all living ones. There are only three male demons you ought to even be speaking to, and they are Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei. And I doubt this problem relates to one of those three.”

 

Botan lowered her head again, looking into her tea.

 

“Botan, if you don't tell me, I can't help you,” Koenma added, his tone gentler.

 

Botan shook her head again.

 

“It's all very silly, really,” she said, keeping her eyes on her cooling beverage. “And it's long past. I thought I had forgotten about it, but I suppose a part of me hasn't. I can't ever see him again anyway, so it's not a problem.”

 

“Botan?”

 

“Yes?”

 

Botan lifted her head again to look Koenma in the eye.

 

“We're going to the demon world tournament,” he said flatly. “Every demon in demon world will be there. How likely is it that the one who did this to you is going to be a main feature in the battles we will be watching?”

 

Botan chewed at her lower lip, unsure how to answer.

 

“This is very important, Botan,” Koenma pressed. “If you won't give me details, you only leave me with one other choice about how to deal with this.”

 

“One other choice?” she repeated quietly.

 

“One other choice.”

 

Botan lowered her head again, staring into the depths of her tea bowl, already sure that she knew exactly what that “one other choice” was; and it was not something she had ever thought would happen to any ferry girl, least of all her.

 

“I thought I had forgotten,” she softly. “I tried so hard, I just… I just can't forget!”

 

“Okay, go and clean yourself up and get ready to go to demon world.”

 

Botan's head snapped up.

 

“We're going to support our friends in the tournament,” Koenma reminded her. “I'm going ahead, I'll leave the ogre here to take you when you are ready. Don't be too long though.”

 

Botan frowned slightly, unsure why Koenma had suddenly stopped pressurising her for an answer. She wanted to ask him why and she wanted to ask him how he was planning to deal with her confession, but she was too terrified to hear the answers. Instead she watched silently as Koenma turned his back on her and ordered George to escort her to demon world before leaving the office entirely. She jumped involuntarily as the doors banged shut behind him, spilling a little of her tea on her lap.

 

“It might be easier if just you tell Lord Koenma who did this to you, Miss Botan,” George said quietly.

 

Botan turned her attention to him, vaguely amused that he cringed as their eyes met.

 

“I just need to forget,” she insisted. “I'll be fine then.”

 

She lifted her bowl to her lips and sipped at her tea, which was barely lukewarm by then, but still surprisingly refreshing.

 

“You're a good ferry girl, Miss Botan,” George said gently. “You shouldn't let some heartless demon be your downfall.”

 

Botan tensed, choking a little on her tea. She lowered her bowl to her lap and coughed to clear her throat before meeting George's eyes with a questioning look.

 

“My downfall?”

 

As the words left her lips, Botan silently wondered where she had heard them before.

 

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

 

Yusuke and Kurama slowed to a halt and neither could stop from smiling at the sight approaching them.

 

“You know Koenma, the whole point of a disguise is to try to blend in,” Yusuke said. “The scarf over the mouth and the crazy glasses only make people look your way.”

 

“I think I have to side with Yusuke on this one, Lord Koenma,” Kurama agreed. “Your current outfit does make you a tad conspicuous.”

 

Koenma came to a stop in front of them, pulling the scarf down from his mouth.

 

“I'm here on serious business,” he said. “So can the jokes wait?”

 

“Sure,” Yusuke said through a lop-sided grin. “We'll try telling you again when you're old enough to burp yourself.”

 

Koenma slowly removed his dark glasses, revealing a glare that instantly brought Yusuke to attention.

 

“Hey, you are serious,” he said quietly. “What's up?”

 

“I need to do something very important before the tournament starts,” Koenma replied. “And in order to do it, I'm going to need to find Hiei.”

 

“Hiei?” Yusuke echoed. “What do you need him for?”

 

“It's very important, Yusuke.”

 

“Well fine, but you know Hiei is never exactly keen to help you out with anything. And I was sparring with him less than an hour ago and I can tell you that he is in a really bad mood today.”

 

“Hiei's always in a bad mood.”

 

“He's in an especially bad mood today.”

 

“That doesn't matter. I have to find him. I was hoping you might know where he is.”

 

Yusuke shrugged.

 

“He took off in a hurry,” he said. “We don't know where he went or even why he went.”

 

“I see,” Koenma sighed. “That is a bother.”

 

“May I enquire why you specifically require Hiei's assistance?” Kurama asked. “Puu is with us, if it is a fast messenger you seek.”

 

“Speed isn't the reason I'm looking for Hiei,” Koenma replied. “It's rather more complex than that.”

 

Yusuke and Kurama glanced at each other, each looking as confused and wary as the other.

 

“Then I suppose we better start looking for the little guy,” Yusuke said.

 

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

 

“Ogres weren't meant to fly!”

 

“It's alright, you won't fall, I promise!”

 

“Please just take us down!”

 

Botan sighed and rolled her eyes, dipping her oar downwards. At the change in angle George grabbed his arms around her fearfully from his position by the back of her oar. Although he was squeezing the breath from her lungs she was glad of the distraction he was offering her, between his fear and the pain, since she had finally managed to push all thoughts of Hiei from her mind. She had been so sure that she was not upset and that she had not been affected by the events of Valentine's Day, but apparently she had been wrong.

 

And now, unfortunately, Koenma knew part of the story.

 

Botan soon reached the ground, dismounting her oar and encouraging George to do the same. When he did not even after extensive coaching, Botan banished her oar, letting him drop the last inch to the ground, where he was at first alarmed to feel his feet hit the ground but shortly delighted to be back on terra firma.

 

“Now we just need to find Lord Koenma,” Botan said, looking about herself. “I hope he didn't go too far. Do you have any idea which way we should go?”

 

“Um…”

 

George scratched at the bald top of his head and began looking about as though searching for a clue as to where Koenma might be. They had landed on a wide, reddish-brown road that ran through a low-level wilderness of thorny plants, the road itself clearly having been created by those robotic bug transporters Botan had seen on her previous visits to demon world. As far as they could see in either direction the road was empty, and there were no obvious buildings or city skylines visible, only a never-ending, undulating blanket of the same thorny plants, interspersed with the occasional clump of taller trees. The sky overhead was red as always, and in the far distance they could see flashes of lightning; though apparently the storm was a long way off as they could not hear the thunderclaps.

 

“I'm lost,” George eventually admitted.

 

“Perhaps we came through the wrong portal,” Botan said. “In that case, we probably need to go that way.”

 

Botan pointed off the path, through what was seemingly the thickest, most overgrown piece of land around them.

 

“So I'm afraid we're flying again, George,” she added, summoning her oar once more.

 

George let out a pitiful groan but obediently climbed back onto Botan's oar, restraining himself to mere mutterings as she took them up into the air again. She was mindful to keep her movements as smooth and steady as possible to minimise the ogre's trauma, and she remembered to keep her ponytail tucked into the collar of her kimono to stop it slapping him in the face. As they flew over the repetitive countryside below them, Botan noticed that the road they had left behind arced around to one side of them, cutting its way through tougher plants and following what was obviously the route connecting the portals together. It was heading in generally the same direction that she was - which was to be expected, as she was aiming for the next portal - but seemed to be taking a longer, wider route to access the same location.

 

Botan wondered how many times Hiei had passed along on that exact piece of road during his duties as a guard of the border patrol.

 

“Bo-taaaan!” George cried out, grabbing onto her again as they began plummeting through the air.

 

“Oopsie!” she said, trying to pass her blunder off as a mere error of judgement. “Some turbulence there, my bad!”

 

She quickly calmed herself and smoothly brought her oar upwards and onwards, shrugging George's overly tight embrace from her shoulders.

 

“What happened?” he asked, daring to look back at the point where they had dropped.

 

“Just some turbulence,” Botan lied again. “I misjudged the… Turbulocity of the turbulence.”

 

“The what?” George echoed, turning to screw up his face at her in confusion.

 

“It's flying talk,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

 

“Oh.”

 

Botan was silently glad that George never questioned her, though she did feel infinitely guilty about lying to him and probably only worsening his fear of flying on her oar by almost sending them crashing to the ground. She had managed to pass weeks without thinking about Hiei once, she thought bitterly, and the one time when she really needed to not think about him he had just popped into her mind. It had only been a fleeting thought too, and yet it had been enough to send that shiver of apprehensive delight down her spine and make her lose her ability to focus her spirit energy into flying.

 

Damn him for still having that affect on her, even after what he had done that night on the beach.

 

Botan started to feel angry then, though at least with anger she could muster plenty of spirit energy to keep herself in the air, she thought. Without realising what she was doing, she began flying faster and higher into the sky, only coming to her senses when she heard George shivering behind her. She then realised that not only had she gone up into the cooler air, but she had reached the tail-end of the storm they had seen from their arrival point, and rain was starting to pattern her new red kimono.

 

“Oopsie,” she muttered miserably.

 

She reduced her speed and eased them down at a very shallow angle, bringing them closer to the land below. Despite having travelled a significant distance, their surroundings still looked the same, the only key difference being a few more clumps of tall trees around them and they were almost directly above the road, which had arced around from one side and was gradually crossing over under them. Botan adjusted her angle slightly, deciding that she probably ought to just follow it, since it would at least lead them somewhere significant, or else they might catch a passing patrol who could give them directions.

 

“Why did Lord Koenma leave without me?” George moaned. “He always leaves me behind!”

 

Botan smiled sympathetically.

 

“And he took the umbrella!” George added, clapping his hands over his head as the rainfall became more intense.

 

Botan wiped a hand over her face, clearing the excess water from her eyebrows and eyelashes, silently noting that the road below them was starting to flood, and flying really was their only option left. She was growing concerned about the lack of distinguishing features around them though, and beginning to think that they were on completely the wrong side of demon world.

 

“I hope there aren't any snake or bear demons out here,” George muttered.

 

Botan stiffened, and found herself pulling her oar up on instinct, bringing them level with the tops of the tall trees they were occasionally passing. Hopefully if there were any snakes of bears, they would not be as tall as the trees, she decided, and so they should be safe in their current position.

 

But Botan's illusion of safety was short-lived.

 

Both George and Botan yelped as a rumble of thunder sounded to one side of them.

 

“I'm not scared of thunderstorms,” George quickly recovered.

 

“Me neither,” Botan agreed.

 

Though both knew that the other was lying, they exchanged grins and flew onwards, through the driving rain and growls of thunder. The clouds overhead were thickening and blackening, making it darker and reducing visibility. Botan began to slow her flight, peering through the dense rainfall in the hope of being able to make out any sign of civilisation. She was starting to grow desperate, and had decided that she was willing to stop with the first convoy or at the first town they encountered to get directions and hopefully shelter until the storm passed.

 

Thunder continued to roll overhead, and as they flew past another gathering of tall trees they saw the first flash of lightning. Botan screamed and closed her eyes, the flash unbelievably close and blinding her in its intensity. Behind her George whimpered and begged with her to be careful. When she opened her eyes again her vision was blotted with colour, an imprint of the flash of light still burnt across her retinas.

 

“Miss Botan, that was so close!” she heard George sob.

 

She looked back at the trees they had just past, her jaw dropping as she saw a burnt branch break off and fall to the ground. She could not stop her mind from picturing her oar blackened and broken in half, George rocketing off in one direction and her in the other.

 

“Oh goodness, this is no good!” she cried. “We have to get through this storm, it's too dangerous to fly!”

 

Botan started to lower them down towards the ground, squinting down cautiously at the river of mud beneath them.

 

“Oh dear…” she muttered pitifully.

 

George suddenly cried out and grabbed her into another bone-crushing hug, and looking back she could see why: a razor-toothed eel had just leapt up from the puddles to snap at her oar.

 

“Maybe we should stay up here,” she said shakily, rising through the air again.

 

Both Botan and George yelled out in shock as the eel leapt up again, this time managing to bite off a small section of the blade of Botan's oar.

 

“I need that!” Botan wailed pitifully.

 

She pulled up the handle of her oar, rising more steeply, blinking against the driving rain and praying that she would not need to make any sudden turns, as without a full blade on her oar, her turning abilities had been severely hampered.

 

“Lord Koenma said that you are the best ferry girl, Miss Botan!” George said. “You can fly us out of this mess, right?”

 

“Of course I can, George!” she lied, grinning brilliantly. “Just you wait, we'll be sipping honey tea with Lord Koenma before you can even say thunderstorm!”

 

“I hope so,” George mumbled miserably, his voice almost entirely drowned out by another, particularly angry snarl of thunder. “Because actually, I've always been really scared of thundersto-”

 

The last syllable of George's last word was, rather ironically, Botan thought, cut off as lightning stabbed mercilessly into a tree ahead of them, splitting it in two vertically. Botan opened her mouth to warn George to hold on tight, but the words never left her lips as she tried to duck under and around the half a tree falling across the road and failed. Her already broken oar veered off course and dragged down in an unexpected manner, the falling tree section coming straight towards them. Botan threw out her arms and leapt from the oar, silently praying that the wet ground would cushion her fall and that there were no more eel demons awaiting her when she got there. She closed her eyes to protect them from the mud and drew in a deep breath, half-expecting herself to sink so deeply she would become fully immersed in the mud as though she was jumping into a pool; but the impact that did come did not feel at all the way she had expected it to.

 

Botan grunted out an unladylike “oof” as something collided with her side, and she suddenly found herself moving in a different direction. She wanted to open her eyes, but a second later her entire body was jerked to a halt and so she screwed her eyes shut tighter, anticipating mud or water overwhelming her. When neither happened, Botan slowly opened one eye to a thin slit and peered about herself. She had somehow landed several feet off of the road, on top of some of the low-level thorny bushes, in a sort of sitting position that felt surprisingly warm and relaxed.

 

Botan opened her other eye a little. Her entire body jolted and both her eyes opened wide, staring up at a pair of eyes staring back at her. The sight before her was so unexpected, Botan began thinking that perhaps she had died and this was some sort of strange post-life dream while her soul waited for a ferry girl to escort it to the afterlife.

 

“Didn't they teach you not to fly in a lightning storm, you stupid woman?”

 

Botan sighed. It was no dream.

 

“Hiei.”

 

“Hn.”

 

Somehow, by some inexplicable miracle, Hiei had pushed her out of the path of the falling tree, gathering her into his arms before landing in a safe place. He still had one arm wrapped around the underside of her thighs and his other hand was cradling her head. He was as drenched by the rain as she felt, and probably he was feeling it a lot worse than she was, she thought, since he was missing his coat and scarf, the top half of his body only covered by a ragged blue vest that was soaked through and clinging to every detail of his torso. His spiked hair was plastered down in every direction in a way she had only ever seen it look once before, the change in style being so drastic he barely looked like himself. His hair was parted by his forehead to expose his jagan eye, which was uncovered and open as though he had been using it for something.

 

Botan's eyes wandered from his, pausing at his lips. With the downward tilt of his head, droplets of rainwater had formed along his lips and she was starting to feel a desire to bring her lips up to catch them as they fell.

 

Botan quickly closed her eyes and reminded herself that she was an idiot.

 

“I couldn't save you both, but I think your servant will survive.”

 

Botan's eyes snapped open again and she stared at Hiei in alarm.

 

“George?” she yelled, a little too forcefully.

 

Hiei jerked his head to the side slightly and Botan lifted her head, looking back at the gathering of tall trees at the other side of the road. Halfway down one of the trees, George was held up by a branch stabbed through his bodysuit, one hand clutching at the branch to steady himself as his legs were dangling freely beneath him, his other hand hanging onto the remains of Botan's oar.

 

“Oh gracious!”

 

Botan leapt out of Hiei's arms and started in the direction of her spirit world colleague but barely travelled two steps before an arm grabbed around her waist and halted her abruptly. She yelped involuntarily as something leapt up out of the undergrowth and vanished in a spray of blood before she could even make out its form. As she recovered her breath Botan looked down, first at the muscular arm braced around her waist and then at the bloodstained sword poised to one side of her. She watched the rain wash the blood from the blade before slowly lifting her eyes to the wielder of the weapon.

 

“There is a reason the border patrol need to ride these roads regularly,” he said. “Weaker, lesser creatures of this world lie here in wait of humans who pass through here accidentally.”

 

“Ah, I see,” Botan said with a nod. “Then I think this will be in order!”

 

She flicked her wrist, her reliable baseball bat sliding into place in her hand. She was almost certain that Hiei made a noise of disgust, but when she looked down at him again his face was impassive. She looked down at her feet, only then realising that the reason her landing had been so cushioned was because Hiei had apparently removed his coat and flung it down ahead of them, covering the thorns of the plants. She was still standing on the coat-covered section of undergrowth, and as she peered over the edge she saw that the plants were quite closely packed and vicious looking - not to mention the potential risk of more unspeakable creatures lurking in the shadows beneath.

 

“Oh dear,” she muttered.

 

She lifted her head again, seeing that George's suit was slowing tearing, and he would not be hanging in the tree for long. The fall to the ground was not far enough to be a threat, but slight flickers of movement on the road warned Botan that what awaited George on the ground could very well be deadly.

 

“Hold still George, I'm coming!” she yelled to him.

 

Of course her voice did not reach him, as the sound of the rain alone was enough to cut it off before it could carry any distance, but Botan hoped that the ogre had somehow understood her, and without a second thought she leapt from the relative safety of Hiei's coat. Hiei's arm that had been around her fell away, and she did not take the time to look back to see why, as she landed roughly amidst the thorny plants, which made light work of her silk kimono. Luckily she was close to the road and the plants around her barely came to halfway up her thighs in height, but they were still brutal enough to cut into her as she tried to wade through them, the slipperiness of the water-logged ground underneath doing little to help her maintain her balance.

 

When Botan finally reached the road she hesitated, checking in both directions for anything lurking in the mud before starting to run across it towards George. Her first footstep sank in the mud until her entire foot was out of sight. Her second footstep sank in to above her ankle. Determined not to abandon her friend she pushed on, dragging her feet through the dirt. She clutched her baseball bat a little tighter as she sensed something approaching her from one side, turning to watch in awe as the eel demon from earlier shot out of the mud, it's head falling from its body an instant later, followed by the branch George was hanging from breaking from the tree in a clean cut. George fell to the ground with an enormous splash, but he quickly got himself up and managed to grin at Botan, who sighed in relief.

 

“You see? I told you that I would get us out of this!” she called over to him, resting her bat against one shoulder.

 

Her smug smile faded as she heard a light splash ahead of her, and she saw Hiei appear, his sword smeared with blood and tree bark. She looked up at the clean cut on the tree and then over at the fallen eel demon, finally realising just what had happened. When she looked at Hiei again she almost wanted to scream: he was standing on the road too, but for some reason he had not sunk into the mud like she had.

 

“Koenma is looking for you,” he said, sounding bored by what he was saying. “But he's a long way from here.”

 

Botan laughed nervously as she caught George glaring at her.

 

“We were taking a short-cut,” she reminded him.

 

Another rumble of thunder sounded overhead, and George patiently waited for it to finish before answering Botan.

 

“How are we going to get anywhere?” he asked. “The road is too dangerous to walk, and it's too dangerous to fly in this thundersto-”

 

Again George was cut off by a flash of lightning, though this time it hit the ground some distance from their current location.

 

“The storm's passing,” Botan pointed out.

 

“So you can summon a new oar and we can fly out of here?”

 

George held up the remains of Botan's oar, which were, by then, quite pitiful. The blade was still broken from the eel's bite, and the shaft had snapped near the middle and was only holding together by a thin splinter of wood. George picked his way over to join Botan on the road, handing her the oar. She accepted it with a long face, slowly shaking her head as she eyed it over.

 

“I can't fix this,” she concluded.

 

“Can't you summon a new one?” George asked.

 

“I'm afraid it doesn't work like that,” Botan replied.

 

She banished the oar and summoned it again to illustrate her point, the same battered and broken object appearing in her hand.

 

“Can't you use something else?” George asked. “Like a tree branch?”

 

“No, I'm sorry,” she replied. “My oar is made from a specific type of wood designed to carry my spirit energy. It looks like we'll be travelling on foot, I'm afraid.”

 

George turned his head and, following the direction of his gaze, Botan saw Hiei still standing watching them.

 

“Hiei?” she said pulling her most pitiful drowned cat face. “Can you tell us which way we should go, we're a little bit lost.”

 

“Follow the road,” he advised. “It's the safest and quickest route for someone with your abilities.”

 

“Thank you, Hiei!” she said sweetly. “There you go, we just have to keep following this road!” she said to George. “Come on, take heart, we'll be there soon!”

 

Botan linked one arm through George's and started to trudge onwards along the road in the direction they had been heading before they had been struck by the falling tree.

 

“But what about the monsters, Miss Botan?” he asked, reluctantly walking with her.

 

“Oh don't worry,” she said confidently. “I have my monster-smashing bat!”

 

Botan waved her bat in the air to illustrate her point but George looked less than convinced. They walked on a little further in silence before both stopping abruptly as Hiei appeared in front of them.

 

“What are you doing?” he asked in a flat voice, his eyes squinting as though he was severely unimpressed by something he saw.

 

“We're continuing our journey!” Botan brightly replied.

 

“Your journey through the valley of pain?” Hiei asked. “You need to go that way.”

 

He lifted his sword and pointed it between Botan and George, who turned to each other, exchanging withering looks.

 

“You told me it was this way!” Botan scolded him.

 

“You told me you were taking a short-cut!” he argued back.

 

“Neither of you will last five minutes out here like this,” Hiei said.

 

“We'll be fine,” Botan answered him. “Come along George, let's go.”

 

Botan turned around and waited for George to do the same before linking her arm through his again.

 

“Do we have to walk all the way back?” he moaned. “We were flying for a long time, it could take hours to walk all the way back.”

 

“I'll have Yusuke send his pigeon to collect you,” Hiei said behind them.

 

Botan looked back over her shoulder at him with a radiant smile.

 

“Oh Hiei, that would be wonderful!” she said.

 

“Until it gets here you should stay close for your own safety,” Hiei added.

 

“Right,” Botan agreed, shuffling closer to George.

 

“And you should put this on. I won't be answerable to that incorrigible brat if this weather makes you ill.”

 

Botan turned her head to her side, blinking down at Hiei's coat, which he was apparently offering to her. She stared at it dumbly for several seconds before turning to look at Hiei himself. His eyes were on his coat and the look on his face was indescribable. She decided that he was probably just disgusted with her and annoyed that he had been sent to find her - which she had decided was why he was there. Obviously Koenma had worried that she was so late and asked Hiei to look for her with his jagan eye.

 

“Well alrighty,” she said, banishing her baseball bat to free up her hand nearest him. “I'll take it, but not for myself.”

 

Botan took the coat from Hiei's hand and held it out towards George.

 

“Here, you need this more than I do,” she said.

 

Hiei muttered something behind her that included two or three words she had never heard before, but she ignored him, placing the coat over George's head and tying the sleeves under his chin to make a small cape for him - the size difference between George and Hiei meant that obviously the ogre would not be able to wear the coat, but he could at least benefit from the shelter of it over his head and shoulders. She then turned back to Hiei, who was standing with his head turned away from her, one hand still holding his sword, the other hanging onto his scarf. Botan then began to wonder why he had handed her his coat: obviously he needed it far more than she did. Her kimono was three layers thick and her obi covered most of her torso, so other than where water had slipped down her neck or splashed up from her ankles she was completely dry underneath her clothes. Hiei, on the other hand, was clearly soaked through and looking quite small without the added height his spiked hair usually gave him.

 

“Here,” she said, grabbing his scarf out of his hand.

 

He turned to her sharply, narrowing his eyes to regard her suspiciously as she squeezed the excess water from the scarf.

 

“I won't be answerable to Lady Mukuro if this weather makes you ill,” she said, winking at him.

 

His lip curled slightly at her gesture but his face quickly changed, his eyes growing large as she hooked the scarf around his neck and wound it around before lifting a section up to cover his head. He stood surprisingly still while she recreated the makeshift hood she had made for him once before from his scarf. Once she was done she found the result was not quite so effective nor so endearing as it had been the last time she had made it: this time Hiei and the scarf were already drenched, and the material sat limply against his head, making him look like a red-eyed otter cub.

 

“You look so-” she began, biting her lip to stop herself as she remembered exactly what had happened the last time she had commented on his appearance when wearing his scarf as a hood.

 

He had forcibly kissed her; and that had been the first time he had kissed her, that had been the start of everything that had led to her standing before him now feeling the way she did.

 

“Just stay close,” he said in a low voice.

 

Botan started to nod her understanding but froze as she felt his fingers on her hand. She stared into his eyes, almost too afraid to move or look away as he laced his fingers through hers and held her hand at his side. Despite the cold and wet of the rain on both their hands his skin still felt warm to the touch, his grip firm and strong, giving her a sense that as long as he was holding her hand, she was protected and safe, which brought a serene happiness to her.

 

As all these thoughts passed through her mind and as she looked down into Hiei's bold red eyes Botan felt one idea pushing its way to the surface and shortly consuming her: after all the horrible things that he had done and said to her, why was her body still reacting this way to his touch?

 

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

 

Next Chapter: Koenma has a favour to ask of Hiei, but it appears that he is unwilling to comply (but why?) and Botan overhears something she wishes she hadn't. Chapter 19: The Confusion.