Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ My Downfall ❯ The Advice ( Chapter 20 )

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

 

Recap: Koenma asked Hiei to erase Botan's love for a demon from her memory but he didn't do it (why?!), Botan overheard Hiei talking about one of his past conquests but despite all of this she still felt that she liked him (idiot!)

 

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Chapter 20: The Advice

 

Botan, Koenma and George arrived at their seats mere seconds after Yusuke was announced victorious in the battle royal he had been a part of. Koenma was disappointed to have missed the action, but cheered up a little when Botan reminded him that Yusuke had won, and apparently he had done so in record timing, so he ought to be proud of his last spirit detective.

 

“It's your fault anyway, Botan,” Koenma said sulkily. “If you hadn't spent so long worrying about your hair, we could have been back here half an hour ago!”

 

Botan pouted dejectedly, slouching her shoulders forward. She then started to pull her cutest possible cat face, but paused halfway through forming the look as she recalled the real reason why they had taken so long to return to demon world.

 

“I only took five minutes with my hair!” she pointed out, her feline features fading. “But it took me half an hour to get into the bathroom because somebody else was using it for an unreasonable amount of time!”

 

“What are you looking at me for?” Koenma yelped. “I don't need to primp myself in front of a mirror, this beauty is all natural!”

 

Botan pointed a finger beyond Koenma and he turned to George, yelping in alarm at what he saw.

 

“Ogre!” he cried. “What in the heavens have you done to yourself?”

 

George grinned bashfully, touching one hand to the slightly off-tone hairpiece he had skewered over his horn to cover his bald top.

 

“I thought it made me look rather fetching, Sir,” he said.

 

“Fetching?” Koenma echoed. “It looks like you just fetched a squashed ferret from the road and stuck it on your head! Take it off immediately! You're embarrassing Botan!”

 

Botan started to assure Koenma that she was actually not bothered by George's fashion faux pas, but George bemoaning his fate as the underrated and unappreciated servant to Lord Koenma drowned out her words. She gave up when Koenma started insisting that George's toupee even smelt like a dead ferret, instead turning her attention to the large screen ahead of them, where highlights of the other ongoing battle royals were taking place. As with the last tournament, there were 128 different battle royals being held to narrow the entrants down to those who would participate in the main tournament bouts across four divisions. But, unlike last time, it had been decided that there would be a break of three days between the each round. Botan was unsure if that was a good or a bad thing: it meant the fighters would go into each round fresh, but it did also mean that, potentially, she would be in demon world for three full weeks.

 

“It seems like the groupings this year have been really random,” Koto's voice boomed over the audio system. “In groups 6, 7 and 18 there was one clearly superior fighter who ended the entire brawl in a matter of minutes, but some other groups seem to have a large number of strong fighters, and things are getting bloody and intense! My only disappointment is that I can't see every spurt of blood in every match at once!”

 

Botan rolled her eyes, telling herself that she was just disgusted by Koto because she had made some unfair rulings on the battles during the dark tournament, and not because of the way Hiei had been speaking about her earlier.

 

“And over in group 44, it's all come down to just two fighters,” Koto continued. “And it looks like we're all in for a rare treat: one of the tournament's favourites to win, Shura, facing off against one of the tournament's bloodiest fighters in the preliminary round!”

 

“Shura?” Koenma echoed, his voice almost completely lost amidst the yells of the other audience members around him.

 

“Yes Sir, it's Yomi's son,” George shouted to him over the drone of the cheers.

 

“You idiot, I know that!” Koenma snapped back. “And I know that he's really strong, that's why I put a bet on him to win this tournament!”

 

“Lord Koenma!” George and Botan both yelped.

 

“What?” he asked with a shrug. “I put a bet on Yusuke, too.”

 

“But Sir, how could bet on someone like Shura?” George asked.

 

“Lord Koenma, how could you bet at all?” Botan demanded. “It's very immoral, especially for a man in your position!”

 

“If that's how you both feel, then when the kid wins this fight and I collect the first part of my winnings, I'll not bother buying either of you dinner!” Koenma sulkily replied.

 

“But Sir!” George implored. “How could you bet against one of our own allies?”

 

“What?” Botan echoed, her head snapping around to the large television screen.

 

Botan's jaw dropped as the screen panned away from Yomi's son and slowly revealed a larger than life image of Hiei. Botan turned back to glare at Koenma in utter dismay.

 

“For shame, Lord Koenma, for shame,” George said, shaking his head, his hairpiece shimmying as he did so.

 

“Oh, darn!” Koenma grumbled. “The clerk at the betting desk never told me Shura was in the same group as Hiei! Still, it's been three years since Shura last fought, he ought to be as strong as his father by now, so there's still a good chance my gamble could pay off…”

 

Koenma grunted, his head shooting forwards suddenly as Botan's hand connected with the back of it.

 

“Hey!” he snapped, glaring at her angrily. “I bruise easily, remember?”

 

“You bet against Hiei!” Botan growled. “How could you, Lord Koenma?”

 

“I didn't bet against Hiei!” he defended himself. “I bet for Shura, which just so happens to mean that I've inadvertently bet against Hiei.”

 

Botan gave her boss a withering look and he grinned nervously, rubbing at the stinging aftermath of her slap by the back of his head.

 

“I'm very disappointed in you, Sir,” she said flatly.

 

“I'll give you half my winnings?” he offered.

 

“That's despicable!” she hissed. “How can you still be talking like you want Hiei to lose?”

 

“Let's just watch the fight, shall we?”

 

Koenma took hold of Botan's face in both hands and forcibly turned her to face the screen, sighing quietly in relief as her eyes grew large in wonder at what she saw, seemingly distracting her from his mistake.

 

And Botan truly did forget all about Koenma's misplaced bet as her eyes landed on Hiei. He did not look particularly different - he was dressed the same as always and was wearing his typically focussed look he wore in battle - but there was just something about him as he stood poised for attack, an air of confidence and power that exuded from him in waves. He was not approaching facing Shura as a man who feared losing, rather it seemed that he was absolutely confident of victory: and Botan knew only too well why. It mattered not who his opponent was, Hiei would do whatever it took to win. The look in his eyes on the giant screen reminded Botan of the speech he had made after he had absorbed the Dragon of the Darkness Flame in the final round of the dark tournament: he had said that he alone had the courage, strength and abandon to realise the glorious potential of the technique. That was exactly how he appeared now: courageous, strong and reckless.

 

Although, Botan thought to herself, Hiei always was courageous, strong and reckless. He just seemed to be more so now.

 

As the camera panned back to show both fighters, it became obvious just how much Shura had grown in the last three years: whilst he was not yet as large as his father, he was already taller than Hiei, and had a more mature look about him, both in his confident grin and his calmer stance. Botan wondered if he was now as strong as his father: if he was, she did not like Hiei's chances, since even Yusuke had been unable to defeat Yomi the last time around. Koto's voice was still talking about the rules of elimination for the battle royal, but Botan was not listening. She doubted that they would matter anyway to two such ambitious and ruthless fighters.

 

Botan saw Hiei raise his sword, but everything after that was a blur of light flashes, the shockwaves of everything happening apparently extending up as far as the flying eyeball cameras filming the action as the entire image began to judder slightly. Botan envied the demons around her whose eyes were faster and keener than hers, and only when the action slowed to a brief halt did she realise that she had been holding her breath during the initial flurry of activity. Shura was sporting a few gashes in his clothing, two of which were slightly stained with his blood and Hiei looked as though he had taken a hard hit to one side of his face, his cheek already swelling a little.

 

“Oh my…” Botan whispered, leaning forwards in her seat.

 

Hiei grinned and Shura returned the gesture.

 

“Can we get audio on this one?” Koto's voice asked.

 

Botan wondered why Koto had asked such a stupid question: neither fighter was talking, and the action had paused.

 

“I know who you are,” a voice suddenly boomed over the audio system.

 

Botan turned to the speaker nearest her as though expecting to see the source of the voice there.

 

“You're Hiei, and you're one of Yusuke Urameshi's friends.”

 

Botan turned back to the screen, realising then that the voice she was hearing was Shura's, unrecognisable because it had matured as much as he had in the last three years.

 

“And I know that you and your friends were sneaking around outside my father's territory a few months back, spying on us.”

 

Botan glanced at Koenma, who had, understandably, turned paler and looked to be sweating. It was true that, on the advice of Kurama, the team had spent some of their time in demon world searching in and around Yomi's territory for signs of the demons seeking The Stolen Moment.

 

“I'm gonna make you pay for that,” Shura continued. “I've seen your performances in previous tournaments, you're no match for me.”

 

“Well, tough talk from young Shura there, folks!” Koto commented.

 

“Keep talking, it will only make you look all the more ridiculous when I destroy you,” Hiei said. “Don't think that I'll go easy on you just because you're a child.”

 

Shura growled, his fists glowing as he powered up for an attack. Hiei looked less than impressed, and as Shura launched a barrage of energy blasts, Hiei vanished in a blur of motion.

 

“And over in group 103, the fighting is really intense!” Koto announced.

 

Botan yelped as the screen switched to a completely different battle, almost falling over the demon sat in front of her. She realised then that she had, quite literally, been on the edge of her seat watching Hiei's fight.

 

“Some of these battle royal mixes are very unfortunate,” Koenma muttered. “It looks like the first round tournament could have rather a lot of underdogs appearing.”

 

“Surely that's a good thing for Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei, Sir,” George pointed out. “It means they will probably fight someone they can easily beat in the first round, and advance further.”

 

“Yes…” Koenma mused. “It also means I should have put my money on one of these unheard of names, the odds are so much higher…”

 

“Lord Koenma!” Botan snapped, rounding on him.

 

“Calm down Botan, I was only kidding!” he assured her.

 

“Well I wouldn't know about that since you bet against Hiei already!” she ranted.

 

He merely grinned at her and she sighed, hanging her head in defeat. She turned her attention back to the screen. Over the next half an hour, Botan saw Kurama win his battle royal, Jin win his and Chu win his. She started to think that the screen would never return to Hiei's battle, almost giving up hope entirely on seeing any more of the action. When Koto once more announced that group 44 was showing, Botan did not immediately register that the fight she most wanted to see had returned to the screen, instead silently musing over how unlucky it was for someone to be in group 44 - since 4 was the number associated with death.

 

“With both fighters down and the clock nearing ten minutes, it looks like there won't be a winner from group 44 at all!” Koto said. “I'm not sure how the committee will rule on this, if maybe a win will be awarded to the last fighter to attack, or if the slot will just be left empty. Lucky for the winner of group 43 if it does, because they will automatically advance to the second round!”

 

“Oh dear, that's not good,” Koenma said.

 

Botan, who had by then slouched back in her seat, casually lifted her eyes to the screen, watching as a battered and worn out Shura appeared, lying flat on his back. She enjoyed a brief moment of calm before suddenly her entire body jolted forwards and she was staring unblinkingly at the screen.

 

“Where's Hiei?” she demanded.

 

“Down, I think,” Koenma casually replied.

 

“What?”

 

Before Koenma could answer her, Botan saw for herself what had become of Hiei since he had last been shown: just like Shura, Hiei was on the ground and looked completely worn out.

 

“Oh no!” she whispered.

 

“Yes, this is doubly bad,” Koenma said with a sigh. “Hiei isn't advancing and I've lost my bet.”

 

“Sir, that is inappropriate talk,” George said quietly.

 

Koenma gave a snide reply and the two began bickering amongst themselves, but Botan was deaf to their words, her attention fully focussed on the footage from group 44 showing on the screen. No explanation was being given for why or how both fighters had ended up grounded, but by the inappropriately peaceful look on Hiei's face, it seemed as though he had unleashed his dragon and was sleeping off the effects of the attack. But, Botan thought, if he had used his ultimate attack, Shura would not still be in existence. She balled her fists in frustration, silently wondering who she ought to punch for not covering the action correctly.

 

“Hey, I thought I saw a face I recognised!”

 

Botan did not move at the sound of the voice at her side, her attention still locked onto the screen. A hand waved in front of her eyes and she slapped it away irritably, only granting the owner of it any attention when he said something that actually did interest her.

 

“I'm surprised Hiei is still alive, it was almost like he wasn't fighting to win back there. He should have taken that kid out when he had the chance. I don't believe in unnecessary killing, but with an opponent like that, you can't hesitate and you have to hit him with all you've got.”

 

Botan turned her head to look directly at Yusuke, who had somehow managed to sit next to her. She wondered what had happened to the demons who had been sitting there before, since Yusuke appeared to have cleared half the length of the bench along from her, but she did not wonder for long, as she was too keen to hear what he had to say about Hiei's fight.

 

“You saw what happened out there?” she asked.

 

“Sure, there's a room backstage where you can see every battle at once,” Yusuke replied with a shrug. “I was watching the ones I was the most interested in, but they're all over now apart from Hiei's group. I wouldn't mind a shot at either guy, but I have to say, I'd be pretty disappointed if Hiei lost now and didn't even make it to the first round.”

 

“Don't say that!” Botan snapped at him, before turning to Koenma. “And why didn't you tell me there was a place backstage where we could watch all the groups at once?”

 

“I didn't know!” Koenma defended himself. “And besides, do you really think you could keep track of 128 different fights all at once?”

 

“Koto manages it!” she ground out.

 

“Don't worry, all the usual suspects made it through to the first round,” Yusuke assured her. “I'm through, Kurama's through, Jin's through, Chu's through, Rinku's through-”

 

“And we're down to the last ten seconds here, folks, what a nail-biting conclusion!” Koto interrupted him.

 

A timer appeared in the bottom corner of the large screen, showing the time both fighters had been down for as 9:50 and counting upwards.

 

“I've been told that if the counter reaches ten minutes and neither fighter rises, this group will be considered a tied result and neither fighter will advance,” Koto continued. “And so far it doesn't look good!”

 

“What happened?” Botan demanded, turning to Yusuke. “Did Hiei use the Dragon of the Darkness Flame?”

 

“No, that's the weirdest part,” Yusuke replied, shaking his head. “He could have, but didn't. We've got three days until the first round he could have easily slept it off in that time. I don't know what he was thinking.”

 

“Maybe he didn't think it would be enough to defeat Shura?” Koenma suggested.

 

“No, I don't think that was it,” Yusuke said with a shake of his head. “There's something really weird about Hiei lately, I can't explain it. Even Kurama doesn't understand it. And you know Hiei, he's a man of so few words, we'd never know even if there was something affecting him right now.”

 

“Something affecting him?” Botan muttered.

 

“Yeah, it's like something has got inside his head,” Yusuke replied. “It's weird.”

 

“Five seconds left people, and it's not looking good,” Koto announced.

 

Botan turned back to the screen, which was still showing an aerial view of the two figures lying splayed on the ground a short distance from each other. Spectators around her began counting down the last five seconds of the action, and the sound made her feel sick inside. She covered her face with her long kimono sleeves, waiting to hear the announcement rather than have to see it. She was disappointed that Hiei would not advance, but she was far more concerned about how badly hurt he might be. If he had been down for ten minutes that could only mean that he had been seriously injured or was unconscious. Or he was dead. There were no referees on ground level to check, it was a distinct possibility, she thought miserably.

 

“And time is up for Shura, but in those crucial last three seconds, Hiei has got to his feet, making him the victor of group 44!”

 

Botan's hands dropped to her lap and she stared incredulously at the enormous image of Hiei standing, his clothes in tatters, his sword hanging broken from one hand. His eyes were glazed over as though he was unconscious, as though some instinctual part of him had forced him to his feet in spite of his condition to claim the win. Most of the audience were booing - apparently Hiei was as unpopular as ever - as Hiei staggered forwards a few steps. He turned his head slightly to look down at Shura, swaying a little as he paused to regard his fallen opponent. He then continued on a few steps more before collapsing, turning the boos and jeers around Botan into cheers.

 

The screen changed to another ongoing battle and Botan was on her feet.

 

“Botan?” Koenma said to her.

 

Hiei was stuck on that raised platform, she thought to herself. He could lie there long enough before anyone would think to send help. She had witnessed firsthand how the demon world tournament committees dealt with their injured warriors, and she knew that if she did not do something Hiei would be lying there until he healed himself or died.

 

“I have to use the bathroom,” she lied, pushing her way past Yusuke.

 

She heard Koenma calling something after her as she ran, but she could not clearly decipher his words over the roar of the crowd. She knew that if she stopped and turned back he would find an excuse to stop her from going, so she shut out his voice and ran on. She suspected that he knew where she was really going and why; she could still clearly see the look on his face when he had seen her holding Hiei's hand, and she could still hear echoes of the tone of his voice when he had ordered her to tell him which demon had stolen her heart. But she could not leave Hiei alone at such a time, so she ran on.

 

Outside of the arena, the temptation to summon her oar and start flying towards the distant plateaus the fights were taking place on was overwhelming and Botan had to fight against it. She was still sensible enough to know that hopping onto her oar and flying through hoards of unknown demons, revealing herself as a ferry girl from spirit world, was a dangerous thing to do, and so she ran on, silently cursing her own lack of super-speed as she went.

 

Every time something flew over her head or sped past her Botan grew more determined, her mind thinking of nothing but the image of Hiei collapsing on that giant screen, that was now burned into her memory and beating down all logic. After what seemed to her like an eternity, she eventually reached the edge of the forest of okunen trees. There were clearly more than 128 of them, but she could still see flying eyeballs filming those where fights were still ongoing, narrowing down her search a little. Once she got airborne it would be easier, she told herself, holding out a hand to summon her oar as she ran into the midst of the trees, looking upwards for her first point to check.

 

As soon as Botan felt the handle of her oar in her palm she swung it around and leapt up to hop onto it, using the momentum of her sprint to launch herself upwards and forwards - and over in the air, becoming tangled in the shattered remains of her oar, crashing shoulder-first into the unforgiving, hard and dusty ground, rolling over and almost breaking a leg as her oar tangled around it painfully. She tried to drag herself back up, but found that her splintered oar had bitten into her kimono in multiple places and tied the lower half of her body in a knot. She began tugging at her clothing in desperation, not even caring when she heard the sounds of ripping silk.

 

“Hey, whoa there!” a voice said, grabbing her wrists to halt her actions.

 

She lifted her eyes angrily, finding two large, worried brown eyes looking down at her.

 

“What are you doing?” he asked her.

 

“My oar broke,” she replied, trying to wrestle her wrists from his grasp.

 

“Okay, but calm down, Botan!”

 

Botan gave one last effort to escape his hold before sighing and relaxing into it.

 

“You idiot!” he scoffed. “What were you thinking? Were you gonna fly up there to rescue Hiei on this thing?”

 

Botan's anger faded as Yusuke freed the lower part of her oar from her clothing and held it up, showing the broken blade and warped handle.

 

“Somebody has to get him down from there,” she muttered, folding her arms moodily.

 

“Well somebody will get him down from there, so don't worry,” Yusuke replied. “Somebody who can actually fly, somebody a lot faster than you, somebody a lot stronger than you and somebody better able to heal him than you.”

 

Botan sighed and lowered her head, only to snap it back up as Yusuke lifted up the hem of her kimono.

 

“Get your hands off!” she snapped, slapping his arms away.

 

“I was trying to help you get untangled, you idiot!” he snapped back.

 

“I can do that myself now, thank you very much!” she said haughtily, reaching down to unpick her kimono from her oar.

 

“It's not a big deal, Botan,” Yusuke said with a shrug. “We've been friends for years, and I'm with Keiko. And it's not like I haven't seen your legs before. You used to like wearing that school uniform when we first worked together.”

 

“That's not the point, Yusuke! I don't want you looking at me or touching me like that!”

 

“Who cares?”

 

“I do! And you should too!”

 

“Gees Botan, you're such a prude. It's no wonder Hiei's in such a bad mood right now.”

 

Botan stopped short, glaring up at Yusuke. He had turned away from her and spoken his last words under his breath, but his voice had not been quite as quiet as he had thought, because she had heard it all too clearly.

 

“I don't know what you mean,” she said, turning her attention back to her oar and continuing her task of freeing herself.

 

“I'm just saying, Hiei's a little tense right now,” Yusuke replied.

 

“I wouldn't know about that,” Botan said.

 

“Well he is. I mean, things were pretty tight back there, wouldn't you say?”

 

“Tight? I wasn't worried for a minute. I knew Hiei would come out on top.”

 

“Yeah, I guess Hiei likes coming out on top.”

 

“He always does. I don't doubt him - or you, or Kurama, or Kuwabara, either.”

 

“I think he likes it when it gets that tight though. I'm sure you know more about that than me though, right?”

 

Botan finished removing her oar from her clothing, lifting her eyes slowly to Yusuke.

 

“What are you trying to imply?” she asked suspiciously. “I don't know anything about Hiei - I mean, I don't know any more about him than you do.”

 

“I was just saying he seems like the kinda guy who likes it really tight,” Yusuke replied, grinning down at her.

 

“Well, he always rises to a challenge, if that's what you mean,” Botan said as she got to her feet.

 

“Oh I bet he does always rise to the challenge,” Yusuke responded. “He's a really keen sort of guy.”

 

Botan frowned slightly, the vague idea that she and Yusuke were talking at cross-purposes passing over her.

 

“He's always keen to test the limit of his skills,” she said slowly.

 

“So you're saying he likes to try new things?” Yusuke asked.

 

“Well, I… I don't know about that, it seems like he relies on his strongest manoeuvres most of the time,” she replied. “He does like to finish by unleashing the dragon whenever he can, though that does always exhaust him.”

 

“Yeah, he really unleashes his dragon with all he's got.”

 

“Yes, he does.”

 

“Do you like it like that?”

 

“Do I like what like that? You're not making any sense!”

 

“Hiei's dragon, do you like it?”

 

“What sort of a question is that?”

 

“Do you like it?”

 

“Well, it's very big and powerful.”

 

“Yeah, I bet it is. I bet it really throbs and pulses when he unloading it, right?”

 

“I don't know. How would I know? I've never been on the receiving end of Hiei's dragon. If I had, I certainly wouldn't be standing here to speak about it now, would I?”

 

“No, I suppose if Hiei did unload his dragon in you, you wouldn't be able to walk for a week.”

 

Botan's face twisted.

 

“Yusuke, what in the name of King Enma are you talking about?” she demanded.

 

Yusuke sighed, shaking his head. He patted a hand on top of Botan's head, causing her face to twist further as her angered confusion became embarrassed confusion.

 

“You're so stupid, this just isn't even fun any more,” he sighed. “Though I guess Kuwabara would probably still find it funny.”

 

“Yusuke, I really have no idea what you are talking about,” she insisted.

 

“I know you don't. That's why it's so sad. I actually feel sorry for Hiei. Look, I think I can help you both out. The problem between you and Hiei is really simple: it's LUST.”

 

“Hey!” Botan snapped, summoning her baseball bat and swinging it at Yusuke's head.

 

He caught her blow in the palm of his hand, pushing it away from his face.

 

“How dare you use that sort of language around me?” she snapped. “That's disgusting! And it's none of your business anyway!”

 

“Well first of all, I'm actually surprised that you understand what the word lust means,” he said.

 

“Of course I know what it means!” she growled, trying to pry her bat out of his grip.

 

“Secondly, I didn't say lust the word, I said LUST the acronym.”

 

“The what?”

 

“LUST. L-U-S-T.”

 

“…What?”

 

“Like, Unresolved Sexual Tension.”

 

“…What?”

 

“Unresolved sexual tension, you idiot!”

 

Botan gasped, releasing her bat and staggering back a step from Yusuke. He grinned at her, but his merriment was short-lived as her bat disappeared from his hand, appearing in hers a second later. This time she connected with her blow, smacking him over the side of the head.

 

“You're still a filthy little boy, Yusuke!” she shouted at him.

 

“And you're still a naïve little virgin, Botan!” he shouted back.

 

She yelped as he smacked her over the head, grabbing her hands at where he hit and glaring at him in disbelief.

 

“Did that knock any sense into you?” he asked.

 

She growled and readied her bat for another swing at him, but stopped as he shrugged and took on a knowing look.

 

“What?” she asked quietly. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

 

“I was just wondering…” he said slowly, his tone more than little mocking. “If you didn't know what unresolved sexual tension was, do you know what the cure is?”

 

Botan's bat vanished.

 

“There's a cure?” she asked.

 

Yusuke grinned.

 

“Yeah, a real simple one,” he replied. “The answer is in the problem.”

 

“It is? Is it unresolved? Or is it tension?”

 

Yusuke rolled his eyes and growled quietly.

 

“No you dumb bitch, it's sex!”

 

Botan froze as Yusuke's voice speaking the word “sex” echoed around the treetops above them. She was numb: she did not know whether to be angry with him or upset within herself.

 

“Seriously,” he said, clapping a hand onto her shoulder. “You and Hiei should just go do each other and get it out of your systems. He's been moody and unbearable - and I mean more so than usual - and you've been ditzy and erratic - and I mean more so than usual - ever since we set out to look for The Stolen Moment.”

 

Botan answered him with a small nod, though she was unsure why she was agreeing - she was completely confused and her mind was blank.

 

“And I'm not being a pervert,” Yusuke added. “I'm just offering an old friend some friendly advice.”

 

Botan nodded again, and again she wondered why.

 

“He'll be back on his feet soon enough,” Yusuke continued, nodding at something behind Botan.

 

She turned her head to see one of the all-too-familiar white transport bugs that frequented the borders of demon world. As she watched, two large winged demons flew up towards the top of one of the okunen trees.

 

“I hear Mukuro has the best healing chambers in demon world,” Yusuke said. “She'll take good care of Hiei.”

 

Botan turned back to Yusuke, blinking at him curiously.

 

“And I mean medically,” he added as their eyes met. “Kurama said Hiei isn't boning­-I mean, he isn't involved with Mukuro.”

 

Botan nodded again, though she still did not know why she kept doing it. She then did two things she could neither explain nor understand when she thought about them later: she handed Yusuke the remains of her oar and turned from him, running towards the convoy.

 

“Botan!” Yusuke yelled after her. “You don't have to do that! And you won't get anywhere without your oar, anyway!”

 

Botan kept running, ignoring him completely. Behind her Yusuke waved her oar in the air a few times before noticing just how badly damaged it was. He frowned at it curiously before shrugging and resting it across his shoulders, hooking his hands over each end. He turned from Botan and walked back to the arena, deciding that he had done all he could to stop her, and yet she had still insisted on chasing blindly after Hiei.

 

As he walked back, Yusuke silently wondered what Koenma really thought about his top ferry girl chasing after a dangerous and powerful demon.

 

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

 

Mukuro nodded at one of her medical technicians as he handed her a report sheet. She skimmed over it, but it did not tell her anything that she had not already figured out for herself: Hiei was suffering from several moderate burns, lacerations and contusions and his spirit energy was remarkably low, considering he had not actually launched his ultimate attack. The one thing the report did not tell her that she was sure was also a key reason why Hiei was suspended in a healing chamber was that Hiei's biggest wound was the one inside his head: he had been acting like an idiot for weeks.

 

In fact, she thought darkly, he had been acting foolishly ever since he had disappeared into the human realm to reunite with his friends there. He had been seen skulking around Yomi's territory, he had been sighted in Raizen's tower and she knew that he had been responsible for the murder of a group of low-class bandits in her own territory. She had not questioned him on any of it: she had long ago learnt that Hiei would never tell her anything anyway, but she suspected that something had happened to Hiei during that time. He had always made it clear that his only loyalties lay with his friends - Yusuke, Kurama, Yukina and the handful of humans they associated with - but it still amazed her that he had just vanished one night to join them in whatever little task it was spirit world had asked of them.

 

Hiei was the archetypical demon of demon world, and so his unusual willingness to jump when ordered by spirit world, a place he claimed to despise, made no sense.

 

Mukuro stepped forwards to stand in front of the healing chamber Hiei was resting in, briefly contemplating reaching a hand inside the chamber to search his thoughts and find out exactly what was going on. He would doubtlessly not appreciate such a gesture, but she was beginning to lose her patience with him. He always said that he did not back out of any alliances he made, but he was getting dangerously close to breaking his alliance with her if he continued with his inexplicable behaviour.

 

“Hey, I told you to stay back!”

 

Mukuro frowned slightly at the sound of the voice behind her.

 

“How did you even get in here?”

 

It was the voice of one of her top soldiers, and he sounded as confused as he did angry.

 

“Hey, I've seen you before!”

 

His last words were answered with a series of pitiful meows. Mukuro squinted at the glass of Hiei's chamber, which, under the glare of the lights overhead, was slightly reflective. In the glass she could see the open doorway behind her, where her soldier was hunched over something, his face flickering between bemusement and amusement.

 

“You're that human Hiei knows,” he said.

 

Mukuro took a step to the side, altering the angle of the reflection in front of her, bringing the subject her soldier was addressing into her line of sight.

 

“Oh, please, I came such a long way, I promise I won't take much of your time.”

 

It was that girl again. Either she was infinitely stupid or unquestionably brave. Somehow she had made it into the fortress and as far as the medical wing. She wasn't dressed quite so ridiculously this time, but it was still clearly the same human woman. She was in a slightly torn and very dirty pink kimono, and her ridiculously blue hair was hanging loose and straggly about her shoulders. She was performing annoying cat impersonations that she apparently thought made her look endearing, in the hope of charming the soldiers into letting her through. She was achieving her objective, though not by the way she thought: her pitiful little displays were not charming anyone, but they were causing enough confusion that she had managed to pass through the garrisons of guards usually stationed to stop such intruders from gaining unauthorised access to the fortress.

 

“What the hell are you?” the soldier asked.

 

“A lost little kitty.”

 

Mukuro turned around, narrowing her eyes as she watched the idiotic girl bunch up the overly long sleeves of her kimono by her face, staring up at the S-class demon in front of her with large, watery pink eyes.

 

“You're a crazy bitch is what you are,” the soldier corrected her.

 

Mukuro started towards the doorway, containing a groan as the girl did a distinct double-take in her direction before breaking into a brilliant smile.

 

“Lady Mukuro!” she sang far too cheerfully.

 

“How do you know my name?” Mukuro asked her, her eyes thinning further.

 

“We've met before!” the girl replied, her face looking almost disappointed that Mukuro seemed not to remember her.

 

“I asked Hiei to erase your memories of this place,” Mukuro flatly replied. “So why are you back here with clear memories of it?”

 

The girl's face dropped. She was still holding her long sleeves up to her face, looking like the last kitten in the box at a rainy yard sale. She was compellingly cute and stupendously stupid.

 

“I just came to see Hiei, Ma'am,” she said quietly.

 

“This is a very dangerous place for a strong demon to come to,” Mukuro patiently replied. “So why has a scrawny and weak human like you come here?”

 

The girl's eyes wandered from hers, widening as they apparently spotted Hiei over her shoulder. She gasped, her sleeves slapping against her open mouth.

 

“You must have walked some way to get here from the nearest portal,” Mukuro continued. “And there is currently a major tournament ongoing, and it is causing a lot of rioting, making this place even more dangerous than… What the hell are you doing?”

 

Mukuro turned in dumbstruck awe as the girl slipped past her and skipped over to the chamber Hiei was suspended in, stopping with her face mere inches from his body.

 

“Oh my, it's awful!” she muttered into her sleeves. “Will he be alright? Oh goodness, this chamber is filled with water! Can he breathe in there?”

 

Mukuro looked up at her soldier, but the utterly perplexed look on his face told her that she would be wasting her time if she even bothered asking how the girl had got inside the fortress or where she had come from. Instead she turned around and walked over to the girl's side.

 

“This is a healing chamber,” she said. “And this,” she waved a hand about herself, “is my home. Hiei is one of my men. Everything here is as it should be. Apart from you. Who are you, and how did you get in here?”

 

“Healing chamber?” the girl said faintly, frowning up at Hiei's face.

 

Ignoring everything else Mukuro had just said, the girl reached up one hand, touching a finger to the glass over Hiei's face. She looked genuinely concerned for his welfare, which just made the entire situation all the more ludicrous. She dragged her finger down the glass, her eyes following it down the length of Hiei's body, occasionally pausing when she reached a part of him that was concealed behind healing cords, her delicate eyebrows flickering slightly into a frown each time. She only ceased her actions when her finger reached the part of Hiei's body that was level with her neck.

 

“Oh my goodness!” she yelped, retracting her finger and catching it in her other hand as though it had been burned. “He's completely naked in there! I should look away!”

 

Mukuro arched her eyebrow expectant of the girl following through with her own advice; but instead she stood perfectly still, her mouth slightly open and her eyes staring.

 

“I don't believe this…” Mukuro muttered.

 

Surely somebody somewhere was watching her right now and laughing, she thought darkly. This just had to be some sick bastard's idea of a joke. When the girl still did not move after a considerable amount of time, her eyes at risk of drying up as she had not so much as blinked, Mukuro moved a hand in front of the girl's face to block out what she could not stop staring at.

 

“It's quite something, isn't it?” the girl whispered.

 

Mukuro tensed as soft fingertips curled over her hand and pulled it down slightly, the girl lifting herself up onto her tiptoes to look over Mukuro's hand at what lay beyond it.

 

“It's like he's growing a third leg in there!”

 

“Alright, that does it!”

 

Mukuro moved her hand to the girl's shoulder furthest from her, grabbing a handful of her kimono and yanking her around hard. She squeaked out something that sounded like “oopsie” as she staggered around, but Mukuro ignored it entirely, marching out of the room, dragging the girl with her. Apparently Hiei had not only failed to erase the girl's memories, but he had also apparently led the girl to believe that he was someone who would appreciate her sympathy - which was beyond cruel, since she was clearly simple-minded and soft-hearted.

 

Apparently this was one mess Mukuro was going to have to fix for Hiei, since he was inexplicably incapable of doing it himself.

 

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

 

Next Chapter: Mukuro has rather a lot to say to Botan, who rather doesn't want to hear it, and makes a bit of a fool of herself as a consequence. Chapter 21: The Opinions.

 

A/N: I would like to stress at this point that I don't intend to vilify Mukuro in this fic. I think she is an awesome character, and I think it was quite crap that she came into the series so late. Just wanted to point that out because it might seem like I'm having a go at her, but I'm really not.