A/N: Warning: Extremely Corny! Do not read if you have corn allergies!
Disclaimer: I don't own YYH… I wish I did not own this story, but sadly, I do. :twitch: So… cheesy…
Setup of the Heart
by crazykitsune17
"Ayame!" Koenma cried out one bright, sunny Reikai morning. "Ayame!"
Koenma's raven-haired assistant, Ayame, teleported into the young ruler's office. Smoothing out her kimono, she locked her eyes on the prince. "Yes, Koenma sir?" she said.
"Ayame, where's Botan?" Koenma asked. "I haven't seen her at all since last night. I was wondering if you knew where she was."
"No sir," Ayame said, her eyes widening with shock at the news of Botan's disappearance. "Do you think something happened to her?"
"I don't know," Koenma said, his eyebrows knitting together with worry. "She told me last night that she was visiting the Ningenkai for the evening, but she said that she would be back by morning! Now it's half-past noon and she still hasn't come back yet!" Koenma banged his fists on his desk, rattling its contents and knocking over a pile of papers as he screamed at Ayame.
"I understand you're upset, Koenma," Ayame said, "but, please, calm down—"
"I can't calm down! Botan's missing, and I—" Koenma stopped, his face turning pink.
Ayame smiled. "You love her, don't you?" she said, her smile growing broader.
"Who? Love who? What are you talking about?" Koenma mumbled. "I don't love… her." Koenma trailed off, embarrassed. "Ayame… just… find her."
"Yes, Koenma sir." Ayame left her boss's office with a respectful bow and turned around the corner, the smile still on her face.
"Oh, Ayame's right," Koenma moaned as he sank back in his chair after Ayame had left. The toddler prince put his face in his hands and pushed it up, mashing his skin into one big pile as he thought about his true feelings for the perky ferrygirl.
Botan had been working for Koenma for several years now. Koenma and King Yama had always had their fair share of pretty, young ferrygirls, and Koenma had always liked them all, but Botan… she was different. She did more than just her job and treat the royal family with respect. All the ferrygirls did that; they were expected to whether they wanted to or not. Instead, Botan treated Koenma like a friend, not just as a boss. Koenma could tell Botan his problems, and she would listen. Not because she was forced to listen, but because she wanted to.
Botan was special, that was for sure, and now that she was missing, Koenma felt like there was a large piece missing from the puzzle of his life. Koenma had never told Botan outright how much he loved her, and he felt badly for not letting her know. His mind raced with several worst-case scenarios, each one worse than the last. "Oh, Botan!" he wailed. "What if I never find you?"
"Koenma sir," said a voice from outside his office. Koenma promptly stopped his tearful, immature whining and snapped back to his usual semi-dignified self. Ayame stepped forward from the shadows again and handed him a letter on lavender stationery. "This just came to Spirit World," she said. "Thought you would want to read it." Ayame left.
Koenma unfolded the letter and scanned it over, his brown eyes sliding from side to side as he read the curvy, perfect handwriting.
Dear Koenma,
Your ferrygirl Botan has been captured by the biggest, baddest, most evil demon ever – me. I am keeping her hostage in the teacher's lounge at Sarayashiki Junior High. Botan is in very grave danger, so come quickly and save her before it's too late. But – only Koenma can free Botan. You must come alone, or else Botan will perish.
Love,
Hiei
Koenma stared at the letter, dumbfounded. A million thought were racing through his mind – Why did Hiei capture Botan? Why did Koenma have to come alone? Why was she kept hostage at Yusuke's school? Why was there no ransom? Why did Hiei sign his letter with "love"?
Unless, Koenma thought, it's some other guy named Hiei that I don't know about… A mental picture of the surly fire demon wearing a scowl on his face entered his mind, followed by a black shape with a question mark on his face. Koenma had a difficult time envisioning Hiei saying anything more than "hn" to Botan, much less taking her hostage for no apparent reason and sending a corny threat letter to the ruler of Reikai, so he figured that this "Hiei" in the letter had to be somebody else.
Amazed by his brilliant deduction, Koenma stood up on top of his desk, smirking haughtily. With a swirl of color and cheerful music, Koenma twirled around in rather feminine fashion, throwing his hands up into the air and closing his eyes serenely. After a moment of twirling, the music stopped and Koenma had fully transformed into the beautiful, elegant, teenage prince.
Koenma smiled, admiring his handsome self for a moment, then slipped off the desk, loosing his footing and crashing to the floor.
"Ow… Damn!" Koenma cursed, rubbing his sore chin where he fell. "No matter how much I practice, I still can't get that transformation down as good as Sailor Moon!"
"Koenma sir, is everything okay?"
Jorge the ogre came bounding into Koenma's office, his loin cloth flapping up and coming dangerously close to revealing something nobody wanted to see. Koenma pushed himself up off the floor and readjusted his pacifier which had been knocked into an uncomfortable position as he fell. "What is it, Ogre?" Koenma asked. "And yes, I'm fine," he added as an afterthought.
"Still trying to master your transformation?" Jorge asked, grinning.
Koenma didn't answer. Instead, he casually flipped his cape over his shoulder and started rummaging through the closet and pulling out various items such as a lighter with a picture of a panda on crack, a bottle of cologne, a rubber duck, and a donut.
"What are you doing with all that stuff, sir?" Jorge asked nosily, leaning over Koenma's shoulder. Koenma stood up quickly, knocking Jorge over and answered, "The donut is for lunch, the cologne is to make me smell pretty, the duck is to hold in case I get scared, and the lighter is a way to keep warm in case I get cold."
"Oh, I see," Jorge said stupidly. "Are you going camping, Koenma sir?"
"No, nitwit! I am going after Botan… to save her…"
"Well, this is it," Koenma said to himself as he stood in front of Sarayashiki Junior High. Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward – one foot in front of the other – until he reached the big double-door entrance.
The door flew open automatically, taking Koenma by surprise. The Reikai prince jumped back, then quickly walked into the deserted school's main hallway.
The hallway was covered in flowers as if the floor were a large mattress and the flowers the blankets and sheets. There were all kinds of flowers – daisies, daffodils, pansies, roses, carnations and lilies. There were also several other kinds that Koenma had never seen before. There was a large, pulsating violet blossom that seemed to be humping the stem of a tall, thin hibiscus plant. There was also a bright gold daisy-like flower with petals so radiant that Koenma was almost blinded by them.
What did I just walk into? Koenma wondered with awe as he continued scanning the flowered hallway. The sixties? Talk about flower power…
A slip of paper shot up from one of the roses in the middle of the room. Koenma carefully reached over a patch of black-eyed susans, not wanting to step on the beautiful flowers, and grabbed the note. Unfortunately, he lost his balance and ended up falling on top of the flowers anyway.
In his bed of crushed black-eyed susans, Koenma read over the note. It was written on purple stationery like the other note he had received in Reikai, but the writing was different. Instead of curvy writing, the letters were straight and perfect.
Koenma,
To reach Botan, you must first make it through the Maze of Roses. There is only one way out, and you have a time limit. You have only thirty-five minutes to get through the maze. If you fail, the results will not be in your favor.
Koenma gulped as he reread the note over. The last line of the letter jumped out at him as if it were written in bold ink – "If you fail, the results will not be in your favor…" That's quite the foreboding message… Koenma thought nervously.
I've got to get through this, Koenma said to himself resolutely, putting on his "determined" face. I can't let Botan die!
The flowers in the room suddenly began shifting as large rose bushes sprouted up and began climbing their way up to the ceiling. Koenma watched in awe as the beautiful flowers quickly formed an elaborate maze throughout the hallway. The leaves were thick and thorns were poking out everywhere. There were, however, several fragrant rose blossoms dotting the thorny walls to make the maze look prettier.
Darn it, Koenma thought, dashing off into the maze and taking a right at the first fork. I'm no good at these mazes and puzzles! I can't even do those simple baby mazes in those little kid coloring books! I usually have Jorge help me with them!
Koenma ran about through the maze of roses, panting and sweating slightly. He was extremely nervous…. What if he failed? He couldn't let Botan down!
Argh, I need Kurama for this kind of thing! Koenma thought with frustration as he ran into another dead end. He's good at this! He would enjoy it, too; a maze full of roses… Koenma glanced at his pocket watch; fifteen minutes had already passed!
Soon there were only five minutes left, and Koenma was getting frantic. Botan was the only thing on his mind – that and whether he should have nachos or fishsticks for lunch when or if he ever got out of here.
Finally, with one minute to spare, Koenma had reached the blinking fluorescent light at the end of the maze. Sighing with relief, Koenma jogged down a new, unflowered hallway and into another room.
It wasn't the teacher's lounge, as Botan was nowhere in sight. Instead, the room was fairly empty, save for a giant TV and two videogame controllers on the floor.
Koenma stared at the room, bewildered. Maybe this is the wrong room… he thought, and he tried to back out into the hallway, but a mysterious figure entered the room, shutting the door behind him with a click and preventing Koenma from exiting.
The mysterious figure was a boy of average height and muscular build; he was very handsome. Koenma couldn't see much of his face, though, as he had on a colorful Mardi Gras mask and a large green bucket hat that flopped over his eyes. He looked slightly familiar, but Koenma couldn't place how in the nervous heat of the moment.
"Hey," the boy said, taking a seat on the floor and picking up a game controller. Koenma sat down next to him and waited for his instructions; he now figured out that this was your average complete-a-set-of-meaningless-tasks-then-retrieve-your-prize kind of rescue. He would just have to be patient and pass the meaningless tasks in order to save Botan.
"Okay," the boy said, "this is just your average fighting game. Hit buttons on your controller, stuff happens, and you either win or lose. Simple enough?"
Koenma nodded.
"All right, let's go! Best of five – choose your fighter!"
Koenma scanned through the list of videogame characters, searching for an appealing fighter. He saw a female fighter in the gallery – one that looked remarkably like Botan – and selected her. She had long, spiky blue hair in a ponytail and had on a red, skintight outfit. Her main weapon was a giant, metal bat, and Koenma was vividly reminded of Botan once more.
"You're picking a girl?" the boy sneered incredulously. "Well, whatever. I'm picking Zaku – he's the best."
Koenma looked at the name of his character: Bo-chan. Again, he was reminded of Botan. He would often call her Botan-chan as a pet name, and seeing the shortened version of the name bolstered Koenma's determination to win. I'm doing this for you, Botan…
Surprisingly, Koenma was quite good at the game. The trick was to get close to the opponent, then smash a bunch of buttons on the game controller at once, resulting in some nifty combo move. Three games later, Koenma had won, much to the other boy's amazement.
"Fine," he said. "You move on. Just a second…" He walked over to a closet that Koenma never even noticed existed and pounded on the door. "Hey! It's your line now!"
Nothing happened.
"Are you sleeping, bozo!" the boy yelled, wrenching open the door and revealing a lump that looked suspiciously like Kuwabara dozing on a metal chair. "Oh, I guess he is… Well… here…" He handed Koenma a long piece of red embroidery thread and tied it around his right pinky finger. "It's the 'Red Pinky String of Love'. It's supposed to lead you to your one true love, or so says the idiot sleeping in the closet."
Koenma looked at the long string dangling from his finger and trailing uselessly on the floor skeptically. This string was supposed to lead him to Botan? Oddly, Koenma was overcome with doubt and hopelessness.
"It connects the two lovers," a muffled voice from the closet said groggily. "If you believe, its force of love will bring you two together."
Suddenly, Koenma felt an odd warmth in his right pinky finger. The string was burning – burning with the power of love. I can feel Botan! Koenma realized with a happy jolt in the pit of his stomach. It's like she's pulling at the other end…
"Away, little pony, away!" the voice from the closet called.
Koenma followed the tug of the Red Pinky String of Love and soon found himself in the teacher's lounge of Sarayashiki Junior High. Botan was shoved in the far corner of the room, a bright smile on her face, and Hiei was sitting in a large, grey swivel chair, a bored and confused expression on his face. Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara were also sitting around the room.
"Koenma! You found me!" Botan cried.
"Botan!" Koenma stopped abruptly. "Wait… why are Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei all here too?"
"We were all in on this, Koenma," Kurama explained. "This was all just a setup to get you and Botan together." The fox demon smiled.
"Koenma, I wanted to see if you loved me enough to come after me alone," Botan said, walking toward Koenma with sparkles in her eyes.
"Of course, Botan," Koenma replied, bringing the ferrygirl into a tight hug. Running his hand through her hair, he whispered, "I love you, Botan. I've never had the guts to say this before now, but I've always loved you. You were special, Botan. You are the most special, amazing girl it has ever been my pleasure to kiss."
"Kiss?"
Koenma only responded by bringing Botan's face close to his and parting his lips a bit to kiss her. Botan closed her eyes and let Koenma suck her into his passion. She was so happy… Koenma had told her that he loved her, and he had braved through all of the trials of her clever setup plan.
"This is all very nice," Hiei interrupted, his tone of voice blatantly irritated, "but why did you have to drag me into this?"
"Because you were the most evil!" Botan answered. "I had to make it look as if I really had been captured! Convincing, ya know?"
Hiei face-faulted as everyone else laughed. Botan giggled and ruffled his hair, finding the spikes difficult to ruffle and a disgruntled, confused expression on his face.
"I was in charge of the Maze of Roses," Kurama said.
"I passed through that!" Koenma shouted happily. "I did it even without my ogre's help." The prince stood triumphantly with his hands on his hips and happy dance music spontaneously playing in the background.
"Actually, I altered the hedges into a straight line once I figured out you wouldn't be able to get through my maze before the time limit," Kurama said, a bead of sweat dropping down the back of his head.
"Oh." The happy dance music ceased abruptly and was replaced by silence. "Well, that just lowered my self-esteem a few notches…"
"Don't worry, Koenma," Botan said, giving the prince of Reikai a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. "In my eyes, you're perfect. You are perfect, beautiful, smart and special, and I will always love you."
THE END!
--crazykitsune17--