Happy birthday, heve-chan! I've been talking about writing this fic for, what, two years? So it's high time I posted it. And I promise I'm PMing you before the end of the week!
This is is the sequel to Cold, my two-shot. You don't need to have read it to understand, but please go and read it (and leave a review to tell me what you think of it^^)!
Without further ado, enjoy!
XxXxX
"Dammit!" Yusuke yelled as he punched the hallway's wall, leaving a hole in it.
"Calm down, Yusuke." Kurama said softly.
"Calm down? Calm down! How do you expect me to CALM DOWN when Botan was attacked! We don't even know why!"
"Your anger won't solve anything. It's just clouding your judgment, detective" Hiei hissed. "Look at the facts, not at your sentiments"
"For once, the shrimp is right. A demon attacked Botan. He chased her. I could feel his bloodlust from where I was. And when we were following his trail, it just… lingered everywhere" Kuwabara said.
"We're going to see Koenma." Yusuke said, leaving. Kuwabara followed him, as Kurama glanced at Hiei.
"Go. I'll tell you when the onna wakes up." I do not want to hear what the Toddler has to say: he probably 'forgot' to tell us something again.
"Thanks, Hiei. We'll be back as soon as we're done" He might not have known the reason why they were in the Nigenkai, only that they were…
"The demons wanted to capture ther. It was on their mind."Hn.
The little fire youkai looked at the retreating back of the fox. When he couldn't see him anymore, he turned toward the door to the onna's room. She had been put into a coma, so he couldn't hear anything from her. It was weird, not hearing a person. Normally, when he couldn't hear anything from someone close to him, it meant Death…
He entered the room, ignoring the nurse that nervously told him he shouldn't be here, and to let the good doctor work. He sat down of the visitor chair, not saying anything. She was breathing, but her mind was deep into herself: unless he dug, he wouldn't hear her.
Would she still think of death, of her despair? Or would she cling to his name like she did when he found her?
He didn't look. He just waited.
XxXxX
She was waking up.
Suddenly, the memories of earlier in the day flooded in.
The lightning.
The demon.
The cliff.
The forest.
The cold.
Hiei.
Hiei!
What had happened after that? Did he leave? Was she alone again? Was she-?
She felt him then. He was here, next to her.
Hiei?
Hn.
She opened her eyes, looking into his red ones.
XxXxX
"What can you tell us about those demons?" Kurama asked Koenma.
"They managed to open a small portal to get to the Nigenkai. They were looking for something. Or someone." The little ruler answered grimly.
"Botan?" Nobody answered the carrot-top, who wasn't waiting for one. They already knew the answer.
"What could they want with her?"
"I don't know, but I don't think they were meant to kill her."
"How can you say that when that bloodthirsty demon chased her? She could be dead right now! How can they not want her dead?"
"Only one demon chased her, and it wasn't even the leader. Hiei killed him first. And he told me that they wanted to capture her."
"He might not have been following his direct orders if that was the case. But a bloodthirsty demon would try to get to a target in the air without a reason: I think they were to get Botan, but the bloodlust in his mind made her his prey and not his mission target." Koenma said.
"What do we do?"
"Protect her."
She's awake, fox
XxXxX
"Where are we?" she asked once she could manage to talk. She wasn't cold anymore, but her limbs felt heavy, and everything seemed slow, as if she was underwater.
"Reikai hospital."
"Oh." Silence. "You saved me."
"Hn."
"Thank you."
Hiei didn't answer. Botan just smiled: she knew him enough to know that he wouldn't answer to that: he didn't accept thanks, and rarely apologizes.
"…where are the others?"
"Coming."
And, sure enough, the door to the hospital room opened, letting the rest of the gang in.
"Botan! Are you alright?" Yelled Yusuke.
"I'm fine. What about you? Did you have any trouble with the rest of the demons?"
"No. But we were really worried about you." Kurama said softly, his eyes looking her over: he didn't trust doctors. It was irrational, he knew, but after that one time when a phony doctor tried to kill Yoko Kurama, he unconsciously decided that doctors were not to be trusted.
"I'm fine, Kurama. I was a little scared for a moment, but I knew you'd come" She smiled, letting them see that everything was alright.
"You're going to be stay with Genkai. We won't let anything else happen to you"
"Guys, that's not necessary: it's not like it's going to happen again…" Her voice trailed off as she looked at their faces.
"We don't know if someone's after you. But if someone is, we'll keep you safe."
"Thanks, guys." She knew they would keep that promise.
XxXxX
She was bored. Even talking to stubborn ghosts was better than this.
And no, she wasn't complaining because she was losing against Kuwabara at a racing game. It was simply because she had been losing for the past 4 hours. And four hours of doing the same thing got long.
Really long.
Especially when, each time you lost, someone told you—
"I beat you again!"
"Good job. You beat the noob. Again." Her voice was flat, as she had stopped putting up a fight after the first hour. She shortly wondered why Genkai and Yukina weren't back from grocery shopping yet, but the thought left just as quickly: they'd been gone for 4 hours, so they were probably purposely keeping away. Not that she blamed them…
"You're not a noob when you've been playing for that long!"
"4 hours is not long compared to your lifetime of experience"
Kuwabara was about to reply when the temple door was ripped open.
"Wha-?" Kuwabara didn't have the time to finish his word: a demon was on him and vicious claws dug into his ribcage. A yell of pain fell from his lips before he lost consciousness. He was soooo going to died when the others came back…
"Kuwabara!" Botan managed to summon her trusty baseball bat, but, as she swung it to hit the demon, all her strength put behind the swing, a second demon caught the bat with his hand. With a little pressure, he broke it in half, splinters flying to the floor
Her blood ran cold. She had to do something. She had to—
The first demon came up behind her. She felt the blow to her head before everything went black. Her last thought went to Kuwabara: she hoped he would be all right as he had been bleeding a lot...
XxXxX
Even miles away and in an arcade, Genkai knew that something was wrong in her temple.
"Yukina! We're going back!" Yukina, who had been sitting outside raised her head and looked at the old master.
"I thought you didn't want to go back?"
"Something happened. I can feel it"
Yukina didn't need more proof.
"I'll call the boys, then!" Both left the arcade.
Once the crazy bat left, most of the regulars at the arcade went to see the game she had been playing: The high score had tripled from what it had once been…
XxXxX
And this is the end of chapter one. I hope you enjoyed!
And, once again, happy birthday heve-chan: I hope you had fun today and that you liked it!