Hello peoplz! I decided to start up a new story to neglect. Do not expect me to update, I probably won't. However, I may add a few more chapters if there's enough interest. I've only finished 2 of my stories (and they were sucky, rushed endings) and deleted several that never got off of the ground but I'll do my best! P.S. Sorry this chapter is so short. The next ones should be at least 2,000 words.

Disclaimer: Why do we even do these? I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.

Curiousity Killed the Cat

Chapter 1: Fate's Book of Soul Mates

"Botan!" The blue-haired ferry girl sighed. Her boss, Koenma, had been extremely bored for about 4 days now and had been growing more and more irritated and impatient as time went on. "Botan, get me a glass of milk!"

Sighing, Botan strode across the room and shouted to one of the ogres, repeating the order. She watched as poor George weaved through the torrent of paper-pushers, upsetting several of them in the process and earning a round of dirty looks. When she was sure that he'd made it safely across the chamber she closed the door quietly. At this point, any noise could upset Koenma.

Koenma was shuffling through the remaining papers on his desk in a futile attempt to find something to do. She approached the fuming teenager delicately. "Koenma-sama?" He gave a grunt to show that he was listening. "You're supposed to be on vacation. Maybe you should go and sit in the hot springs or something." He looked up and she retreated half a step. "It might help you... you know... relax...?"

The prince of Spirit World must have seen her fear because he suddenly gave a sigh and rubbed his brow in a way that reminded her that he was, despite his appearance, very old. "You're right Botan. I should at least try to relax." The blunette blinked in surprise. "Maybe I will go to the hot springs. Hold down the fort, will you?"

Botan gave a brief nod and Koenma stood, padding slowly across the plush red carpet of his office. He opened the door and strode mindlessly through the crowd of ogres, who parted for him with a quick bow of respect. When he had disappeared through the heavy wooden doors at the other end of the chamber even the ogres had to give a sigh of relief before returning to work.

Suddenly alone in the ruler's office, Botan felt the instant urge to leave. It was just so quiet. There wasn't even the pounding of Koenma's stamp to fill the silence. But Koenma had said to hold down the fort. She had to stay incase a message were to come for him.

With another sigh, Botan settled into Koenma's extremely comfortable chair and turned on some music via the large TV screen behind her. Classical. Koenma's favorite. She shrugged. It would do. She then began the task of rummaging through the prince's desk to find something to entertain herself. No wonder Koenma had failed. There was hardly anything in it. Keonma's 2-week, temporary replacements must have cleaned everything out of it. Still, there must be something....

In the drawer on the left, clear in the back, there was a small, dusty book. She pulled it out and brushed it off gently. The cover was a picture of 2 small blue orbs. Souls. She found the title on the side of the book and read it aloud, gasping. "Fate's Book of Soul Mates...."

Immediately, Botan cleared a space on the desk and bent over the pages, intently scanning them for her name. Unfortunately, she would never find it. The first line of page 154 read: md41975896 - fd97785047. Numbers assigned to identify each soul.... Necessary, since people were reincarnated all the time, but the biggest pain in the butt....

Suddenly the light bulb went on in her head and she spun around in the chair to face the TV screen, remote in hand. She navigated the files saved there until she found what she was looking for: a list of soul numbers and their current bodies. She went to the names of female spirits and found her own name and, consequently, her soul number: Botan (no body) - fh89635235.

Immediately, she took off. Unfortunately, the women's numbers were not listed in order so it took an hour and 3 minutes to finally find it. She stared at the page for a minute. mh86563572 - fh89635235. Even his number was beautiful....

It only took a moment for her to realize that she was wasting her time looking at his number when she hadn't seen him yet! She scanned a list of soul numbers and finally found it. mh86563572 - no body.

"DAMMIT!" the ferry girl screamed, slamming her fists onto the arms of Koenma's chair, ignoring their groan of protest.

Just then, George walked in looking slightly sweaty and very proud of himself. He must have just succeeded in crossing the lobby without spilling it. It took skill. Unfortunately, it was a skill that Botan had never mastered. That's why she always made George do it. Under normal circumstances she would regret having to tell him that he had to go all the way back through there to find Koenma on the other side of the castle.

However, these were not normal circumstances. She couldn't be with her soulmate for at least 20 more years! "HE ISN'T HERE! HE'S AT THE HOT SPRINGS! NOW GET OUT!"

George suddenly deflated. He stepped out of the office onto the hard tile in the lobby and dumped the glass of milk on his head before sulking off. Another ogre could be seen mopping the spilled milk up before the door swung quietly shut, effectively blocking out George's loud sobbing.

As Botan returned her attention to the book she felt all of the anger disappear and it was replaced by a strong feeling of loneliness. Nobody she met would ever be right for her....

She felt a stinging behind her eyes and immediately shook her head, looking for something else to focus on. She flipped through the list of numbers, finding Yusuke's out of pure luck. Curious, Botan found his number in the book. It was much easier this time since all of the numbers were in order. She found the corresponding number and looked it up.

Keiko

Well, at least someone had found their soul mate....

Lazily, she looked up Kuwabara's as well. Yukina. Botan smiled softly to herself. No matter what the others said about him, Kuwabara definitely deserved her. And it was always rather cute the way he flirted with her.

Suddenly, a bout of curiosity sparked in her.

What about Kurama? She couldn't imagine anyone they knew being a match for the fox. This time, when she located the soul mate, the name was unfamiliar. Akari Yamamoto. Botan looked in Koenma's files for a profile but those files were mainly concerned with demon criminals. Akari was human.

Botan whipped out a piece of paper and wrote down the name, determined to find Kurama's soul mate if it was the last thing she did. She still existed and dammit, they would be happy together!

That left one more person.

Hiei

Forget the people they knew, she couldn't imagine that anyone would be right for Hiei. Or rather that Hiei would be right for anyone else. But she had to look. She was surprised to discover how old Hiei's soul was. He was soul: md749. She couldn't imagine what his soul must have gone through to leave them with the cold fire demon.

As she was looking for Hiei, Botan discovered another set of numbers, circled in red and surrounded by hearts. The second number was crossed out and another number was scrawled out above it in Koenma-sama's handwriting. The blunette momentarily abandoned her aforementioned effort and scrawled through Koenma's files to discover that the first number belonged to the prince himself. The second number called for a female human soul that had not yet been completed. They were actually making Koenma-sama's soul mate. But Botan didn't stop there, she also sought out the number Koenma had written in. His crush. It was Sayaka, the spirit who had stayed with Yusuke's ghost after he had died.

"Aww...." Botan gave a sigh. It was so cute to see how human the prince of Spirit World could be.

But back to Hiei. Botan continued to smile at this new piece of gossip as she flipped through the pages of the book. She found Hiei's number and the number of his soul mate and looked her up. Ryu.... She was a demon. No last name was listed. When Botan looked into Koenma's files she found a short profile. The demoness had been accused of 12 counts of breaking and entering and 43 counts of trespassing, though she'd never been convicted. A picture accompanied this but it was dark and blurry and no features could be determined.

Botan gave a final smile as she wrote down the name. She would find them... no matter what!