Summary: This takes place 200 years into the future. 200 years from the year 2001, an evil plot fell upon Ningenkai and Makai and destroyed everyone's memories. Now, it is up to Botan to try to restore their memories. First she has to travel to the past to find out who they each really were.
In Year 2201Botan looked down at Yusuke's castle from her oar and steered lower to meet Yusuke at the door.
"Botan!" Yusuke asked, surprised that Botan would show up at this hour—it was almost midnight.
"Hi Yusuke!" Botan shouted as she made her landing.
"Uh…aren't you supposed to be in the past…doing something for Koenma?"
"Yeah! I'm going to leave tonight, but I don't really see the point of going…and besides, Koenma doesn't really need me to restore everyone's memories, he already knows them himself, since he wasn't affected by the memory loss."(A/N: Only people in Ningenkai or Makai at the time was affected)
"Oh…but I would be really happy to know about my own past!" Yusuke said. Botan shrugged and wondered if knowing about your past was really such good news. After all, what if your past was filled with grief and anguish? Why would you want to know then? Botan only had hazey memories of her own past and that of her friends' because she had been in a portal from Ningenkai to Reikai at the time and was only half affected by the memory loss.
In Ningenkai in Year 2001(The past…)
It was midnight and the cacophonous sound of the telephone rang in Kurama's house. Kurama, feeling that there wouldn't be any important calls coming in that late at night, decided not to answer. Besides, he assumed that if the caller had any really important information, they would leave a message.
The caller, however, was both persistent and annoying. They didn't bother to leave a message, but just continued to call over and over again. Annoyed at last by the constant ringing, Kurama slipped out of his covers and reached for the phone.
"Hello?" he mumbled sleepily into the phone.
"Is that you Hiei? You have a funny voice today."
"Huh? Um…there's no Hiei here…sorry." Kurama spoke hastily. He was surprised at the caller. Why would anybody search for Hiei at his house; Hiei didn't live there, although he did make occasional visits.
Year 2201 in Youko Kurama's castle
(A/N: The phone thing does have a signifance to the plot, as you'll see later)
Youko was confused, he was sure he had made a call to Hiei, why didn't he get Hiei? Annoyed with the stupid phone lines that never seemed to hook up right, he decided to try a few more times.
In Ningenkai Year 2001Kuwabara awoke Yusuke with loud raps on the door at 5:00AM. Yusuke walked sleepily to the door and cracked it open.
Seeing that it was Kuwabara, Yusuke grumbled, "What are you doing this early? It's only five in the morning!"
"Big deal. We're having a party at Reikai next week for the last mission we did."
"A party? Seriously?"
"Yeah…except that Koenma says that we have to arrange the party…"
"WHAT! How is that supposed to be our treat if we have to arrange things? Let's go find Koenma and tell him that we're not going to-" Yusuke was about to finish his sentence when he suddenly noticed Botan walking down the street from behind Kuwabara.
"Botan!" Yusuke ran up to her. For a moment, Botan looked shocked, then she smiled her normal smile. So…this is Yusuke and Kuwabara from the past…"Hi Yusuke!"
"You have to tell Koenma that there is no way we are arranging for the party at Reikai! It's our treat, so Koenma is going to arrange things!" Yusuke immediately started complaining.
Botan looked at Yusuke with total confusion on her face, as if she was staring off into oblivion. "Uh…what party? I don't think I heard of a…"
"What! You were the one who told us about the party, how could you suddenly not know about it anymore? Were you lying about it or-" Kuwabara stared at Botan in shock, unable to understand how she could forget about things so fast.
"Uh…oh yeah! The party…uh…of course I remember! It's…um…" Botan smiled at them to cover up for the clueless look on her face. She had no idea what year in the past she had traveled to, but she knew that it was a time when Yusuke had started working for Koenma. Now she needed a fast way to find out about all of them, so that she could restore their memories.
Botan knew there was another Botan, herself from the past. It would be better, she decided, not to be confused with the other Botan, as she obviously had been today. All she needed now was a good disguise that would keep her identity hidden. She decided it was better to shop for disguises in the future as its markets were more familiar to her.
To Year 2201 of MakaiBotan, upon her arrival in Makai, decided on dying her hair black so that she could blend in more with the rest of the crowd. Nonetheless, when Youko Kurama stepped outside of his castle and saw her, he still recognized her as Botan. (A/N: It's Youko because after 200 years, Shuiichi is gone and he has gone back to being the Youko that he once was.)
"Botan-" Youko started to ask her why she was dressed up in a black cloak and had changed her hair color, but she cut him off.
"You can still recognize me? I was hoping that no one would know who I was…" Botan faltered at the unsuccessfulness of her disguise attempt.
Youko laughed, "You've still got a few steps away from being the master of disguise, you know, and besides, I can tell by scent."
"Youko!" came Hiei's voice as he bounded out of the castle doors. (A/N: Hiei's going to be a little different in the future considering that he doesn't know anything about his sad past.)
"I know, I know, we're supposed to go that meeting with Koenma about Kuroi who is planning on destroying all three worlds. We had that meeting before, and it turned out there was no danger at all. So that can wait a while."
"NO, It's not that…"
"Then what? OH yeah, Hiei, did your phone number change or something?"
"Why? I don't think so."
"I tried calling you yesterday, but I never got through. Somebody weird answered every time."
"Must be the stupid phone companies slacking in their work; my calls aren't getting to the right people either." (A/N: Oh yeah, this phone line problem will have a significance on the plot, as you'll see later.)
Botan left them alone in the mist of their conversation about phone lines to get back to her job in the past. She thought for a moment of what she could do—she remembered just enough to know that for a period of time, Youko had been living in a human's body, Yusuke once resided in Ningenkai, and Hiei…she suddenly realized how vague her memories were.
Kuroi, she knew, was the youkai who had plotted the entire memory loss in the first place. However, Botan had no idea how making others forget their pasts would help him gain power in the future. And besides that, his plot didn't work on those in Reikai at the time, but only on those in Ningenkai and Makai. Botan stopped herself from thinking about Kuroi, and decided to concentrate on restoring memories.
In Year 2001 NingenkaiKurama got up groggily from bed to get to school. Last night, a caller had called five times, each time looking for Hiei, keeping him awake for almost an hour. The fifth time the discordant sound of the phone had rang, Kurama almost felt like screaming into the phone, "Have I got this clear yet? HIEI DOES NOT LIVE IN MY HOUSE! GO SEARCH MAKAI IF YOU REALLY WANT TO FIND HIM!" But he didn't. Instead, he murmured in a sleepy tone," There's no Hiei here, sorry."
When he discovered that there was only a few minutes left to get to school, he hurried out of the house. He got to school just in time, as the bell rang the moment he took step into the classroom. Just as he got in, he noticed the teacher was announcing something about a new student.
"I would like you all to welcome-"
"Shizuku." Botan finished.
Kurama stared at Shizuku for a moment, wondering why her tone of voice sounded so much like Botan's. Had this not been his school, he would've believed that she must have been Botan. However, considering that Botan was probably not going to be attending his school, he ruled out the possibility.
"Suiichi, do you mind showing Botan around the school?"
"Sure."
In the Year 2201 In Koenma's Office"So you called us all the way here just to tell us to be careful? Don't you think we already know that?" Yusuke grumbled at Koenma, annoyed that they had been called here for an obvious warning.
"Have you been listening to a word I just said? I was trying to tell you guys to beware about Kuroi trying to stop all communications!" Koenma shouted, hoping that it would somehow get his point across.
"Which is the reason why my phone calls yesterday never quite reached their destination." Youko murmured thoughtfully, remembered the phone line incidents of yesterday. He hadn't thought that their mission would actually be something practical and interesting for once.
Yusuke wasn't so easily convinced that Kuroi was up to something; he still remembered the last mission, when Koenma had said "there is actually nothing happening, I just got it all wrong". After all, Yusuke hadn't experienced the problems Youko had gone through the other night. "What good will it do Kuroi to stop us from communicating with each other?" Yusuke questioned.
"Isn't it obvious yet?" Youko replied, "If he cut off ALL communications, such as we can't even talk to each other anymore, then we'd be isolated, thus an easier target for attack."
"Oh…I see…so…how are we supposed to stop him?"
"Who knows," Hiei muttered, then turned to Yusuke and said, "Besides, you're the leader here, so, what's your plan?"
Yusuke grinned sheepishly and then remarked, "Ask Youko, he's the best strategist here, as we all know…"
Youko glared at Yusuke for putting the spotlight on him when he didn't quite have a decent plan in mind yet. He pondered for a moment, wondering what they could possibly do against Kuroi to weaken him besides fighting against him directly. "We…could…figure out the source of his manipulation of the…phone lines…and stop him from there."
"Nice vague plan kitsune," Hiei accused Youko's plan of being ambiguous and futile.
"Oh, then can you think of a better one?" Youko retorted, defending his pride.
"Of course, if only-"
"SHUT UP! We're not supposed to be arguing among ourselves! Otherwise, how are we supposed to finish this mission?" Yusuke cut off Hiei and Youko's arguing, wondering how long it would take for them to stop by themselves.
In Year 2001 of NingenkaiKurama had just finished showing Shizuku around school and she was busying herself studying her schedule for the day. Her next class was technology, the sme as Kurama's. When they walked into the technology room, Kurama watched as the at first nonchalant gleam in her eyes turned into vivid excitement. Shizuku knew she had used these before—Koenma had recently imported one to keep track of all his files, and she, being his assistant, had to learn to use one.
Shizuku listened as the teacher explained how to make a program that would type words in a moving flash. Just as she was typing out the program as the teacher had instructed, a pop up suddenly burst onto the screen. Shizuku was about to close it when she noticed that it was an email.
It was short and simple:
Koenma:
Most phone lines are blocked.
For now, we can only use e-mail.
Unless that gets messed up too.
-Hiei
Shizuku stared in confusion at the computer screen. What was an email message from Hiei to Koenma doing on her computer? She was pretty sure that 200 years ago, they hadn't started to use these "ningen" products yet, but how could a message from 200 years later end up on a computer from 200 years ago? For a moment, Shizuku remembered the conversation Hiei and Youko had had before she left. They were talking about their phone lines being messed up, exactly what Hiei had just mentioned in his message. But now, it looked like the Internet was being messed up too.
