Chapter One: Finding Your Feet

There was something that had to be said for productiveness, for filling voids with schedules, routine, countless simple little tasks to wait away the day.

Harry certainly had a void to fill.

As a spirit he didn't really have to sleep, barely even needed to rest. His days were filled with sparring practice and his nights were spent learning the Japanese language from tapes and books that Botan had picked up for him. So far he hadn't managed any more than the basic pronunciation and a few simple phrases. If the personnel of Reikai were not equipped with Enma's version of a translation charm (death was multi-cultural after all) he would be completely lost. Then again, the reason Harry hadn't requested one of his own was so that he would have something to do when he wasn't training, when everyone else was busy or asleep and he was left to ponder his life or lack there of.

Yes, the little things in life can be very distracting Harry noted as he turned a page of his 'Teach Yourself Japanese Script' book; currently he was using one of the aforementioned little things to distract himself from one of life's little problems.

Seiji, a blue haired up start from Enma's SDF leaned over the table Harry currently sat at, carrying himself with all the unprecedented self assurance that Draco Malfoy had once possessed, before the whole bouncing ferret incident and the small matter of his father being thrown in Azkaban.

Harry gave Seiji another once over. No, this guy was definitely worse.

"Ne, Harry-kun, you are Harry-kun, right?"

The spirit turned the page of his book, ah, so the small 'tsu' in the hiragana alphabet was not pronounced, it simply acted as a pause...

"Hey, I'm talking to you!"

Obviously stonewalling wouldn't work on this idiot. "Yes, I'm well aware of that, was there something in particular you wanted?" The man shifted his body so the way he was leaning over the desk was both provocative and intimidating. Harry was not impressed.

"I heard that you were being trained by Katsurou-sama, are you trying out for the division, Harry-kun?"

"Katsurou-san is tutoring me, yes." Harry turned the next page, onomatopoeic words now, who knew that Japanese could be so cute- even this rather simplistic book taught you how to spell 'kyaa'. "And please don't address me so informally, we do not know one another."

"Ah, I forgot that you are not familiar with Japanese yet, 'kun' is an appropriate title for a younger male or a subordinate- in business terms of course. If you are indeed training with the General then I guess that makes me your 'senpai'. Are you familiar with the term?"

"I am not your subordinate, nor am I Katsurou-san's. The suffix of 'kun' is not appropriate and neither is your use of my given name, now excuse me, Cadet-san I should return to my studies."

Harry rose, deciding it would be better to find somewhere else to read, maybe he could shake this idiot off if he sat outside the Gate of Eternal Torment?

A hand closed around his wrist, bruisingly tight, ah, he'd forgotten that it wasn't just Reapers that could touch him in the spiritual realm. "I'm not done with you, Harry-kun."

"Cadet!"

Suddenly the pressure was gone and Harry resisted the urge to rub his wrist to restore feeling to it.

"Katsurou-sama! I can explain-"

"Really, Cadet, so you can explain why you were harassing Potter-san without cause? Never mind that you are doing so during the morning drills, which, until you move past your current rank, you are not exempt from."

"Sir, I-"

"Return to the training room before I am forced to demote you, consider yourself lucky that I haven't decided to do so anyway for your actions against Potter-san."

"Yes sir." He gave a crisp solute to the General and a barely concealed sneer was thrown in Harry's direction as he left the library.

Katsurou sighed, relaxing his military stance. "Sometimes I wish I didn't have men like him in my unit- ah, forgive my outward thinking, Potter-san." He did not seem very apologetic but Harry was getting used to polite backstabbing as part of office politics.

"Not at all, I find myself agreeing with you." Harry took in the General's appearance, his light brown hair not pristinely parted to the side in his usual style, his uniform creased and his eyes shadowed with fatigue. Knowing that drawing attention to the General's appearance would be an insult he kept the conversation neutral. "How long has that cadet been in your division, Katsurou-san?"

"Seiji will be approaching fifteen years of service soon, in my opinion it has been fifteen years too long."

The wizard frowned, "I thought that you had control over the recruitment procedures of the SDF."

Katsurou sighed, "unless Enma-ou decides to step in himself I have full control of the men and women protecting Reikai. Unfortunately for me, Seiji caught my Lord's attention and is now firmly rooted in the force."

"What did he do to deserve-"

"Harry-kuuuun!" The clacking of zori sandals on the marble floor echoed as Botan disregarded her demure walk to run the last stretch towards them.

"Sorry I'm late, I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long- Oh hello Katsurou-san, how are you?"

The General grinned widely, privately amused. "I am perfectly alright Botan-san, though I am afraid I'm running late for something, if you'll excuse me." He bowed politely to Botan, nodded in Harry's direction and left the library briskly.

'Well that was odd, he didn't seem in a rush before...' Harry thought. 'Has it got something to do with how tired he was?'

"Hey Botan, is something going on right now? Katsurou-san seemed pretty stressed."

Botan blinked rapidly, the touch of mascara on her lashes clouding her sunrise eyes. "Um, didn't you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"Well, maybe it's better if we go outside for this," Botan glanced at the librarian, looking very put out with the continuing conversation on the other side of the desk, stacking paper work with her painted clawed hands, muttering to herself about inconsiderate youngsters disrespecting her library. The ogress reminded Harry so strongly of Madam Pince that it was almost painful.

Reikai's top Reaper (the polls were in and she would rein supreme for another consecutive year thank you very much) led Harry away after he'd shelved his book randomly, knowing no one went into the section for Insect Demonology from 67000BC to 66000BC. As she led the spirit down a corridor identical to the rest in the Palace, Botan began recollecting what had taken place in the last twenty-four hours.

"So let me get this straight, three demons not even ranking C-class broke into Reikai's ridiculously over protected vault, stole three devastating artefacts and are now plan to use them to destroy mankind?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Huh. That's annoying."

"An- 'annoying'!? Harry-kun, this is a serious matter!"

"I know it is, but there's not much I can do about it is there? I am kinda tied up here, being dead and all."

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No, don't apologise, please." 'It's not your fault I have my foot permanently lodged in my mouth'. "I'm the one acting like a prick." Botan blushed and Harry suddenly remembered he wasn't in England any more and that certain terminology was not used in polite conversation. He decided to change the subject. "Did you do something different with your hair?"

The blush deepened. "Y-yes, I parted it to the side and braided it, I felt like something different is all."

Harry smiled down at her, glad he hadn't embarrassed himself with his painful foreignness. "It looks nice. You should do it more often."

The Reaper smiled down at her tabi clad feet, "thank you, Harry-kun."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me, I've been going over the suffixes in that book you gave me, san, kun, sama and stuff like that. It said that once you're well acquainted with someone you can stop calling them 'san'. I didn't know the titles when I first met you so I've just kept calling you 'Botan', now we're friends though, can I call you 'Botan-chan'?

Harry was blinded by the Reaper's smile. "I would like that, Harry-kun."

"Aragatou gozaimasu, Botan-chan."

Botan giggled.


It wasn't until some time later that Harry gave much thought to the three thieves that had so easily plucked such devastating artefacts from the vaults of Reikai; it was only when the two remaining members of the law-breaking trio were brought before Koenma that he even remembered they existed. His sleepless days and nights were still consumed with study and training but since Botan had been called away more and more often to help the new Spirit Detective the obsession was largely unrestrained, to the point that even Koenma was beginning to worry. The wizard supposed, despite all his childishness and tantrums, the son of Enma possessed genuine caring- not that it wasn't annoying as hell (the pun is intended, live with it. Or don't as the case may be).

It was in this manner that Harry had been roped into helping Koenma with his paperwork- how an act of benevolent charity could disintegrate into sadistic torture, Harry had no idea. He was pretending to shuffle through a series of reports on how global warming had effected the immigration of demonic algae when the thieves were brought in. Harry kept his eyes on the report and twisted the translation ring on his finger from 'written word' to 'spoken word'- the only one left in the Reaper supply closet had been an older model and it wasn't as multitasking as the ones most people had here.

"Well, all I can say is that you are very fortunate that my father is taking some time off at the moment-" ('when is Enma not bunking off work?' Harry thought, 'it's about the only thing that he and his son share in common') "-because I can assure you that if he were the one sentencing you today the punishments you received would be far harsher than the ones I will issue. My father always was one for brimstone before a trial." Koenma sucked on his pacifier pensively as he peered down at the two demons before him- he had donned his teenage form on this rare occasion, though Harry wasn't sure if it was for the sake of stately presence or because he was merely tired of having people laugh at him in his younger form.

Harry glanced up from the papers he held (now containing little more than gibberish without the translators help) and observed the prisoners. They stood side by side, flanked by ogres that seemed far more nervous to be guarding them than the demons were to be held captive. Though he has seen their mug shots and perused their personal files (both incredibly slim for beings that were, for the sake of argument, immortal) their real selves standing just metres from him were far more tangible and served to shatter the perceptions that he had already constructed about them in his mind.

Hiei, despite his aloof exterior was not the bloodthirsty killer that Harry had seen when he fought Yuusuke in Koenma's screen a few days ago.He seemed changed somehow- his body perfectly controlled like any true martial artist but it was no longer coiled so tightly it would snap. His eyes were deep pools of garnet, the pupils no longer dilated to the point of you being unable to see little more than the white cornea from a distance. He seemed less crazed: calmer despite his captivity. Just as he was thinking that, those startling ruby eyes snapped in his direction and Harry had to remind himself not to flinch or take cover under his small side desk; despite the change, Hiei was obviously still an uptight individual and did not appreciate being analysed.

He turned his attention to Kurama -or 'Shuuichi' as his human mother had named him. He stood poised like a dancer, his long, vibrant red hair was pristine, contrasting alongside Hiei's ebony and ivory spikes that could give even the Potter family bed-head a run for its money. The reincarnated Youko surveyed the room and its occupants with a calculating gaze that was skilfully hidden by a veil of projected innocence and good humour. If Harry was not so desensitised to Dumbledore's twinkle he would have been suitably fooled.

Koenma continued his speech, unaware of his acting secretary's observations, in fact, the junior God had likely forgotten he was in the room. "Your crimes are severe, however" his amber eyes flicked between the captive's faces "certain circumstances must be taken into account."

Harry was reminded of Dumbledore, for once not his manipulations or legimens intrusions but the base sense of compassion- his willingness to give even the most unsavoury of characters a second chance. The deceased wizard hoped that it would not be the Godling's downfall as it had been his headmaster's; Koenma lacked the underlying coldness that Dumbledore had possessed that had been willing to sacrifice others in the name of the greater good- from what Harry had seen so far of Koenma's better side he didn't believe the God was cut from the same cloth.

Then again, Harry had been wrong before.


"Botan-chan, are you sure you're alright?" Harry asked again, shifting the weight of the large stack of paperwork in his arms as he walked alongside his favourite Reaper.

"For the last time, Harry-kun- I'm perfectly fine." Botan said with a hint of exasperation, the first few times had been sweet but this was about the eighth and it was starting to wear a little thin. "It's not like my living body wasn't patched up anyway- there's not even a scratch on it any more."

Harry frowned at the nonchalance "Botan," he said, skipping the suffix "your reiki was almost completely drained trying to stop Yukimura-san turning into a demon, your hands were fried by Hiei's backlash youki and you never even told me!"

The Reaper's living heart dropped into her stomach and Botan suddenly remembered why so few of her friends wanted a living construct themselves- the pangs of a living body were so painfully confusing. "I didn't think it was serious enough to worry you, Harry-kun." She finally said, very interested in the corridor floor.

"Botan-!" The wizard pulled up short, closing his eyes as he pulled back his anger. He put the stack of files and loose paper on the floor, not caring when a few sheets slipped from the pile. He gripped her shoulders so she made eye contact, blushed sunset met emerald. "Botan-chan, please-" he swallowed "you are my only friend in this place- the only friend I have that's kind-of-sort-of living" that got a choked giggle to slip out past the Reaper's shock at the close proximity. "Please, Botan-chan, if you're hurt I want to know about it. I'll only worry more if you don't tell me and I find out later."

"H-hai, Harry-kun" Botan stammered, feeling the weight of his hands on her shoulders, sinfully aware of the closeness of her crush's heart-shaped face, his rumbled black locks that fell past his ears and the forest-emerald-jade eyes that were begging her to understand what he felt. "I'll tell you if anything happens again."

He sighed with relief. "Thank you" he said and pulled her into a hug.

If she hadn't already know the Gate of Eternal Paradise was on the other side of Reikai, Botan might have thought she'd died and gone to Heaven.


Harry wasn't entirely sure what had prompted Botan to drag him along to her weekly tea sessions with her Reaper friends, though he suspected she thought he was over-working as Koenma's butt monkey and needed a break. Her attempted kindness was possibly the most stressful thing to happen to him all week and the call centre ogre strike had been pretty bad.

The spirit soon discovered these get-togethers were an almost religious event and took place without fail every Tuesday for an hour or so- baring natural disasters that disregarded the girl's schedule and called for them all to put in over time in the inconvenient way death generally did. Personally Harry would have preferred it if she'd let him go to the library or training halls; he liked Botan but he wasn't comfortable with large groups of people and large groups of girls unnerved him even more.

"-and so then she dumped the whole pitcher on him and said 'if you wanted an underwater wedding maybe you should have told me you were amphibious in the first place!'" Ume finished her story with a flourish, flicking her long purple hair over one shoulder and chucking back her tea like it was so much sake (prohibited unless the girls were on official leave- it wouldn't do to have a Reaper flying under the influence after all).

"Ooooh!" Botan clapped appreciatively, candy floss eyes alight with the look that infected all members of the female population when faced with the subject of tragic love or rocky relationships. "Did they get back together in the end?"

"Three weeks later they had a simply gorgeous wedding on this secluded little beach in the Caribbean, the entire family of sea serpents turned up to give their blessing." Ume sighed dreamily.

"True forms?" Ayame asked in her usual deadpan, blowing on her tea to cool it.

"Well yes, most of them stayed in the water -did some pretty impressive manoeuvres when the fireworks started too- I think the brother of the groom was in tuxedo, best man and all that." She did a little swoon, one hand on her heart "he was soooo cute! Seriously, I wouldn't have minded if he'd taken me down to the depths, I certainly wouldn't have kicked up a fuss about it either."

"You don't have a respiratory system." Ayame pointed out.

"Or a fur tail- I hear those can be a nightmare when they get wet." Botan added sagely.

"Well yes, I guess there is that..."

Harry glanced at the clock in a seemingly nonchalant manner: only four minutes had passed since he'd last looked. Bugger.

"Such a wonderful love story, I guess something good can come from an attendant choking to death on a shrimp, not to mention the out of body experience the bar waitress had." It's not like a Reaper would have been able to snoop on events unless there was death involved after all.

Ume chose this moment to launch herself over Ayame's lap (the black clad reaper leaned out of the way- still maintaining seiza) and hug the un-life from Botan. "That's the spirit, Bo-chan!"

Harry stared into the green depths of his own tea (untouched for obvious reasons but poured for the sake of 'including' him) and tried to decipher the streams of unexplainable babbling sailing right over his head. This was harder than any code he's studied after leaving Hogwarts with the Auror division, if the Death Eaters had been using this in the second war they wouldn't have stood a chance in figuring out their movements.

This moment of contemplation was all Ume needed to steer the conversation in a different direction. "So, Harry-kun, do you know any good stories?"

This was the first time he'd been directly addressed at the get-together so far and he felt rather like a snidget caught in a Quidditch match. "Um, not really."

For some reason Botan took offence to that. "Don't be silly, off course you know lots of stories, Harry-kun!"

"Nothing like the sea serpents- I don't know any love stories."

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Ayame pointed out dryly, she evidently enjoyed that sort of thing less than her peers. Harry felt an immediate kinship to her.

"Oh, come on, tell us something about your life!" Ume pleaded, clasping her hands together and sending him waves of puppy dog eyes. "You must know some good ones, you were a wizard right? That's got to interesting!"

Botan started to look uncomfortable, "We shouldn't ask Harry-kun if he doesn't want to..."

The guilty expression that the Reaper sent her unfinished tea was enough to clinch Harry's decision. He sighed inwardly, already categorising which topics would be safe ones. "I guess it started when I got my got my Hogwarts letter at eleven, before that day I didn't know I was a wizard although strange stuff always seemed to happen around me..."


Later, after he had relayed the events of his first year at Hogwarts, much to the delight of the Reapers -Ayame was particularly pleased at the genre shift- Harry walked back with Botan in the direction of the main library, from there Botan would clock in for her regular duties and start another day of ferrying the wayward souls to Reikai.

"That was really brave of you, Harry-kun." Botan intoned softly to her clacking zori sandals. "You didn't have to talk about anything but you did."

Harry shrugged, keeping his eyes ahead as he tried to remember the route to the library- this place was a maze. "It felt good to talk about it- about them. First year was full of mostly good memories anyway and it's better to remember them, and talk about them and stuff."

Botan bit her lip "but Ume wanted you to tell stories the next time too" she knew better than to say 'next week' as there was never any guarantee they could meet every seven days. "What are you going to do when it gets to the point-"

"I'll be fine" Harry interrupted, ending the conversation.

"...Alright then." They continued on in silence for a while until Botan suddenly drew to a stop in front of an oak paneled door- not unlike the others in the older part of the palace which hadn't been updated to the levels of the main offices such as Koenma's room or the open plan rooms where the ogres worked. "I just remembered..." Botan breathed before her face suddenly lit up like a tree at Christmas "Harry-kun, I know just how to cheer you up!"

"Cheer... Botan, I don't need cheering up-" Botan had already opened the door and dragged him inside.

She flicked the lights, revealing a large circular room painted in that odd shade of green that popped up all over Reikai and in every inch of the space were shelves, pigeon holes and cubbies filled with... "Nests?"

"Yup!" The Reaper bobbed her head happily. "Every nest contains the egg of a Spirit Beast, they all lie dormant until Koenma-sama connects the egg to someone's reiki. They are used for all sorts of things, like finding out if criminals are justly convicted as if they're really evil then the egg hatches into a monster and eats them." She saw Harry's incredulous look "but of course most of them grow up really nice!"

"Isn't this the trial Koenma gave the new Spirit Detective? I thought it was supposed to restore him to life is it still... alive?" He had read the report about the fire at Yuusuke's old house and how the unhatched egg had been sacrificed to protect a girl who went into the blaze to save Yuusuke's body. There hadn't been any details about what happened to the egg though.

"Oh, don't worry, once an egg's been linked to your soul it cannot die until you go beyond one of the Gates and if it's physical body is damaged beyond repair it would still be alive in spirit." She hummed to herself as she scanned the labels along the nearest stack, built like a slender bookcase, each shelf containing a golden egg of varying sizes. "Yuusuke's should be about here somewhere, it won't be much bigger than the ones without an owner because the energy was dispersed in the fire to save Keiko- ah, here it is!" She pointed at a small golden egg, not much bigger than a chicken's, nestled in straw with the tag 'Urameshi, Yuusuke' printedin katakana below. The Reaper picked it up and held it lightly in her hands. "Here, touch it." Well, Harry was certainly sending her a lot of odd looks today. "Trust me! Just touch it, I'm not being weird I promise."

"Well, ok..." Harry said, still a little dubious as he reached out and touched the surprisingly robust golden shell, he had expected it to be more fragile. His finger had only been in contact for a moment or two when he was suddenly hit by a wave of emotions- anger, worry, despondency, loneliness, excitement, happiness and a surge of fierce, unwavering protectiveness all mixed and intermeshed together. "Wow." Was all Harry was able to say for a very long moment as he tried to make sense of the whirl of feelings the egg emitted. "All of that, since the fire?" Harry asked, astounded that anyone could have such depth of emotion over such a short period of time.

"Just since the fire," Botan confirmed. "It's been less than three weeks since Yuusuke came back to life and only a bit longer since the fire at his house. During that time he's done a lot with very little training or experience, even managed to incapacitate three demonic thieves, saving a large part of Japan in the process."

Harry wasn't sure how he felt about a fourteen year old boy playing hero but then again by the time he was Yuusuke's age he had already faced possessed teachers, Snape, a basilisk, Gilderoy Lockhart's ego, hippogriffs, Snape, traitorous shape shifters, dementors, Snape, merpeople, dragons, and a dark lord with a snake fetish. Was there really any difference between them? One of them had had power since birth, the other unlocked abilities after his death. When he put it that way he seemed a little hypocritical. "It's pretty amazing," Harry agreed, realising that Botan wanted an answer to her unspoken question. Another thought struck him, though rather belatedly. "Are all people brought back to life with these eggs?"

Botan shook her head, "just the ones that might not deserve to be brought back, they also need a body to return to and we're still in the process of making yours." She smiled "that's what you were asking, right?"

"Yeah, I thought it was odd that I hadn't been given an egg for when... my body's ready."

"It won't be long, besides, since your body is going to be made here from a direct link to your spirit there won't be any rift between your corporeal and incorporeal form." She giggled "you won't need to kiss anyone either."

Harry choked a laugh, "thank Merlin, that would've been so awkward!" He said, not noticing the odd expression that passed across Botan's features before she squashed it down.

"I guess it would have been: super-lucky you not having to do it!" Botan blurted out, putting the egg in her hand down in it's nest, carefully but hurriedly, before steering Harry from the room. "Anyway, come on, I've got to clock in soon..." She babbled, leading him from the room which he left without protest, too busy pondering the myriad of feelings he had picked up from the egg. 'Yuusuke Urameshi, I wonder what you'd be like in person...'

Both Reaper and wizard left, quite unaware of the commotion they had caused with one of the eggs in that room simply by being there, or what events would alter due to that one short visit.

Trouble, thy name is Harry Potter.


Ok, this is out later than I wanted it to be and it is shorter than I wanted it as well but the extra 1000 words plus I have on the computer really didn't fit and will have to be meshed into the next chapter which I have not yet started sculpting. I give no excuses for my lateness only emphasis that I'm about to start university and I'm also working on an army of other stories (vote for them in the poll in my profile to decide which ones I work on). I've been stretched pretty thin so any constructive comments are very much appreciated as they really are the life blood of writers. Thank you.


(1) Ume is actually a canon character who appears in the movie (which is terrible, don't watch it for the love of all that is good in this world), she has purple hair and wears a yellow head band. She may or may not be the one that turns up in the manga notes, a friend of Botan's that likes predicting the deaths of cute boys since they look similar but since I'm not that well versed in the manga I don't know if she has a canon name. I called her 'Ume' which uses the kanji for plum blossom since her hair is her best feature and plums always make me think of purple. :3

I would also like to make it clear here and now before I receive a bunch of flames that this is NOT going to be a HarryBotan story. Harry is your typical dense teenager who can't see a crush staring him in the face. It shall also not be a Botan bashing story (or any kind of character bashing) since I love Botan to pieces and think people don't make enough of her character. If you don't agree with that, write your own story that shares your view point. Slashers can also rest at ease -waves YuusukeHarry and HarryYuusuke flags-

Also, the lines are still open for anyone wanting to guess what was implied at the end of the prologue which has a great deal of bearing on this chapter.

Feed the author?

Published 20th of September, 2008

Edited 8th December, 2008

Regular Pandemonium