Recap: Hiei and Botan had sex and then argued a lot. (Seriously, that was all that happened, and yet the chapter was so long! Why?!)
Chapter 11: My Heart's Crippled
Botan fought frantically with the wires spilling out of her broken communication mirror. She simply had to re-establish the connection between the device and the mirror on the wall in Maze Castle, because she needed to reach Lord Koenma's office. Before she had been motivated to fix it by the need to call for help, but now her motivation was something else and worryingly felt more urgent: she had to know if what Koenma had said about the taint in demon world was true.
Either it was true or she was secretly evil, and for the sake of her own sanity, she had to know which was the case.
She had just about been able to justify lying down with Hiei once as a momentary lapse in judgement and need for some form of company and validation, but she was struggling to justify the second time, especially as it had occurred outdoors, something that was especially despicable. She tried to tell herself that it was not entirely bad, as it had not been a brief encounter, but she then began to wonder if the slow and lengthy way they had shared their bodies the first time was actually worse than them both having succumbed to a brief tryst in the name of physical pleasure. Hiei was, despite not being a gentle, kind or romantic man, a surprisingly attentive lover, and even just the memory of his touch made her feel almost as wonderful as the actually physical contact had.
Botan was not terribly well-versed on other factions of the after-life outside of spirit world, but she could remember some of the fables other human religious texts contained, mainly because they had appealed to her as stories. She had often been mocked by her peers in spirit world for forgetting the facts and only remembering the almost childish aspects of the other religions, but some of the tales she had remembered had proved useful and insightful through the course of her duties as a ferry girl. She often found that she only remembered them in any detail when she could apply them to a current situation, and, for the first time ever, she found herself recalling one such story because it applied to her own life. It was the story of the first ever man and woman, who had lived in a veritable paradise, but they had lost it all because they had taken a bite of a forbidden fruit. It was not so much their story that Botan now found applicable to her own dilemma but rather how her teacher had summarised the consequences of their actions on future generations of the human race and the lesson that the tale taught: she had said of the woman biting into the fruit "the first bite whet her appetite, the second helping was even better".
Which was exactly how Botan felt about Hiei.
The teacher had also said that, knowing that the taste had improved the second time around, it became human nature to continue to pursue that taste, taking larger bites every time. Was that the future that she now faced? Was she constantly going to desire Hiei, more and more each time they shared a moment of pure passion together?
Would that still apply after she left the city of ghosts and apparitions? Was she doomed to spend eternity floating around on her oar, collecting souls, smiling like she meant it whilst all the time she was aching and unfulfilled on the inside because she was addicted to a spiky-haired, jagan-bearing piece of fruit?
One bad apple could spoil the whole barrel, she thought wryly. She made a note never to voice that thought out loud, lest Hiei complain that she was once more rattling off old adages like a spirit world scholar gone mad. But it was a very appropriate one. He was the forbidden, bad apple she had taken a bite out of and now she had been poisoned, just like in the fairy tale about–
"Lady Botan!"
Botan sighed, glad to be distracted from her own increasingly ridiculous thoughts that were all skirting around the bigger problems she was battling internally.
"I've returned a day early."
Botan rose to her feet and turned to face the colourful bird that had landed nearby her on an especially large chunk of broken down wall. She took a step forwards to stand in front of the bird before realising that she could not even remember what task Hiei had sent her on.
"If you pay me, I'll tell you what I learned about the ice maiden Yukina," the bird said.
Botan felt her heart sink. It was another new and strange sensation in her human body, and another piece of proof that some strange sayings were more than just sayings, they were accurate descriptions of how something actually felt: she could literally feel a weight pushing down on her heart. The bird had, of course, gone to find Yukina, Hiei's paramour he refused to talk about.
"I don't have anything to give you," Botan told the bird. "And you really ought to deliver the message to Hiei anyway, and I'm sure he can pay you."
The bird looked mildly perturbed for a moment before taking on a slightly smug look.
"You mean you're not even slightly interested to hear what I have to say about the beautiful Yukina?" she asked slyly.
"Of course not," Botan replied.
"Then why are you nodding your head?" the bird asked flatly.
"I am not nodding my head!" Botan argued. "Your news is for Hiei, and I'm not in the slightest bit interested in anything to do with that… Ruffian!"
"…Really?"
"Absolutely."
The bird shrugged her wings and pretended to be interested in studying a crack in the ceiling. Botan began chewing at her lip in agitation before balling her fists and stamping a foot in frustration.
"He's just so darn secretive!" she blurted out. "I shouldn't care, I don't care, but I can't help myself, I have to know! Please tell me who Yukina is?"
The bird smiled – a strange gesture for a beaked creature, Botan thought – her red eyes twinkling mischievously.
"I could tell you more about Yukina than Hiei himself knows," she said slowly. "For the right price, of course…"
"Oh, that's just wicked!" Botan protested.
"This little spirit world treasure was certainly worth my journey to find Yukina," the bird replied, holding out one leg to show off the Concentration Ring, which she was wearing around her ankle. "I know you have other spirit world treasures in your possession. Hand one over and I'll tell you all about Yukina and Hiei's relationship with her."
"Hiei's relationship with her?"
Botan began wiggling around as though she needed to use the bathroom – and the feeling she now had was almost as bad as desperately needing to go to the bathroom, because she now desperately needed to hear what the bird had to say about Yukina. Between her general nosiness and her more specific curiosity about Hiei and his ability to care about someone, it was torture for her to stand before someone who knew more on the subject than she did and be unable to hear what that vital information was.
"I can't give you any of the spirit detective tools!" she wailed. "I just can't! Hiei should never have given you the Concentration Ring in the first place! When Lord Koenma finds out about that, he'll sentence me to…"
Botan swallowed hard as she contemplated the sort of punishment she would face when Koenma found out about the stolen Concentration Ring, an item he had specifically told her she was responsible for safe-guarding.
"Oh well, that's too bad," the bird said, her voice taking on an especially irksome tone. "I suppose I could at least tell you that Hiei wasn't lying: she is a very beautiful young woman. She's very petite and delicate and… A lot less clumsy and cumbersome than you are…"
"I'm not clumsy!" Botan yelped defensively.
"Well, maybe not physically clumsy, but mentally and socially…"
Botan glared angrily at the bird, but she merely took on a bored expression and pretended to be watching the crack in the ceiling again.
"I left Hiei in the woods," she said tightly. "He's hunting. He could be gone for hours."
"So I hurried back for nothing?" the bird sighed. "Never mind, I can wait… You probably can't, but I can…"
Botan growled and clenched her fists so tightly at her sides that her fingernails began to bite into her palms. The bird was just toying with her, and they both knew it, but unfortunately for Botan, her nosiness was her biggest weakness and the bird's tormenting ways were her biggest strength, and so the torture would only continue until either Hiei returned or Botan succumbed to surrendering another of the spirit detective tools as a means to bribe the information she wanted from the bird.
"I can't give you one of the spirit detective tools," she said aloud, mostly to remind herself that it was a fact.
"Then I can't tell you anything more," the bird replied.
"More?" Botan echoed. "You haven't told me anything at all!"
"I've told you enough," the bird said.
"You've told me only just enough to make me desperate to know the rest, you menacing little tease!"
"Hiei could kill me for telling you anything more. You need to make that risk worth it."
"But I have to know!"
Botan resisted the urge to claw at her hair, another, more sinister idea occurring to her: she could smack the bird with her baseball bat and retrieve her Concentration Ring from her, then threaten the bird to tell her what she knew or suffer a beating.
Where had that vicious thought come from?
Demon world taint. It had to be.
And it was getting worse. She would never be welcome back in spirit world now. And if she never got back to spirit world, she would never need to admit to having given away the spirit detective tools to demons as payment for espionage.
"I have a Mystic Whistle, three Mejiru Shiiru labels, a Demon Compass and a Psychic Spyglass," she said forlornly. "Which one do you want?"
The bird smiled sickeningly and Botan felt as though she had just enacted another old saying and sold her soul to the devil: but she was, rather ironically, saved from having to follow through with her deal as Hiei conveniently returned to the throne room, carrying another dead boar over his shoulders. His eyes immediately locked onto the bird, and he was so intent on keeping them there, he almost dropped his prey as he tried to place it down. He then swiftly crossed the room to stand directly in front of the bird, glaring at her threateningly.
"I thought we agreed three days?" he growled at her.
"I was so efficient, I did it all in two," she replied.
"Tell me what you know," he ordered. "And don't even think about lying to me."
"Of course," the bird replied, bowing her head humbly. "I eventually found Miss Yukina in the living world."
"The living world?" Hiei echoed. "How did she get there? And why was she there?"
"It turns out she was kidnapped by some demon servants of a human man called Gonzo Tarukane. He's a member of a group of criminals known as the Black Book Club. They hide their crimes behind gambling and money laundering, but they're well known as the crooks they truly are by the demons who work for them. Tarukane lost a few bets recently and missed being the richest man in the group, so he asked his demon servants for advice, and they told him about the value of hirui stones and how they are made. He then sent his servants out to find a little hiruiseki factory for his own personal use, and they took the first ice maiden they could find: Yukina. She's being held prisoner at Tarukane's mansion in the mountains in the living world, and they contain her behind very powerful talismans; even the most powerful psychic couldn't hope to penetrate the barrier they've created around her, which is why your third eye hasn't been performing its function lately."
Hiei lowered his eyes but Botan could tell by the way his shoulders were starting to heave in rhythm with his deep breathing that he was close to losing his temper.
"They're trying to torture her to make her cry," the bird continued. "But so far she hasn't cracked. I guess being emotionless must be a family trait, right Hiei?"
Hiei snarled and swiped a hand at the bird, but his movement was surprisingly slow and badly aimed, and the bird easily managed to shoot up out of his reach. She spread out her wings and hovered above his head, looking down at him with an almost mocking gleam in her eyes.
"Getting angry won't solve anything," she sang at him mockingly. "There's nothing you can do about Yukina's fate from in here."
Hiei snarled again and punched a fist through the chunk of fallen wall the bird had been perched on. Although the wall broke, Botan could see that Hiei had not bothered to gather enough energy to protect himself from harm when he threw his fist, and she could tell that he had injured his hand – though he seemed almost pleased about the wounds he had suffered.
"Well emiko, I've done my duty," the bird said. "If you need anything else, make sure to have a payment ready for me."
Hiei cursed at the bird and in a blur of black and white he leapt into the air. Botan heard the bird squawk in pain before she rocketed through a hole in the roof, flying away as fast and hard as she could. Hiei landed on the ground again, one fist clutched around a handful of yellow and blue feathers, a few more, smaller, feathers of various colours floating around his head.
"Oh dear," Botan said quietly. "That wasn't good news about your girlfriend."
Hiei's head snapped around and he fixed glowing eyes onto Botan, who grinned nervously. He released a low growl, the feathers in his fist erupting in flames and turning to ash in mere seconds.
"Fix the mirror and make it show me where that human bastard Tarukane is," he said.
"I've been trying to fix it all day!" she replied. "It's not that simple!"
"You made it work when you needed to hear the spirit detective and the spirit world brat talking," he challenged.
"Yes I know, but I sort of broke it again, and this time I can't fix it!"
"You can't fix it or you won't fix it?"
"What?"
"Are you deliberately doing this?"
"Why would I? If I can fix the mirror and the communicator, I can call for help!"
"Exactly!"
Botan stopped, suddenly feeling so confused that she was experiencing a rare moment of speechlessness.
"Hn, do you think that spirit world will want you back now that you've got the stink of demon on you?" Hiei sneered. "You're scared to contact the outside worlds now because you're ashamed of your sins. You know they will punish you for what you've done, and you're too scared to face that punishment. You know they will be disgusted with you: you're even disgusted with yourself."
"That's not true!" Botan argued.
"Yes it is," he replied.
"That's not entirely true!" she tried.
"I don't care what you do or don't do woman, but you will fix this mirror and you will make it find Yukina!"
"Why, because she was good enough for you to fall in love with?"
Hiei's face changed and Botan had to fight the urge to clap her hands over her mouth. She could tell that he was thinking exactly what she was: why did it bother her so much that he was so concerned about Yukina?
"Are you jealous?" he asked, turning his head to give her an almost disgusted sideward glare.
She shook her head, but on the inside she not so sure. Was she jealous that he cared so much about Yukina?
"Why can you love her romantically but not anyone else?"
Apparently she was jealous.
"I don't love her romantically," he said coldly. "I don't love anyone romantically. I never have and I never will. My heart is not the sort for such foolish distractions. I am only concerned with gaining power and improving my own strength."
"You seem to be very concerned about Yukina, are you sure that you're not in love with her?" Botan asked, her bitterness evident in her tone to even her own ears. "Because it sounds like you are. It sounds like you just pretend that you don't believe in love because secretly you have impossibly high standards that only the beautiful and refined Yukina can live up to... It's quite ridiculous, actually: she's an ice apparition? And you're a fire demon? Isn't that a recipe for disaster right there? I think you pretend not to care about love because you're actually head over heels in love with this "Yukina" and she doesn't return your feelings, and your pride can't handle that, so you pretend that the real reason she isn't in your life is because you don't believe in love, but secretly it's eating you up inside that you're besotted with her, she's out of your league and you–"
"I'm going to say this one more time, and this time I'm going to say it very slowly and using very simple words so that there can be no doubt that even an idiot like you will understand: I do not "fall in love" the way humans and spirits do. My relationship with Yukina is none of your business. My heart, and what it is and is not capable of, is not your concern. If you continue to insist on meddling and gossiping, I will remove your tongue... And if I remove your tongue, think of how painful and restrictive it will be for you when I kiss you."
"...You still intend to kiss me? Maybe I don't want to kiss you ever again."
"You can't keep your hands off of me, and we both know it."
"So what am I to you? Just a cheap floozy to satisfy the needs you can't fulfil with Yukina?"
"Stop referencing Yukina."
"What did she do to get inside your heart?"
"You don't understand. My heart is incapable of feeling the sort of sappy romantic nonsense you keep referring to as "love"."
"Is your heart capable of feeling anything?"
Hiei's face softened slightly, the glow of anger fading from his eyes, and, despite knowing that his change in demeanour ought to make her pleased, Botan instead felt miserable: obviously he was about to confess to her that he did in fact love Yukina – properly, in the traditional sense of the word love – and she was not ready to hear that. It was not so much that she was in love with him and upset that he loved someone else, more that she was frustrated that he should love a woman who it seemed as though he had not so much as touched, yet he still despised Botan, who he had performed the most intimate expression of love with. Twice. In one day.
"My heart's crippled," he eventually said. "I was born that way. I was born cursed, and to have a numb heart, strong body and determined mind is part of that curse."
Botan tilted her head in confusion: that was the last thing she had expected him to say, and it only left her wanting to ask him even more questions than before. And it left her strangely optimistic: he had not confessed his undying love for Yukina, so perhaps he was not so hopelessly devoted to her after all. Though she had no idea why that pleased her.
She had to fix the mirror and use it, as Hiei had asked, to seek out Yukina; because Hiei wanted her to and because she had to know who Yukina was, what she looked like and why Hiei was so obsessed with her.
"Fix the damn mirror, woman!" Hiei snapped at her, as though he had read her thoughts (which of course he could well have done).
Botan nodded and turned back to the tangled mess she had been poring over before the bird had returned and interrupted her.
Hiei tore strips of meat from the belly of the boar he had caught in the woods – the flesh there was the tenderest, the sweetest and the most palatable. He arranged each piece onto one of the remaining platters from the banquet, alongside the slices of fruits and vegetables he had collected after his hunt and had already prepared. He had been sure to use his sword to cut the fruits and vegetables first before using it to help him cut the meat into edible sections. Usually he would not bother wasting so much time and effort on preparing food so, but since the ferry girl was going to be his lover for the foreseeable future, he was obliged, by demon world common laws of basic etiquette, to feed her. He could just toss some raw meat at her and throw her another bag of fruit, but, as little as he thought of her, even he had some standards of decency, and also this was an ideal opportunity for him to introduce her to another of the demon world cultural norms he was sure she would be unfamiliar with.
Also it was a good excuse to play with her head a little: it was obvious by the repeated and ineffective movements she was making that she was not actually trying to fix the mirror, but, from her previous behaviour and the fact that she was ferry girl, she was bound to feel guilty if he called her up on her attempt at deceit, confess and start genuinely making an effort to fix the mirror.
"Eat something, woman," he said, sitting down beside her with the platter in his hand.
She paused long enough to run her eyes over the selection of food he had prepared on the plate, her expression twisting into one of repressed disgust and misery as she did so.
"No thank you," she whispered, turning her head back to her task.
"You have to eat," he reminded her.
"I don't want to," she stubbornly replied.
"I don't care about that," he told her. "I need to eat, and as my lover, you need to eat with me."
"What?"
She dropped the wires and the device she had been holding, turning her head so quickly her hair slapped him over the face, the ends stinging at his eyes. He blinked a few times to clear the sensation before focusing his attention onto her questioning face.
"Love in demon world is an all-consuming passion and about sharing everything," he explained. "I have specifically prepared food that we can both eat, now you will eat it with me."
"You can't force me to eat something I don't want to," she said.
She was trying to look indignant, but Hiei had not failed to notice the slight rise in pitch in her voice towards the end of her sentence as though she had unintentionally posed it as a question – one that she surely hoped he would reply to in the negative. How wrong she was.
"As lovers, we are obliged to satisfy each other's every need," he reminded her. "And right now, we both need food."
"I don't…"
She must have noticed the stern look Hiei was giving her as her voice trailed off and a slight sense of fear clouded her eyes.
"Fine then, you eat," she said, sounding more than a little immature.
Hiei decided that it was pointless wasting his breath with words any more: this girl only ever seemed to understand him when he literally proved his point, so he picked up a piece of fruit between his thumb and forefinger and lifted it up in the air between them. Despite her claims to the contrary, Hiei distinctly saw the hunger in the ferry girl's pink eyes as they crossed slightly to focus on the food between his fingers and the tip of her tongue darted out briefly to wet her lips.
"Eat," he insisted, moving his hand to her mouth.
He stopped before the fruit made contact with her mouth, looking into her eyes – which had moved to his questioningly – and staring at her determinedly. The juice from the fruit began to trickle down his fingers but he held his hand still, waiting patiently for her to finally understand what was expected of her in this lover's ritual.
"You, um…?" she muttered, her eyebrows flickering slightly.
"Eat," he repeated.
Her mouth moved as though she might say something else stupid and non-conclusive, but she then seemed to finally understand his intentions and she carefully opened her mouth and stretched her neck forwards, her eyes never leaving his. She was either too polite or too afraid – or perhaps too much of both – to follow through with the act entirely, and so Hiei pushed the cube of fruit into her mouth. She immediately leaned back from him and began to chew, her eyes lowering to the ground and her face turning a little bit pink. Hiei sucked the excess juices from his fingers before reaching out his hand to take hold of her chin, causing her to freeze, mid-chew, and glare at him fearfully. Ignoring her reaction he leaned towards her and gently licked the wetness from her lips.
He sat back again, finding something almost comical about the way she then swallowed the contents of her mouth, a partially chewed and almost painfully large chunk of fruit visibly passing down the length of her throat. He pointed at the plate rested on his knees, having to do so repeatedly before she eventually moved her eyes from his to the food. She nodded awkwardly and cautiously picked up another cube of the same fruit, lifting it up from the plate. Hiei contained a growl and an insult when she opened her mouth and made to eat what she had just collected, and instead he caught her wrist in a firm grip and shook his head at her when she moved her eyes back to his. Apparently teaching her about demon world love was going to be quite the onerous task after all, he thought darkly. With a small sigh he leaned forwards, keeping hold of her wrist, and, as gently as he could, he took the fruit and her fingers into his mouth. As he had half-expected her to, she stiffened and did not release her grip of the food, forcing him to pull it free of her fingers with his tongue.
He sat back again and began to chew the food, still keeping hold of her wrist and pointing at the dribbles of juice coming from one corner of his mouth with his other hand. She looked a little startled but seemed to understand what he meant as she began slowly and warily leaning towards him. He was not really sure that she would do for him as he had done for her and so he almost lost focus when he actually felt her tongue dragging up one side of his chin. Her actions were a little too cautious and tense, but he was sure that would change soon enough: she had certainly adapted to other demon world traditions he had introduced her to quickly enough.
The ferry girl seemed almost reluctant to move away from him, her eyes moving to his and her face remaining so close her features were out of focus to Hiei's eyes for several seconds. When she did finally come back into focus, the look she was giving him was almost too much for him to resist. She was not attractive in any way that a demon girl would be, but there was something decidedly alluring about her doe-eyed innocence and delicate features. Her look reminded him of one of the more fragile fallow deer he occasionally hunted down in the woods of demon world. They were the most gentle of creatures to be found in demon world, the most easily injured, the most easily startled, the hardest to find and by far the sweetest tasting of all. The way she was looking at him now was much the same way one of those fair creatures would look at him when he had one cornered and it knew he was moving in for the kill.
Actually, the two situations were quite similar, he thought to himself: in one instance he had a pathetically weak and defenceless creature pinned and he was moving in on it, his mouth watering at the thought that he was about to sink his teeth into it and savour its unique, sweet taste as its cries filled the air in the most delightful way. And hunting the deer was pretty much the same experience.
Hiei swallowed the contents of his mouth and picked up a strip of meat, gently taking one half of it into his mouth. The ferry girl tilted her head slightly and pouted in obvious confusion, as she had apparently expected him to continue the trend of putting food into her mouth for her – but he was too impatient to continue that part of the ritual, and since she seemed to understand it, there seemed to be no point in dragging it out. He slipped one hand around the back of her neck and clamped the other hand around the underside of her jaw, holding her in place as he moved towards her.
"What are you doing?" she whimpered.
"Feeding you," he replied as best he could with a piece of meat lodged between his teeth.
"I don't want to eat that," she said. "I don't know what it is, it might poison me!"
"…Just open your mouth, woman."
She opened her mouth – probably to argue further – and he closed the gap between them, severing the meat with his teeth and then expertly using his tongue to manoeuvre one piece of the food into her mouth whilst retaining the other half in his own mouth. Her tongue moved against his slightly awkwardly, but he suspected her actions were more a result of her misinterpreting his advance as a kiss than her understanding that sharing food so was a demon world custom that neither of the other two worlds had ever seemed to adopt (as far as Hiei was aware).
He eased his tongue out of her mouth again and began to chew, leaning back far enough to bring the woman's face into focus in front of him. Her eyes were closed, but after a second or so she seemed to sense that he was watching her and she opened them again, blushing slightly as her eyes flitted over his lips. She started to chew, her eyes moving back to his, that look of bewildered innocence and almost sinful curiosity still present in the slightly dilated pupils she watched him through. It vaguely intrigued Hiei that her human body had so many similarities to a demon's, desire affecting her in many of the same ways it would a demon girl. Unlike a demon girl, she had absolutely no concept of what her preferences were when it came to loving, and Hiei was sure that even after she had learned them, she was probably still too repressed by her spirit world ingrained mentality to have the courage to ask for them. He was hoping to change that though, if only for the satisfaction of returning the ferry girl to spirit world thoroughly corrupted.
And she had already demonstrated that she was the jealous, demanding type, and whilst Hiei hated that type of woman, they were always the most devoted and obsessive of lovers, and right then devoted and obsessed was exactly what he wanted.
"That's not bad," she said softly after she had swallowed down the meat.
"We're going to finish this meal and then you're going to fix this mirror," Hiei answered her, looking directly into her eyes to make sure that she understood that he was serious.
"Of course," she agreed, her tone unchanged.
She looked and sounded as though she had been hypnotised.
"And this time make it show us what is happening in the other worlds," he added.
"I'll try," she replied.
"Get it right and I'll give you something you'll never forget."
"Is it a sexually transmitted disease?"
Kurama's head whipped back and forth, his long red hair slapping Yusuke over both sides of the face. He felt only mildly relieved to see his mother and her fiancé still laughing in the living room, apparently having not overheard the ridiculous question Yusuke had just asked.
"It sounds like one!" Yusuke added.
Kurama finished loading the dishwasher and set it to a heavy-duty programme before turning to Yusuke.
"I was sort of hoping my mother would have gone out with her partner tonight," he whispered.
Yusuke grinned darkly and leaned closer to him.
"Oh yeah?" he asked. "You got a skin flick?"
Kurama frowned curiously.
"Wh-what…?" he muttered. "I don't even know what that is!"
Yusuke pouted moodily.
"Hey, your mom's boyfriend just called me a fanny!" he hissed, glancing through the doorway to ensure that he had not been overheard. "With parents that liberal, don't try to tell me you don't know what a skin flick is!"
Kurama sighed.
"He didn't call you a fanny, Yusuke," he whispered.
"He did!" Yusuke insisted. "He said was I reminded him of an English fanny!"
"…No…" Kurama said slowly. "He was likening you to a famous English chef called Fanny Cradock."
"What?" Yusuke echoed.
"She was a famous chef in England," Kurama explained. "My mother's fiancé was likening you to her because apparently she liked to cook, but she never tided up after herself in the kitchen, just like you did here tonight, leaving me to–"
"Fanny Cradock?"
"Yes."
"…And that's seriously not something you need to see a doctor about?"
Kurama sighed again.
"Look, Yusuke, we need to talk," he insisted. "Come with me to my room – and try not to alert my mother, she can't overhear what we have to discuss."
Yusuke nodded his understanding and together they quietly crept through the apartment to Kurama's room. Kurama ushered Yusuke into the room and then quietly closed the door behind them. He turned around to find Yusuke opening his window and then leaning far too far out of it.
"What are you doing?" Kurama asked him, hurrying over to his side.
"I see some of Kuwabara's buddies over there," Yusuke replied, his head still outside the room. "I was gonna invite them up here to watch the movie with us."
"No!" Kurama said. "There is no movie, Yusuke. I met with Koenma earlier today while you were out with Keiko, and I have news for you."
Yusuke ducked back into the room and slid the window shut, looking suddenly stern.
"Are we going back for Botan at last?" he asked.
"No, I'm afraid not," Kurama replied with a shake of his head.
"Why not?" Yusuke demanded, his voice a little louder than was appropriate for what was meant to be a hushed conversation.
"I'll explain later," Kurama quietly replied. "But first, Koenma has a new mission for us."
"Us?" Yusuke asked, pointing at the window. "Should I call for Kuwabara?"
"It's probably better that you don't," Kurama advised. "This is a rather sensitive case. We have to rescue a demon hostage from a human criminal and his gang of demon workers."
"A demon hostage?"
"An ice maiden of demon world. She's being held against her will because she possesses the ability to create priceless gemstones. They are torturing her and trying to force her to mass produce the stones for their profit."
"That's sick! How does she make them?"
"They form from her tears."
"So those bastards are forcing her to cry?"
"Basically, yes. And it's not just the cruelty of her torture or the breach of the Demon Rights Act that it represents that makes this case so important."
"…Damn it, there's always a catch with anything that little pre-school brat has to tell me!"
"The ice maiden in question is Yukina: she's Hiei's sister."
"See? That's exactly the sort of shi–say what?"
"She's Hiei's sister. Koenma is hoping that, if we can take her to spirit world, we can use her as bait to lure Hiei out of the city of ghosts and apparitions."
Yusuke's face twisted in obvious confusion.
"I don't get it," he said. "I thought there was no way out of the city?"
"There isn't," Kurama replied. "Yet. Koenma is trying to set up a means of creating a way out and informing Hiei of it and that his sister is in danger. He's hoping Hiei will come to either spirit world or the living world where he can be arrested and imprisoned again, and the spirit world Special Defence Force can then enter the city of ghosts and apparitions and search for Botan."
"What if Hiei still refuses to leave the city? What if he finds out we rescued his sister and that she's safe and he decides just to stay there like he did before?"
"Then spirit world adopt plan B."
"Do I even want to know what plan B is?"
"Probably not."
Yusuke sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Come on fox boy, you better tell me anyway," he groaned. "Unless Koenma kept that from you too?"
"No, he has told me about his contingency plan," Kurama replied. "With the more powerful Saint Beasts gone and Hiei's strength being – by spirit world calculations – negligible in comparison to four powerful demons in one location, the decision has been made to simply destroy the city of ghosts and apparitions. If Hiei does not leave by choice, they will destroy it with him in it."
"What about Botan?" Yusuke asked.
"She'll die along with Hiei and the rest of the inhabitants of the city," Kurama answered.
"…Gees Kurama, it's easy seeing you're not from spirit world! Koenma or Botan would have sugar-coated that, but you just came right out with it!"
"I don't have time to waste deceiving you, Yusuke. The city is to be destroyed. The SDF will not waste time searching the city for Hiei, he could evade them for long enough there and in Maze Castle, it would be a waste of their time and he could end up killing them all if he managed to catch them in one of the many deadly traps in and around the castle. They will do a search for Botan if Hiei leaves the city because if he is not there, they can put out a call for her without the risk of Hiei hearing it and kidnapping her to use as a hostage. They have already considered that destroying the city with Botan in it will mean her death. The general consensus is that Botan's soul will have become corrupted by the amount of time she has been living there now anyway, and if the SDF are able to recover her, they are under strict instructions to treat her as dangerous and send her for a strict screening with King Enma himself before she would be allowed to return to her duties."
"…So basically it's a death sentence for Hiei either way and it's almost as bad for Botan?"
"Basically yes."
"You really don't mince your words."
"That aside, we still have a duty to rescue Yukina. She is an innocent in all of this."
Yusuke nodded slowly.
"That's the other thing I don't get…" he said slowly, scratching at his head in confusion. "If Yukina is Hiei's sister, why is she an ice demon and not a fire demon like him? And does she have a third eye too?"
Kurama smiled and shook his head.
"It's a little bit more complicated than that," he said. "But no, she doesn't have a jagan eye. And it's not just her powers that are the opposite of Hiei's, her nature is too, from what I hear. I believe she is a very gentle and considerate girl."
"…Are we sure she's Hiei's sister?" Yusuke asked sceptically.
"Koenma had his doubts too," Kurama replied. "But I know for sure that she is."
"How?"
"Hiei told me himself. He told me how they were separated at birth, and she is unaware of his existence, but he has been aware of her existence since he had his jagan eye implanted and went searching for his mother."
Yusuke slowly backed up and sat down onto the chair at Kurama's study desk.
"This sounds like bed-time story material," he said, quirking an eyebrow in amusement. "You might as well tell me the rest."
"I'm not sure that I should," Kurama replied, sitting onto the edge of his bed. "Hiei told me the details in the strictest of confidence."
"Hiei stabbed us all in the back and has pretty much just sentenced Botan to death," Yusuke bluntly returned. "He didn't care about keeping his word to us, you shouldn't care about keeping your promises to him either!"
Kurama paused, unsure how to continue. It was true that he considered Hiei to be something of traitor for what he had done after their fight against the Four Saint Beasts, because Koenma had always made it clear to them that he was trusting them to watch each other too, and so Kurama had been left shouldering part of the blame for Hiei's indiscretions, but he still felt that it was immoral to discuss another man's secrets so openly. It was not his place to discuss Hiei's past with anyone, not even Hiei himself, without Hiei's permission.
"I guess I should call Kuwabara," Yusuke said suddenly.
"No, that really won't be necessary," Kurama stopped him. "I will be accompanying you on this mission in Botan's absence, and, as a fighter, I can help you in a hands-on sense too, so there is no need to bring Kuwabara along. As eager as he is, I think it would just complicate matters if he came with us."
Yusuke looked thoughtful for a moment before smirking slightly.
"Tell me more about Hiei and his sister and I won't call Kuwabara," he threatened.
"Bribing a demon is not appropriate behaviour for a spirit detective," Kurama replied.
"I'm not your average spirit detective, and you're not exactly an average demon," Yusuke replied with a shrug.
Kurama sighed. He sensed that he could probably trust Yusuke not to divulge anything he told him, but he still felt wrong discussing Hiei's private life with another.
But by the look on Yusuke's face he could tell that he would not get any peace until he did.
Next Chapter: (Well hopefully something significant will finally happen… Oh wait, the plot DOES advance in the next chapter!) Kurama (again, I'm so sorry to Kurama and his legions of fans) conveniently plays Mr. Exposition and Yusuke and Botan learn more about Hiei than they were ever meant to. With a clear deadline hanging over their heads and Yukina's fate hanging in the balance, Hiei and Botan attempt to finally put aside their differences and work together to stop a pending disaster, and doing so involves a little bit of compromise on both sides, and ultimately leads to more than a little bit of confusion on both sides as the lines between spirit world love and demon world loving start to get a little bit blurry… Chapter 12: What They Say
A/N: This chapter didn't cover as much story as it was meant to (ie I'm still writing endless streams of he thought/she felt without ever coming to the point… And sadly the nature of this fic will require me to continue that way) but I did set up the second half of this fic, which will kick off in the next chapter, and there will (I swear!) be some action (at last!). In case anyone hasn't noticed, Kuwabara isn't going on the "rescue Yukina" mission, rather Kurama is going in his place, and Hiei will not be there either. So thinking carefully about what roles Kuwabara and Hiei played in the rescue of Yukina in the original (anime and manga), it should be obvious where this is going. And it should also now be obvious why I said this isn't exactly going to be a happy story.