Botan

Botan was sure of it now—Hotaru was definitely a much better person than everyone said.

As soon as she and Yusuke (mostly Yusuke) had figured out Kurama's case, she took off to try and find Hotaru, figuring the girl could help. Of course, Botan had already realized that Hotaru wasn't as useful as she claimed to be—she had said she would take care of Kurama and Hiei and so far she hadn't helped at all. But, once she finally got the girl on the phone, she realized why—apparently she was sick. Really sick.

She had been bedridden for nearly three days with some sort of horrible flu. Botan could even hear it in her voice—scratchy, broken, and incredibly weak. After hearing of her terrible condition, Botan was reluctant to even tell Hotaru about the situation at all.

However, as soon as she had, Hotaru was up and on her way, talking about how they had to help Kurama and save him from Koenma's wrath, despite her suffering. It only took about fifteen minutes between the time Botan placed her frantic call to the time Hotaru was rushing through the halls of Reikai towards Koenma's office.

Really, it was all quite impressive.

As far as Botan was concerned, even if she wasn't all that helpful, at least her heart was in the right place. And, even after the most recent disappointment, Botan still had faith in her abilities to negotiate—she had to have faith. After all, if someone didn't intervene, Kurama would certainly be put to death, and Botan just couldn't allow that to happen. Sure, she had submitted a shining recommendation of the guy, but that wouldn't be enough.

If they hoped to save Kurama from that horrible fate, Hotaru was the only one that could do it.

Still though, it had been nearly an hour since Hotaru had gone into the office, and nearly forty minutes since Kurama had been led in wearing shackles, and still there was no sign of either of them. Botan had been hanging around aimlessly outside the grand doors the entire time, and not a single person had walked in or out. She had even tried pressing her ear to the door to try and pick up what was going on, but the doors were too thick and everything just came out muffled.

So, she resigned herself to twiddling her thumbs and attempting to wait patiently. After all, patience was a skill she needed to learn eventually.

And, thankfully, after an hour and a half, someone emerged—it was Kurama, and, if Botan didn't know any better, he looked relieved.

"Oh, thank goodness you're safe!" Botan cried, instantly rushing up to him.

"It would appear I am," he replied with a soft smile.

She noticed then that not only was he out, but he was unshackled. He wasn't even accompanied by a guard. "Don't tell me they dropped all the charges?!"

"Ah, not quite," Kurama laughed back, ringing a hand across the back of his neck. "Though they are allowing me to return to my mother in Ningenkai. In exchange I have offered my services for the next five years—to prove my newfound loyalty."

"Oh that's fantastic! That means were coworkers!"

"Indeed we are."

I'm picking up new friends all over the place! Botan thought excitedly. She had never imagined that being a detective's assistant could be so exciting or so rewarding—she had actually thought of rejecting the offer at first, feeling it would be too dangerous or troublesome. Now, though, she was thoroughly happy that she had chosen to accept.

"I'm so happy for you! Looks like everything worked out!" she exclaimed gleefully, giving him on a friendly pat on the back. She then leaned in, covering her mouth and speaking in a whisper. "And… they don't know? About… you know…"

Kurama chuckled lightly at that. "It's quite alright. Koenma knows who I am now, though he did make it clear that my real identity is to remain a secret from anyone who isn't already informed."

"I promise, I won't tell anyone!"

"I believe you."

Apparently, she was picking up just as many new secrets as new friends.

"Oh I just knew it would work out!" she continued on, avoiding contemplating on her worries about being in-the-loop. "After all, you were so clearly doing what you did for the right reasons! Not to mention that with Hotaru fighting for you there's no way you could lose!"

"Indeed…" Kurama replied slowly, and briefly Botan thought she saw a curious look on his face. However, it was gone before she knew it, so she passed it off as just her mind playing tricks. Then, Kurama bowed lightly. "Anyway, I'm afraid I really must be getting back. I'm sure my mother is worried."

"Oh of course, of course! You go on ahead," she replied with a friendly wave. "And really—congratulations!"

"Thank you!"

And with that, he was off down the hall—apparently he already knew where he was going and Botan didn't even think to offer him a ride. She was too busy being excited, and was dying to hear all the details from Hotaru.

She waited a few more minutes for the girl to emerge from the office, but she never came. It was a curious thing—the meeting was over, and in all the movies the lawyer and the client always walk out together, high fiving and talking to the press… then again, this was a very different case than the ones in movies. Still though, it was odd that she would be taking so long.

Deciding she had already had enough patience for one day, Botan then began to push open the prince's office doors herself. The trial was over, so it shouldn't make any difference if she went in now. And, as soon as she had the door open even a crack, she practically fell over as a loud, scratchy voice shouted out:

"You are fucking unbelievable!"

Botan was thrown back a bit, but as she looked inside she found Hotaru and Koenma engaged in a rather heated argument. Koenma remained in his office chair and Hotaru was leaning over his desk—even across the room her voice would have been loud and clear, so at that distance it was no doubt deafening.

"You can't speak to me that way!" Koenma whined as Hotaru kicked the front of the desk in frustration.

"I'll speak to you however the fuck I want until you grow a pair of fucking testicles and common sense!" she belted back.

Botan recoiled—this was a version of Hotaru she had yet to see.

"I've seen you make a lot of stupid mistakes," Hotaru continued on through clenched teeth. "But this is by far the dumbest thing I've ever seen you do!"

"Me!? What about you!?" Koenma spat back incredulously. "You've known who he was and you've been meeting in secret with him this whole time! You fraternized with the enemy!"

"Well you just hired the enemy, so what I did couldn't have been that bad!"

"I had no other choice!"

"Oh that is bullshit and you know it as well as I do!"

"Um…"

As soon as she spoke the two instantly rounded on her, both their faces flushed with anger and their eyes wide, causing Botan to recoil further back against the office doorway.

"Is there um… a problem?"

Hotaru's face seemed to soften a bit, though she still seemed pissed, and a moment later she collected her things and began to storm out of the room. "No problem. Everything fine."

"Um…"

"Hotaru! Where do you think you're going?!" Koenma shouted, but the girl wasn't paying attention.

Botan watched as she marched straight towards the door and then brushed past her, not even offering up a polite smile as she left. Botan remained, somewhat surprised but mostly just confused, and then silently inched her way into the room fully and let the door slide to a close behind her.

Koenma jumped from up on his desk, floating midair and pressing forward toward the ferry girl. "I swear, she's such a nuisance sometimes…"

"I don't understand, Koenma," Botan uttered quietly, turning to the young prince. "I thought she wanted to help Kurama?"

"She did," he replied quickly, before scrunching up his face. "Er… I think she did."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Hell if I know," he sighed. "One minute she's trying to tell me he's non-violent and deserves only a bit of prison time, then she's telling me he's a dangerous criminal that can't be trusted."

"How strange…"

"Indeed," the prince agreed, settling into a brief silence before suddenly wringing his hands through his hair and kicking his legs like a petulant child. "Ah, she does have a point though… my father is going to kill me for this!"

"You mean for pardoning him?" Botan questioned. "He's not that bad..."

"I don't know if he told you this but… he's not an ordinary thief. He's Youko Kurama."

"Oh I know, but—"

"—You know!?" Koenma screeched, before matting his hands in his hair again. "I just can't trust anybody, can I?"

"Ah, no I just found out! He just told me!" Botan lied with a nervous laugh. Seemingly, Koenma believed her, but she quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, I'm sure your father will understand! I mean, Kurama was only doing what he did to save his mother! And Reikai has taken on less savory characters than thieves in the past…"

"It's not the fact that's a thief that'll worry my father," Koenma replied gravely, suspiciously avoiding eye contact. "The thing is, Botan, I don't know if Kurama told you this, but the reason he's in that new body of his is because… well…"

"… Well?"

"… We… er, my father…" he paused, seemingly unsure of what to say next, or if he should even say anything at all. "My father… was the one who killed the original Youko Kurama…"

"What!?"

"Or, at least his body, I guess," the prince corrected.

Botan stared at him, eyes wide and mouth open in shock. "You killed him!? He never mentioned that!"

"I doubt he would," Koenma replied, hanging his head. "It was… somewhat of a serious situation."

"How serious?"

"Very serious."

"Oh…"

Then, the two fell into an uncomfortable silence, Koenma still wringing his hands through his hair and Botan shuffling her feet quietly. She wasn't quite sure what to say—after all, she wasn't very well versed in matters of crime and punishment, particularly not when it came to crimes that warranted such drastic measures. Still though, Koenma seemed so dreadfully upset, and she just couldn't bear to see him in such a state, so after a few minutes of quiet contemplation she finally spoke up.

"I'm sure everything will be fine," she began, speaking as kindly and calmly as she could. "Trust me, I've spoken with him and he doesn't seem mad at all! Of course, he does seem like a fairly complex character, so I can't really speak too well on his motives—ah, not to say that I think he's planning anything! It's just… er…"

Koenma sighed. "It's alright, Botan. I get what you mean, and I agree with you. Really, he does seem to have changed his ways, it's just…"

"It's just what?"

"He's dangerous."

"I'm sure he's not—"

"—No, Botan," Koenma interrupted sternly before she could try to placate him again. "He's… very dangerous. Perhaps even one of the most dangerous criminals we've ever dealt with. What he did is… well, it's not something most people—most things—can do."

She was almost afraid to ask, what with the grave look in Koenma's eyes and the subtle shaking in his hands that emerged when he referenced the incident. But, her curiosity was too strong, and eventually she let the question slip. "Just what did he do? What could have been so bad as to warrant an assassination?"

He seemed like he didn't want to answer and Botan almost felt bad for asking in the first place. It was surely something she wasn't supposed to be privy to or she already would have known, and clearly it was something that troubled the young god to talk about. Still though, he did tell her, and when he did his voice seemed to come from miles away—from a dark place, full of fear and self-doubt.

"My uncle Inari…" Koenma began slowly, his gaze shifting about the room. "Kurama… tried to kill him."

Botan paused, unable to quite comprehend the accusation.

"That isn't possible though," she muttered. "Inari is a god, and gods are immortal… They can't be killed by demons! Not even a fox could—"

"—He found a way," Koenma replied through gritted teeth. "He didn't succeed but he got close… closer than any mortal being has gotten in thousands of years."

"I can't believe it…" Botan breathed, unsure of how to process this new information. After all, Kurama just seemed so nice. He cared so much about his mother, and he had been so merciful to Yusuke. It just didn't seem possible for him to be the type to commit such a serious sin. And beyond that, she just didn't understand how it was even possible.

Even Botan, as naïve as she was, understood that there were few absolute truths in the world, but godly immortality was one of them—blood was red, the sky was blue, and the gods would never die.

"That's why I took him on as emissary," Koenma continued. "He's far too dangerous to be left alone…"

Kurama

He stood outside the grand gates of Enma's palace, staring out across the narrow stone bridge that connected the floating citadel to the rest of Reikai. From here, his solitary spirit could exit freely and return to his currently unconscious human body, which had been deposited at his human home under the watch of a Reikai authority until the time his punishment had been decided.

During the heist, he had entered Reikai in a flesh-and-blood form, but such a practice was strictly prohibited—it was deemed a 'security risk'. Though he disliked the idea of regularly leaving his body unmanned and lying around Ningenkai, he supposed he may have to get used to the idea. Now that he had been taken on as emissary, he would more than likely be required to abandon his flesh form regularly.

Truly, though, leaving behind his body every now and then was the least of his worries—being an official emissary of Reikai had far more unpleasant accoutrements than that.

For one, he was now required to regularly spend time within the organization that had attempted to kill him sixteen years before, and despite the fact that Koenma had promised the upmost discretion regarding his true identity, the thought of meeting his assailants in person once more was disconcerting.

Beyond that, his life was bound to become far more inconvenient from this point forward. Up until just recently it had been relatively easy to keep his activities within demonic circles a secret, but with his new title he would undoubtedly be required to spend far more time as "Kurama" than he had before.

And, most importantly, he knew he needed to be cautious with his new position. After all, it wasn't like Koenma had taken him on as emissary in order to win his favor or as a form of apology—in reality, he really had no other choice.

If Kurama were to be imprisoned, he might escape.

If he were to be killed, he might transfer his soul again.

If he were to be set free, he might become untraceable.

Koenma suspected all of this, and so he had taken him on as emissary in order to keep him close—to keep an eye on him. Keep him alive, keep him busy, and keep him on a close leash. Five years of service wasn't meant to serve as a punishment—it was to bide time, until Koenma, Enma, and whatever other authorities operated within Reikai could find a suitable way to deal with the threat his existence presented.

In short, despite his plans going accordingly and him being allowed to return to his human life, the fight was far from over. In fact, his troubles were only just beginning.

Suddenly, Kurama heard the large gate doors open from behind him, and he remembered that there was yet another complication… and it was one he was, shockingly, entirely unsure of how to approach.

"Hello, Hotaru..."

Unfortunately, his pleasantries seemed lost on the small, strange girl, as she marched plainly up to him and pointed an accusatory finger in his face.

"What the fuck was that?" she snapped, and Kurama felt a bit of a fool for not expecting this sooner.

He sighed. "I am sorry I had to damage your reputation that way, but you would not relent."

"I wouldn't relent?" she scoffed back, her hands on her hips. "You're the one that just threw yourself under the fucking bus."

"You know why I had to do it," Kurama continued, perhaps giving her intellect more credit than it deserved. Still, she seemed sharp enough—at least most of the time—and it didn't take a genius to figure out he had been placed in a poor situation. "I had no other choice."

"You had plenty of choices," she shot back. "And you just so happened to pick the worst of them."

"I doubt that…"

"I could have helped you, you know."

He almost refuted the claim, before he suddenly found himself pausing and truly letting those words sink in.

"Help me to do what?" he asked back, his suspicions rising.

"To escape prison, you fucking moron!" she retorted, her temper now thoroughly lost. "I tried to tell you back there! I dropped hints left and right, but oh no, you didn't have time to pay attention to me—you were too busy barring your fucking soul to the ruler of the god damn afterlife!"

She continued to rant and rave about his behavior, but to be quite honest, Kurama tuned most of it out. He did watch her vigilantly though- the way she flitted around him, yelling one minute and laughing the next, was highly addictive.

Had you asked him about her two years ago, he would have said she was half-witted.

Had you asked him three nights ago, he would have said she was nefarious.

And had you asked him now, he wouldn't have had anything to say at all. Enigmatic, perhaps.

She was unreadable—or perhaps she was just too easy to read and he was looking too hard. She was a constant antithesis to herself and a problem Kurama found himself desperately trying to unravel; though it seemed to him the more he met with her the harder she became to figure out. She had tried to help him back there, apparently—and now he began to remember what she had been saying.

"Thanks to the work of Hotaru, I feel we've come to a suitable punishment."

"You won't be on the lower levels... You'll be under lock-and-key, but otherwise undisturbed."

"Shuichi, just stop and take the deal. Trust me, you'll be fine!"

He could see it now—the vague hints she had dropped along the way for him. Though he wasn't quite sure why she would assume he would trust her. Then again, a better question was, why did she trust him?

"—I mean, I had everything set up—the perfect cell, the perfect punishment, and Koenma didn't suspect a thing. You would have been out in a week tops—but now that's all fucked. I hope you're fucking happy," Hotaru finished aggressively.

She began fishing through her pockets for something and Kurama regarded her carefully.

"… You really intended to help me?" he asked, and she shot him a painfully exasperated glance.

"I told you so, didn't I?"

"Even after I—"

"—Yea," she stressed, cutting him off and rolling her eyes dramatically. "Even after your ridiculous, murderous overreaction."

None of this made any sense to him. The girl should have no loyalties to him—she should have no reason to help him escape, especially not now that her detective was already safe.

Though, perhaps he really had just overreacted?

Perhaps she really did just want to help him? Certainly she had threatened his mother, and she had threatened him, but obviously she hadn't made good on any of those threats, and she had only gone so far after he had blatantly refused her initial offer. Maybe he really could trust her?

Finally, she seemed to find whatever it was she had been looking for—a small slip of paper and a lighter, similar to what she had retrieved three nights ago. He tried to glance over to see what was written on the slip, but was only able to catch the word "Ginza" before she snatched it away.

Her lip curled into a disgusted sneer and she edged away, before taking a deep breath and letting out a long, heavy sigh. Then, when she spoke again, he felt he heard something familiar—desperation he was beginning to become well acquainted with.

"Look… it may not be too late…"

"Too late… for what, exactly?"

"I could still help you," she continued, her dark eyes meeting his. "I could still help you escape to the Makai."

There it was again—yet another offer of help.

Yet what finally struck Kurama—and what should have struck him before—was that the offer was the same as before. Though the situation continued to change, her plan for him never did. Escape to Makai to avoid fighting Yusuke, escape to Makai to avoid prison, escape to Makai to avoid serving Koenma…

He thought he might be reaching—thought the idea was a bit too far-fetched even for this strange situation, and even for this strange girl. Yet, somehow, he found himself drawn to a single conclusion- his instincts had been right. She wasn't trying to help him escape; she wasn't trying to help him at all…

She was helping someone else.

She was taking him somewhere specific.

And though Kurama couldn't say where, he did have an idea.

"The Makai is a rather large and diverse place," he remarked obviously, keeping his tone light. "Why there?"

"For exactly the reasons you just said," Hotaru replied, rolling her eyes at him again. "It's big and it's pretty unruly—plus, Reikai has no hold there. It's perfect for disappearing, if you want to."

"And my mother?"

"Hey, I'm sorry, but you need to think about yourself right now," the girl replied with a disappointed frown. "She's healthy now, so it's all good, right? But you—oh man, you're really in the shit now."

"How so?"

"You already know how."

"You mean—"

"—Your 'five years', yea."

She really did understand more than she let on—she understood just as well as he did what his punishment from Koenma was really for. It was a death sentence—just one with a longer waiting period than most. Eventually, his decision would catch up with him.

And, strangely enough, she sounded sincere in her plea for him, and once again he began to doubt himself.

Honest, yet suspicious. Kind, yet malicious. Cunning, yet foolish.

He couldn't say for sure what she was planning, but he could not ignore his nagging suspicion. Hotaru put him on edge—that much was certain—and perhaps his suspicions just stemmed from the fact that she generally made him uncomfortable, or perhaps it was all in his head. However, no matter what it was, he wasn't willing to risk even his newest precarious position to find out.

"I'm afraid I can't take you up on your offer," he replied politely, and Hotaru let out a dark laugh in response.

"Yea, I figured you'd say that."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be—it's your funeral. You'll regret it though."

"Indeed…"

She began to flick at the lighter in her hands—trying to spark a flame to catch her slip of paper and fly off somewhere else. He felt the muscles in his stomach tighten and his jaw clench.

He didn't know how to move forward with her. He wasn't sure how to force the truth from her, or even if there was any truth to force in the first place. He only had a suspicion of her scheming but no evidence, and without evidence—without a read on her—he feared he'd spend the rest of his short five years in doubt.

He kept his eyes focused carefully on her, looking for any clue as to her motives—a smile, a twitch, even a blink would be enough. He just needed a sign—any sign—to determine what she was hiding. And then, he asked with a mindfully steady voice:

"Did you intend to take me to Inari?"

He thought the question might catch her off guard. He thought her brief moment of surprise would lend him a hint as to her intent.

However, when she looked up at him her expression was entirely unreadable.

Her wild black hair was swept up in the strong wind outside the palace, and the shadow beneath her eyes seemed ever-so apparent, but there was nothing behind her gaze to betray her words.

"I've never even met him."