Recap: Paranoia got the better of Hiei and Botan, and, suspecting Mukuro and Yusuke of having an affair, Hiei and Botan began spying on them, but were discovered in a compromising position.

Chapter 11: Cross the Line

"I can explain!" Botan cried.

"I'd rather you didn't bother…" Mukuro muttered, folding her arms.

Botan turned to Hiei, hoping that he would say or do something to save them both: but instead he continued to stare at Mukuro, that same awkward and anxious look on his slightly paled face.

"It stinks in there!" Yusuke said, moving his free hand over his nose. "And you're both covered in it!"

"I think that was the point," Mukuro said. "They did it to mask their scent from detection."

"But why?" Yusuke asked.

"Isn't it obvious why?"

"…Isn't it obvious why Hiei and Botan would go rolling around in trash together?"

Mukuro nodded.

"No," Yusuke said, shaking his head. "Should it be?"

"They're trying to hide from us, and this was a desperation tactic," Mukuro explained. "They followed us here."

Yusuke turned to Botan, wide-eyed.

"Is that true?" he asked her. "Are you spying on me Botan?"

Botan shook her head urgently.

"Only a little bit!" she said.

Yusuke's face twisted.

"Why are you spying on me?" he asked. "Did Koenma put you up to this? I thought he was keeping his sticky beak out of demon world politics these days!"

"No," Botan replied, shaking her head. "Please, this has nothing to do with Lord Koenma–"

"Stop defending him, Botan!" Yusuke cut her off. "I'm gonna go to spirit world and give that little brat a piece of my mind!"

He released the lid of the dumpster and it slammed shut, the impact hard enough to leave the entire container reverberating. Once more plunged into darkness, Botan was momentarily confused, and her senses only returned to her when she felt Hiei moving behind her.

"Oh no, this is awful!" she cried, squirming her way out from under him. "Yusuke!" she yelled.

Hiei muttered something behind her but she ignored him, struggling to her feet and pushing open the lid above her.

"Yusuke, wait!" she called out.

She quickly summoned her oar and launched herself out of the dumpster, arranging her legs on her ride as she flew after Yusuke, who was marching away from the restaurant. Thankfully he had not decided to run away, and so she caught up to him relatively quickly.

"Yusuke, please!" she said as she drew level with him.

"I'm not mad at you, Botan," he assured her. "I know you have to do whatever Koenma tells you to."

"But Lord Koenma didn't tell me to do anything!"

Yusuke stopped abruptly and Botan accidentally flew past him. She turned around in the air and banished her oar, dropping to the ground and then walking back to stand before him.

"You were in a dumpster, covered in crap," Yusuke pointed out, gingerly picking a stray noodle from her hair and holding it up in the air between them to demonstrate his point.

"I fell," she replied, snatching the noodle from his hand and flinging it aside.

"You were hiding in there," he said sternly. "With Hiei."

"He pushed me in," she said.

"Botan, I know you were spying on me. Why else would you be in a dumpster full of garbage with Hiei?"

"It's not what you think."

"I think Koenma asked you to spy on me, and Hiei came with you because he's still pissed about us inviting Kurama to join us and not him."

"Hiei's not that petty."

Botan immediately frowned in surprise at herself: Hiei was that petty, she thought. After all, his reason for following her had been because he had not wanted her to find out that his love interest was interested in someone else before he did.

"Hiei isn't the sort of guy to just jump into a dumpster," Yusuke said. "He had to have a good reason for being there

"H-he did," Botan awkwardly replied. "He was… Protecting me, like you asked him to, remember?"

Yusuke looked less than convinced and so Botan continued.

"When you sent us away to stay at the motel, you told Hiei to guard me while I was here in demon world to keep me safe, and so he followed me here to protect me."

Yusuke still looked less than convinced.

"He said he had made an agreement with you to keep me out of harm's way," she tried. "And you know Hiei: he never backs out of any sort of agreement!"

Botan smiled and swung a fist through the air, though on the inside she was wilting: her brain was spawning memories of the multitudes of agreements Hiei had backed out of in the past.

"Yeah, I guess that does sound like Hiei," Yusuke eventually said, much to her relief. "But that only explains why Hiei was in there. Why were you sneaking around like that?"

"Oh, well, um–"

"I'm going to see Koenma."

"No, no! That's won't be necessary!"

"…Really?"

"No, I mean, why don't you let me go instead? I'll talk to him and, um…"

Yusuke sighed and clapped a hand a little too roughly onto Botan's shoulder. She flinched at the initial contact but quickly relaxed as she felt the warmth of his touch through her kimono and saw the amiable smile he was giving her.

"I'm gonna be here for a few more days yet," he said in a quieter voice. "You probably should just go back to spirit world for now. I'll call you when I'm done here, and uh… Well…"

Yusuke's eyes flicked downwards and a strange look passed over his face. Under any other circumstances, Botan would have simpered up to him and tried to find out what was bothering him: but she was so relieved that she had escaped suspicion and so eager to escape before Hiei interrupted and spoiled everything, she overlooked Yusuke's strange behaviour.

"I should be getting back, you're right," she said. "There are always souls to collect and… Ferry girl things to do!"

She laughed nervously and summoned her oar, stumbling back slightly and breaking the contact between them.

"I'm not, y'know, forcing you to leave or anything," Yusuke said as she mounted her oar. "It's just safer for you if you… It won't be long, and as soon as I'm done here, we can… It won't be long. I promise."

"That's alright, I understand," Botan assured him – though inwardly she did think he looked unusually concerned about what seemed to her to be only a minor matter. "Good luck and goodbye!"

"Later, Botan."

He held up a hand and gave her a slightly strained smile as she rose into the air. Something was amiss, and she was curious as to what it might be, but as she ascended into the sky she got line of sight of where Hiei and Mukuro were, and she became distracted again. She wondered what lie Hiei had told Mukuro for his presence there or if he had just blamed her. He had probably just blamed her, she thought. She could hear his voice saying "that idiot ferry girl did this to me" inside her head already.

"Jerk," she muttered under her breath, before shooting off across the sky.

Hiei sniffed at the air before curling his lip in disgust.

"The ogre just farted," Koenma hurriedly said, pointing a short, chubby finger at the simpering blue ogre in the corner of the room.

"Hn," Hiei grunted.

He knew that the ogre was not really to blame for the foul stench permeating the air around them.

"S-so you definitely don't want some tea, or a snack?" Koenma asked.

Hiei shook his head, leaning back further in the seat that had been placed out for him in front of Koenma's desk.

"It was um, lovely of you to uh, pay us a visit like this," Koenma said, drumming his little fingers nervously against his desk. "So unexpected, and sudden, and inexplicable, and unnerving…"

"Hn."

"How's Yusuke?"

"I've only spoken to him once in the last thirty years. You tell me."

"Oh, I see… Well what about Kurama?"

"I've only spoken to him once in the last thirty years too."

"Oh… Yukina?"

Hiei glared threateningly at the young prince, who immediately broke out into a sweat, turned pale, and then accused the ogre of having farted again.

"I grow weary of your cowardice," Hiei said darkly.

"W-well, you did just arrive here, quite unexpectedly, and totally unannounced, and with no real apparent good reason, and you are quite intimidating…" Koenma quietly replied.

"I already told you why I came here," Hiei tightly replied. "This is a social call."

"Yes… That's the most unexpected and intimidating part…" Koenma whimpered.

"I was recently reunited with some old friends, and I felt nostalgic," Hiei sarcastically replied. "So I decided to come here and reunite myself with my allies from spirit world too."

Koenma nodded, shivered and then made a strange noise as though he had been sick and swallowed it back down.

"Like Lord Koenma and Botan?" the ogre asked.

Koenma's head snapped up and he smiled brilliantly.

"Botan!" he blurted out far too loudly. "Of course! You remember Botan, don't you Hiei?"

"Hn, the idiot ferry girl?" Hiei casually replied. "How could I forget?"

"Ogre, fetch Botan!" Koenma snapped at the meek ogre. "Right now!"

"Sir, Botan was working the night-shift, she's still asleep in her chambers–"

"I said right now!"

"That's fine," Hiei said abruptly, rising from his seat.

Koenma audibly gulped as Hiei's shadow fell over him.

"I'll go up to her room, and if she is still asleep, I'll leave her be," Hiei said lightly.

"Um, I'm not really sure that my father would be pleased about having an S-Class demon roaming around spirit world uncontrolled and–"

Hiei turned his head sharply to glare at the stunted prince, who immediately cowered down in his chair and grinned nervously.

"Go right ahead," he said in a squeaky voice.

Hiei glared at Koenma for a little longer before briskly marching towards the door and following the blue ogre out of it. The ogre inexplicably thought that he needed to guide Hiei to Botan's room, and so Hiei was subjected to an extended diatribe about the miserable creature's pathetic life of servitude before he finally reached his destination.

"It's this door here," the ogre said, as though he needed to. "Let's see if she's awake."

The ogre clenched a fist and lifted it towards the door, poising his knuckles to rap them against the wood, but Hiei was already a step ahead of him: before the ogre could politely knock on Botan's bedroom door, Hiei had already thrown it open. The ogre took a few wary steps back before fleeing from the scene, leaving Hiei to enter the room alone.

Botan's bedroom was quite a small and humble room, the floor-space mostly dominated by her bed and wardrobe, which, Hiei thought, was probably for the best, as the remaining spaces had been decorated with pointless pastel-coloured trinkets and sparkly things. Grunting in disapproval, Hiei moved over to Botan's bed and leaned over it, peering down at Botan herself, who was still sleeping soundly, only her head visible, the rest of her securely tucked into the bed.

"Wake up, idiot," he barked, grabbing her sheets and yanking them from her.

Botan awoke with a cry of alarm, sitting up and looking first at her bed-sheets as they fell to the ground, then at her open door and finally up at Hiei. She gave a short scream as their eyes met, but quickly silenced herself, her fear and shock replaced by worry.

"Hiei!" she hissed, scrambling to her feet. "What are you doing here in spirit world? It's dangerous for you to be here, as a demon, someone might think you've come here to cause trouble!"

She leapt from her bed, her sleeping yukata flying out behind her and revealing far more skin than Hiei thought she realised, and she hurriedly and quietly slid her door closed.

"Why did you come here anyway?" she whispered, turning back to Hiei. "Is Yusuke looking for me already? I thought he'd be busy for at least a few days more yet…"

She smoothed her hair back from her face – though the action was mostly pointless, as her hair was secured on top of her head in two tight buns and any remaining pieces were in curlers. She looked around her room before eying Hiei over again, her worry gradually turning into anger.

"What do you want?" she asked, her tone finally more confident.

"I was bored," he flatly replied. "And now I'm in the mood for coitus."

Botan opened her mouth to answer him, raising one finger in the air – but before she could form words a strange look passed over her eyes and her finger slowly wilted, curling down against her palm.

"E-excuse me?" she said faintly.

"You heard me," he replied. "Think you can be quiet enough that we can do it here, or do I need to take you back to demon world?"

Her jaw dropped.

"We already agreed that the shrinking violet good girl act is just a front, and that you don't need to put it on around me," he reminded her.

"You can't come here, to spirit world, into my private quarters, and demand sex from me!" she growled at him.

"Yes I can," he casually replied. "In fact, I just did. And we had a deal."

"We had no deal!" she snapped. "I would never make any sort of deal like that with anyone, least of all you!"

She sighed and then frowned and tilted her head to one side.

"Wait, what deal?"

Hiei rolled his eyes.

"Physical companionship to ease the frustration," he said.

She shook her head.

"No," she said. "We never made a deal on that, that was just something that… Just sort of happened… And it's over now!"

"It's not over," Hiei said quietly.

"Yes it is!"

"No it isn't."

"I'm telling you that it's over!"

"It's not over just because you say it is."

"If I don't want to do it any more, we won't be able to do it any more, will we?"

"Yes, but usually you just like to say that you don't want to do it any more for the sake of appearing to be virtuous, and then we just do it anyway."

"Well this time it's not happening like that!"

"I agree. Get your oar, we have to go somewhere else."

Botan's face twisted in anger.

"You're not listening to me!" she hissed. "I said we're not doing this!"

"We're certainly not doing it right here," Hiei replied, lightly knocking the knuckle of his index finger against the wall. "These walls aren't very sound-proof."

"First of all, you can't come here and insult the structure of this temple," Botan growled. "And secondly, and much more importantly, if you're so worried about someone hearing you taking advantage of me, maybe that should tell you how wrong your intentions are."

Hiei quirked an eyebrow at her, unsure if he was confused or amused by her last remark.

"I don't care what anyone here thinks about me," he told her. "I was thinking about you. You like to maintain your image of the impeccable ferry girl, don't you?"

"…What's your point?" she asked.

"My point is, nobody will believe your pleas of purity and innocence after they hear the noises you make when you orgasm."

Botan slapped a hand against her chest and squawked indignantly.

"How very dare you!" she hissed.

"You mewl like a cat in heat," Hiei added.

"I do not!" she argued.

"Are you deaf?" he spat back. "When you climax, you clearly make a noise like a cat scratching its – wait, maybe you don't hear yourself, since you're usually so caught up in the moment and probably deafened by the sounds of your own cries."

"Well maybe you… And…"

Botan gritted her teeth angrily, and Hiei was left wondering if she was at a loss for words because of her misplaced anger or simply because she knew that arguing with him was a fruitless venture, since clearly he was right.

"I despise you, Hiei," she said in a low voice.

He arched his eyebrows at her cynically, and she sighed, a familiar look of acceptance of defeat donning her face.

"I just wanted you to know that before," she said quietly.

"Before what?" he grunted, frowning slightly.

She sighed again and then fell against him. He caught her a little awkwardly, and his frown quickly faded to give way to an amused, lecherous grin as she began clawing at his clothing and kissing his throat. He made a mental note to torment her about her lack of will power later, suppressing the thought until then and instead focusing on manoeuvring her onto her bed.

Hiei stood watching Botan, a strange feeling filling him as his eyes wandered over her slumbering form. He had managed to successfully untangle himself from her and escape her bed without wakening her, but once he had stepped away from the bed, he had found himself strangely conflicted. He had held onto her after their rampant session of passion, mainly because he had not wanted her to look him in the face and see just how badly he was sweating – it had taken more self-control than he had expected to stop himself from climaxing long before she did – and she had rapidly fallen asleep in his embrace, presumably because she had been sleeping when he had arrived and was still tired. She was quite deeply asleep too: she was laid sprawled on her front, completely naked, her bed and body devoid of bed-sheets. She had been lying at Hiei's side, partially flopped over his chest, and when he had made his escape, he had left her flattened against the bed, her head turned slightly to one side and her face mostly obscured from view beneath her sweat-tangled hair. And, just faintly, she was snoring.

It was simultaneously the most disgraceful and the most wonderful sight Hiei had ever seen.

He wanted to wake her up: but really only to brag, he told himself. She had, after all, proved him right by making some distinctly feline noises at the peak of her excitement, and he was almost certain that she had heard herself – and if she had been too lost in her own joy to notice, he was almost certain that at least one of her friends in spirit world was bound to have overheard and would be able to back up his claims. He wanted to see her squirm and try to deny it. He wanted to see that indignant look she got on her face when she knew that she was losing an argument, the flash of anger in her eyes, the petulant pout of her lips, the tensing of her body and the clenching of her fists as though she thought she could actually pose any physical threat with them. The slight rush of colour in her cheeks, the increase in her heart rate, the heaving of her chest, the flicks of her hair and flashes of her teeth as she berated him.

Hiei suddenly realised that Botan was awake. She had, oddly without his noticing, awoken and shuffled up to sit on one hip, her shoulder nearest him hunched slightly and her arm protectively shielding her breasts from his view, and her legs strategically bent and crossed over to conceal as much of the rest of herself from his view as she possibly could. And although Hiei found her insistence on acting modest quite infuriating, this time he barely noticed it, as the positioning of her body had nothing on the rather unusual look she was giving him.

"What?" he demanded, scowling at her.

She shook her head slightly, her face twisting further and her eyes somehow looking even larger despite her lowered brow.

"Y-you were just…" she began awkwardly.

"Leaving, like you wanted me to?" he suggested.

He waved a hand at his clothes, still discarded on the floor around him, but made no attempt to retrieve them.

"N-no," she said, before gulping and giving a small shiver. "I woke up and you… You were just standing there staring at me and… You were growling at me."

"What?" he echoed.

"You were growling at me," she repeated.

"I've got better things to do with my time than stand around watching you sleep, woman!" he snapped.

Her eyebrows lifted slightly as though she was surprised by his response.

"But Hiei, you were watching me sleep," she pointed out. "In fact, you still are just standing there watching me."

"Hn, don't flatter yourself!"

Hiei felt some of his initial anger fade as he saw Botan give him a distinctly cynical look. A part of him wanted to leap back into her bed but another part of him thought that doing so was the worst idea imaginable: though not because it would not be enjoyable.

"You want me to leave," he said quietly.

"If you want to leave, then you should go," she quietly replied.

He nodded and began gathering up his clothes.

"I'll do you a favour this once, ferry girl," he said as he began to get dressed. "I'll go, since that's what you want."

"If you think you should go, then it's best that you do," she replied.

Hiei was not really sure that they were understanding each other, but when he turned to correct her, he found her pulling on her yukata again and stepping into a pair of sandals.

"What are you doing?" he asked, smoothing down his shirt as he watched her dress.

"Helping you leave," she replied, turning to face him. "Since that's what you want to do."

He watched her walk past him to the door of her room, which she opened slightly and peered out of.

"You don't need to do that," he said, grabbing up his cloak and roughly pulling it on. "I can see that you want me to leave, so I'm going. I don't need you to follow me out. You can trust me to leave."

"Someone might see you here and get the wrong idea," she replied, opening the door and stepping out into the hallway beyond. "I wouldn't want you to feel embarrassed or ashamed."

"You're the one who's embarrassed and ashamed," he said abruptly, winding his scarf around his neck and stomping over to join her.

She met his eyes as he stopped in front of her, the strange look still present on her face: it was a tense, sceptical, questioning, confused and slightly worried look, and he did not like it at all.

"Goodbye, Hiei," she said lightly.

He started to grunt out a response but was cut off by the feeling of her lips on his. It was a fleeting, feather-light gesture, and before the warmth of the contact had even faded she had already made a rapid retreat back into her room and closed the door between them.

"Stupid woman…" he muttered, before walking on down the corridor alone.

As he went he tried to figure out why she had acted so strangely when she had woken up, but he found it hard to concentrate on that thought – or indeed on any logical thought – as he realised that he could still smell her on himself: even his scarf smelled like her, despite the fact that it had spent most of the time on her bedroom floor. He shortly became more concerned with how that was possible than anything else, and consequently cursed louder and more harshly than he normally would have when someone suddenly appeared at his side as he turned onto another corridor.

"Leaving so soon, Hiei?" Koenma greeted him.

Hiei paused long enough to see if the prince would acknowledge his profanity before answering.

"I have no more business here," he eventually managed to say.

"I see," Koenma said, nodding sagely. "I'm glad I caught you before you left Hiei, because there is something very important I have to tell you."

"I don't care," Hiei groaned. "I'm not interested in your affairs."

"The feeling's mutual, believe me," Koenma replied. "Which, rather ironically, is what I wanted to talk to you about. Your affairs, I mean."

Hiei slowed slightly, the vague sense that something bad was about to happen creeping up on him. He peered down at Koenma, who, in his toddler form, was having to scurry along almost comically fast to keep pace with Hiei, whose legs were almost twice the height of the little prince of spirit world. Ideas about ending up back in spirit world prison flitted through Hiei's mind: the idiot prince had probably heard all the noise Botan was making and assumed that she was crying out in pain rather than delight, and jumped to the wrong conclusion in the sort of way that only the heir to the throne of a world devoid of sex possibly could.

"I'll admit that you caught me off-guard when you arrived here earlier," Koenma continued. "Your little story about wanting to reunite with old allies was quite forced and awkward, and it made us both feel uneasy. I really just wanted to let you know that you don't need to bother with a similar lie the next time you come here."

Hiei slowed further still.

"What makes you think I will come back here?" he asked.

"The only part that bothers me is the awkwardness between you and me, Hiei," Koenma replied. "So I really just wanted to tell you not to bother trying to exchange false pleasantries with me the next time."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Hiei snapped, speeding up again.

"I'm talking about the next time, Hiei," Koenma replied.

"The next time what?"

"The next time you feel like bonking Botan."

Hiei staggered to an abrupt halt, almost tripping over his own ankles. As soon as he was steady on his feet he turned his head sharply to glare down at Koenma who had stopped at his side, his head tilted back to look up at him.

"Let's save ourselves both some unnecessary tension and wasted time pretending that I don't know why you really came here today," Koenma added.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hiei muttered, hoping that his tone did not sound as uneven to Koenma as it had to his own ears.

"I'm sorry, I'm maybe a little out of touch with today's lingo," Koenma replied, looking almost genuinely apologetic. "Let me try again: I know the real reason that you came here today was because you wanted to have a booty call with Botan, and that's fine with me, so please don't feel that you need to pretend to have an appointment here, or business with me the next time you have that urge. It's just awkward and unpleasant for the both of us, neither of us want to do it, and neither of us need to do it. Next time, just go straight to Botan if she's the real reason you're here."

"Boo-Booty ca…?" Hiei began, words failing him as he looked down at the still shockingly calm face looking back up at him.

"It's okay Hiei," he said, nodding slightly. "I understand. I always thought she had a great pair of legs too."

Hiei's face twisted and he no longer cared if Koenma noticed or not.

"You shouldn't be thinking things like that!" Hiei snapped. "Not with your… With that…"

He waved a hand at Koenma as he tried to think of a way to explain how inherently wrong it was for the pre-school prince of a world of purity and principles to be thinking and talking about such lewd matters.

"Shouldn't you be more interested in breasts?" he eventually blurted out.

Koenma tilted his head slightly and Hiei started to feel stupid – why was he discussing such things with Koenma of all people?

"I mean because of your oral fixation!" he corrected himself, pointing at the ornate pacifier in Koenma's mouth.

He thought he saw the corner of Koenma's mouth curl slightly upwards at either side of the pacifier, and he distinctly saw the prince's eyes change shape as though he was smiling.

"I mean because you always have to be sucking it!" he tried.

He definitely saw a smile creep onto Koenma's face.

"Your mind isn't supposed to work that way," Hiei said. "You're a child, and you're one of the spirit world squad, you're not supposed to notice anything sexual about anyone, legs or otherwise!"

"I get a better view of legs from down here," Koenma replied, looking and sounding earnest for a brief moment. "And I suppose, the size you used to be, you always got a better view of breasts!"

To Hiei's absolute horror, Koenma began to snort and giggle into one hand.

"And I guess you probably still do get a good view from up there, right?" he continued. "Before you were on eye-level with them, but now you can look down tops at them!"

Hiei took a wary step back.

"It's the same thing for me, only in reverse," Koenma said. "At this height, I can see up skirts, and sometimes that can really be a bonus – though maybe I shouldn't try that trick with Botan again, right?"

Hiei bared his teeth angrily.

"You're a filthy little pervert!" he snapped. "Does the rest of spirit world know what a dirty mind you have?"

"Maybe not," Koenma replied, again briefly feigning sincerity. "But the rest of spirit world does now know what a dirty mind you have, Hiei."

Hiei made to reply, but when Koenma burst out laughing, he decided against it. Instead he turned and marched briskly away, heading out of the temple and back to the portal back to demon world: but as he went, he could not help but notice the occasional gathering of whispering ferry girls he passed, who all when quiet as he neared and then giggled once he was gone.

"World of perverts…" he grumbled as he gladly jumped back through the portal.

On the other side, back in demon world, Hiei breathed a sigh of relief and slowed his pace slightly, making a mental note never to return to spirit world or converse with that idiot Koenma ever again. He had landed back in a woodland that was typically infested with low-level demons, and even though his arrival would usually have scattered them, he thought it was odd that his surroundings were so silent and devoid of life: he had expected to at least hear the minor demons making their escape.

After a few seconds longer of walking in eerie silence, Hiei almost stumbled over the reason for it: Mukuro was sat at the base of a tree, her head resting against the trunk and her eyes closed. She looked peaceful and it seemed as though she was asleep, but Hiei knew better.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked, stopping in front of her.

"Waiting for you, Hiei," she replied without opening her eyes.

"Was I meant to be somewhere else?" he asked. "I thought you had business with Yusuke."

She opened her eyes, and a small hint of a smile appeared on her face.

"Not any more," she replied. "Walk with me."

She stood up and casually dusted the mud and bark from her clothing.

"You're finished with Yusuke?" he asked her.

"I'm all yours," she replied.

Hiei paused, forgetting to so much as breathe. He was sure that the ambiguity of her words was an error, and that the thought that they might be literal was merely wishful thinking on his own part: but there was something about the glint in her eye that he could not quite explain.

"Let's go, Hiei," she said.

He nodded and together they walked on: but the strange feeling did not leave him.

Next Chapter: Botan and Yusuke are reunited, his business with Mukuro finished, and Botan is shocked when he takes her out on a date – especially so when she doesn't feel as joyful about the whole thing as she had always thought she would. And things get even more confusing and complicated when, on their date, Botan and Yusuke encounter another couple sharing an awkward evening together. Chapter 12 – Something Changed