Chapter 12: When no one dares

Botan's POV

"Tell me…"

Her low voice, almost in a whisper, was daring me to step forward and tell her to go back to her room, but those turquoise piercing eyes were preventing me from doing that. I managed, though, to let a few words escape my lips.

"Where are you going, Chiaki?"

"Somewhere, cousin…somewhere"

"Don't-"

I tried to reach her shoulder with my left hand as she turned around, her back facing me, but I was soon pinned down by a fierce glare from the little girl known as my cousin, my own blood. I've never seen that kind of emotion, those kinds of strong feelings like anger or wrath on her face. I've always seen her face calm, unmoving, maybe relief, or sometimes nothing but silence written on her features, but never strong feelings. It seemed like Koemna's fears were becoming reality, were being born in front of my eyes in the body of a young girl.

/ L e t h e r l e a v e … yo u h a v e s o m e t h i n g e l s e t o d o /

"That's true, Firefly…but there is…still fun here"

/ N o , c h i l d , y o u ' l l l e a v e n o w /

"Shut up…"

I could hear her talking with some demonic angel-like voice, it sounded so real, but at the same time I couldn't see the one who spoke. It was obvious she was gaining control over that creature, over their argument, loosing self-control at the same time, and it didn't matter anymore what that voice said. She was talking in an angry tone, showing the creature she was talking to that she wouldn't allow any orders from it.

"Maybe I should…make you the… blue one…"

She wore an insane expression her face and her soft but mad features were telling she was talking to me.

"My cousin…"

Every time she spoke I felt numb, frozen. Then I realized how afraid I was. I was, indeed, terrified. Afraid of her. There had been almost ten minutes since she got out of Koenma's office and had passed by me, but she had turned around quickly and started talking slowly some nonsense to me. And now I was still listening, with my blood frozen, not only because of my fear, but because of my worries too. I was worried about Koenma. I heard a sharp sound, but I still couldn't move at all. Then I noticed the source of that sound: three perfect round stones hit the ground. A blue one, a yellow one and a bigger plain white and shiny one. I kept staring.

"Why are you…looking like that…at the three eyes?"

/ C h i l d , d o n ' t y o u e v e n t h i n k a t t h a t , y o u ' r e w a s t i n g e n e r g y , y o u a l r e a d y h a v e y o u r s a i , g o a h e a d a n d f i n i s h y o u r w o r k ! /

"Work, you say…sorry, Firefly…this is not work…this is pleasure…that's why I want...three of them… my own sai…three of them…that's why my daddy…my first daddy…said"

I felt I was getting dizzy. Her words were fading away, so was her image. The last things I remember before collapsing on the floor are her retreating back and the feeling that Koenma has been through the same thing.

Normal POV

A glowing ghostly appearance was walking through the hallway. A little girl, just a little girl whose innocence whose killing innocence was glowing in her turquoise eyes. Nobody got in her way, every creature that saw her was trying to avoid her way. Everybody knew something was wrong, her presence there meant someone was hurt.

But the weirdest thing was that the spark flying next to her was starting to loose its light.

"Yusuke?"

The one who spoke got no answer.

"Yusuke?"

Again, no answer.

"Did I do something wrong?"

The same person talked, but, as before, the one got no answer. They were sitting at a small table at a café in town. Yusuke was sitting silently looking at the cloudy sky, thus avoiding the eyes of the woman beside him. She exhaled the smoke she was enjoying and spoke again, in a fake worried tone.

"Tell me already, did I do something wrong?"

After five minutes of waiting a few words from the young man, she gave up just before he whispered angrily.

"What do you think?"

"Considering your tone I guess that what she thinks is not what you think."

A voice spoke confidently from behind them, making the angry young man even more pissed off.

"Who asked you? I asked her, but I don't remember you knowing what are we talking about."

The woman's voice was meant to calm them down, though it was no help.

"Yusuke, there's no point in arguing here, I was just looking after you, I know you got angry and that's all."

"Shizuru, with all the respect I have for you, will you shut the hell up already and let me talk to this half female fox here who thinks his smart brain will always save his ass and also thinks I'm so dumb that I didn't realize he was, as well, with you when you were babysitting me, damn it!"

He spoke fast, not caring if his two followers were getting the message. He also didn't realize that half of the people in the small café were staring at him startled by his sudden outburst and strange showing of affection in public. Shizuru and Kurama were looking at him in the same manner. Suddenly calming down because of an unknown reason, the young man spoke again, more quite this time.

"Look, I just don't want you do this again, it's not your funeral, you shouldn't care."

Silence greeted him. No argument, no reply, nothing but silence, until another one, a loud one, joined them. He was, in fact, the reason they were waiting there, he was the one who had called them, so they had to stay.

"Urameshi, I wouldn't expect to see you here in the first place."

An already pissed off Yusuke had to speak again.

"Kuwabara, you were the one calling me here one hour ago telling me "it is an emergency" "

"Ok, now, stop this, you two. Brother, explain what's with this call anyway."

Everything changed after the stupid looking young man spoke one word, one word meant to make everyone remember their past mistakes.

"Yukina…"

The word made Shizuru shiver. She threw on the ground the cigarette from her left hand and stepped on it, making quick moves not letting the others see her shaking hands. She still felt guilty for letting one of her best friends trying to kill herself and at the same time she wanted to thank the person that prevented Yukina from committing suicide.

For the red haired one it was different, through he, too, felt guilty. He saw Yukina with that girl, he saw her collapsing after the girl left, but he never told anybody and he never did anything about that.

Yusuke felt empty. He noticed the ice maiden acting different in the last few weeks, but he didn't care too much. That's why he also felt a little guilty.

"Yukina has changed. Keiko told me to talk with you three about this thing. Sister, you are her best friend, why don't you try to do anything about this?"

Shizuru rose up abruptly and started walking out of the café as she got a cigarette out of her pocket and spoke.

"Why don't you two let the girl have her own life? She has a brother to find, she can take care of herself."

And she left the three men watching her leaving figure. Her destination became clear as worry grew inside her: she went to her house where she left Yukina.

A whisper broke the silence, the deadly silence that fell on the two bodies in the house.

"It felt so good"

The one who spoke licked his index finger tasting the red liquid. He enjoyed the scenery in front of him, holding tightly in his right hand a sharp sword. Right in front of his eyes, down, on the floor, was lying his latest conquer: the corpse of his woman.

"I wanted to have you, my dear Ame, but the process became violent."

He laughed as he talked to the body in front of him. The dead woman had her eyes opened, looking up at the ceiling, like she was struggling to breath. Her arms were swollen, covered in blood, as the rest of her body. The red kimono covering her was ripped, torn apart, dirty, and her hair was mostly cut or covered in blood. One of her legs had a deep cut and half of it was lying on the floor. She was drowning in the blood the leaked out of the wound in her stomach.

"You're beautiful…"

He leaned over her and kissed her swollen lips, patted her head and stabbed her forehead with the sword, still staring dreamily at her corpse.