Recap: Kuwabara confronted Hiei about not finding Yukina's brother(!) and Botan bumped into one of the bandits she met in the past during her time travel experience, leaving Hiei with a lot of unanswered questions.

Chapter 38: The Saving Grace

Botan cleared her throat awkwardly. She had been sitting on the roof of Genkai's temple for a considerable length of time – night had fallen already – and most of that time had been spent in silence. She was starting to grow impatient, but she understood the importance of impressing her point on Kuwabara before going inside, and so she continued to wait for him to acknowledge what she had told him.

"Are you trying to tell me…" he eventually said. "That Yukina… That I might have…?"

Botan suppressed a sigh and forced a smile.

"Yes," she said.

Although he had not ended any of his sentences she already knew what he had been trying to ask: was she telling him that Yukina might have twins, that Yukina might give birth to a violent fire demon child and that Kuwabara might be the father of it.

"Though, as I said already, nobody really knows how this might turn out, exactly," she added carefully. "Because, as far as we are aware, no ice maiden has ever… Conceived with a human before."

"What do you mean "we"?" Kuwabara asked. "Did you tell Rui about this?"

"No," Botan said, shaking her head. "I didn't want to worry her."

Kuwabara's face darkened and Botan suddenly realised her mistake.

"Not that you and Yukina having a child together should be a worry for anyone!" she hurriedly added.

"But it is, if what you're saying is true," he replied. "I can't ever have a child with Yukina, because if I do, it will be born a fire-breathing monster! And… Eww, will it look like Hiei too?"

Botan pulled a disgruntled kitty face at Kuwabara and growled at him like a cat, but he appeared not to notice, his face instead slowly changing as though a sense of realisation was dawning in his mind.

"Oh my God!" he hissed. "Hiei! I get it now!"

"Oh hallelujah!" she brightened.

"Hiei is a violent fire demon with red eyes and a crappy childhood!" Kuwabara continued, waving a finger at Botan. "It all makes so much sense now! Hiei is an emiko!"

"Yes!" Botan said. "Oh goodness, I'm so relieved that you figured it out for yourself at long last! I can't wait to tell Yusuke. He had you pegged for being quite the silly billy for not understanding this before!"

"Hiei was born in the ice village, and they cast him out, and that's why he's such a nasty little short man!"

"Hiei's not a short man…"

"What? Yes he is! The top of his head is like the same height as your armpit!"

"…Oh well, I suppose he's not very tall, but I certainly wouldn't ever describe him as a short man…"

"What the hell are you talking about, Botan?"

Botan grinned nervously as she felt her face start to grow hot. She gave her head a small shake, hoping to literally shake her thoughts into order: she was trying to explain to Kuwabara that Yukina might give birth to an emiko and how they should cope with that, it was not an appropriate time for her to be thinking about parts of Hiei's anatomy that she had no right to know about and Kuwabara was highly unlikely to want to hear anything about.

"So now you understand that Hiei is an emiko?" she said, hoping to bring the conversation back on track.

"Yeah!" Kuwabara agreed, his expression gaining focus again. "I guess that's why he knew where the ice village was too. I wonder why he never told Yukina…"

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Botan asked. "He was protecting her."

"Nah, that's not it," Kuwabara said, waving a hand at her dismissively. "He probably didn't want her to know what he really is."

"…That was the point I was trying to make…"

"Damn it, that just makes it worse!"

"Yes, I know. You see why Hiei was so upset when he found out that Yukina was pregnant. He was worried that you had… And that she might give birth to a child as violent as he was."

"If Hiei's an emiko, and he was born in the ice village, and he has that jagan eye that can find anything or anyone, what excuse can he possibly have for not knowing Yukina's brother?"

Botan moaned and fell over, sliding slightly against the sloped roof. Frankly, she was so overwhelmed by Kuwabara's denial, she did not even care if she did slide off the roof completely and fall to the ground below: maybe being comatose would make dealing with the situation far easier.

"Kuwabara…" she began, crawling back up the roof towards him. "Maybe…"

As she sat opposite Kuwabara once more, Botan started to think that she should stop trying to correct him. After all, she had always believed that it was up to Hiei who he told about his relationship with Yukina, and he had never opted to tell Kuwabara before. And she was sure that Yukina had figured out what Rui's drawings really meant, and eventually she would understand Kuwabara's confusion and correct him: Botan just hoped that she was there to witness it when it happened. She smiled at the thought of Yukina innocently telling the love-struck Kuwabara that her twin brother was actually that dark and moody fire demon who hated him so much.

"What are you smirking about?" Kuwabara asked her suspiciously. "I still don't get why you like Hiei so much, you know."

"…Never mind about that now," Botan replied, suppressing her smile. "Do you understand what I've been trying to tell you about Yukina and the possibility of her giving birth to an emiko?"

"I'm not stupid, Botan!" he grumbled.

"Just stupid with denial…"

"What?"

"Nothing!"

Botan smiled sweetly and patted Kuwabara's arm.

"So you understand that if the birth goes horribly wrong, you will have to get Shizuru and Keiko out of the temple," she said.

"Right, I'll tell them to go outside," he replied.

"No," Botan replied, shaking her head. "If there is a fire demon, you will have to put the girls into your car and drive them away from here. You understand that this child will be extremely powerful."

"But it'll just be a newborn baby!"

"That doesn't matter. He will be born with the same power level as a mid-level A-class demon."

"What?!"

"I don't know how deadly he will be, because he won't have any knowledge about how to actually use his attacks effectively, but even if he just threw a few random energy blasts he could easily bring this whole temple down…"

Botan frowned slightly as she noticed that Kuwabara was staring at her with wide eyes and an open mouth.

"Very dangerous," she said again. "It's a jolly good thing that you've got me here to keep you right on track!"

"That's so not reassuring…"

"Come along, let's go and have a nice cup of cocoa and catch up with our friends!"

Kuwabara quirked an eyebrow at Botan sceptically – she suspected that he was a little bit frightened and had been deliberately stalling their conversation in the hope of delaying the inevitable – but she ignored his concerned, rising to her feet and holding out her hands towards him. He grabbed onto her hands and did little to help her as she dragged him to his feet, almost pulling a muscle in her back as she did so. She knew that he had not done it deliberately – Kuwabara was nothing if not chivalrous – but she glared at him regardless before leaping off the roof and easing herself to the ground on her oar. He could find his own way down, she decided, as punishment for letting her hurt her back.

Botan felt quite pleased with herself – all things considered – and she was really looking forward to just having a cup of cocoa and catching up with Shizuru, Keiko and Yukina. And after Yukina, Keiko and Kuwabara had gone to bed, she would probably stay up a little later with Shizuru and enjoy a couple of more grown up drinks and a few rounds of poker.

"Ah! Shizuru!" Botan yelped, her mind suddenly snapping back into stress mode as she realised that Shizuru was sitting on the temple steps directly below the section of roof Botan had been sat on with Kuwabara. "How long have you been sitting there?"

"Long enough to get some closure," Shizuru replied with a wry smile. "When my brother left this place in a blind rage last night I thought he was mad because Hiei is Yukina's brother. It didn't make sense that he would react that way, and now I see why…"

She sighed before rising to her feet.

"It's been pretty hectic around here, but I'm guessing it's all nothing compared to what's been going on in demon world, right?" she said.

Botan started to answer her but was cut off by Kuwabara landing heavily and a little awkwardly beside her.

"Hey sis," he said, nodding to Shizuru.

"Hey baby bro," she replied. "You're still alive, so I'm guessing that you didn't get a chance to go near Hiei. And by the looks of the busted lip Botan must have been trying to smack some sense into you."

"You're so funny," Kuwabara drawled, rolling his eyes. "Where's Yukina?"

"Asleep," Shizuru flatly replied. "She saw the two of you coming back and started laying out refreshments for you, but after half an hour we all got bored waiting for you to come in, so we ate and drank everything ourselves and then Yukina and Keiko went to bed. I was about to head off myself, I only came out for a smoke."

As though to illustrate her point Shizuru took one last drag on her cigarette before dropping it and stamping it into the grass.

"I'm going to bed, I've had a really hectic twenty-four hours…" Kuwabara grumbled, marching inside.

Botan resisted the urge to tell him that his last twenty-four hours had nothing on hers in terms of being hectic, instead just watching him disappear before turning to smile at Shizuru.

"I guess it's just you and me," Shizuru said to her, returning her smile. "How about we have something a little stronger than cocoa and you can tell me what our three favourite demons have been up to lately."

Mukuro awoke abruptly, her face twisted into a sneer. Whatever had just made that noise was going to die. By the sounds of it, something – or perhaps even someone – had just blown up an entire wing of her fortress, and as she soon as she found the guilty party, she intended to make him or her suffer suitably.

She rose from her bed, grumbling a few choice curses as she tugged on a robe and tied it lazily around her waist, stepping into a pair of boots. She pushed her hair back from her face and shook herself off before marching briskly from her room. She did not have to walk far before she started encountering some of her foot soldiers – the weaker, A class demons – running around in the halls. They were all heading in the general direction of the disturbance, and as she heard their frantic rants echoing around her she found that her initial suspicions about the origin of the explosion had been correct: and so she started to jog, heading in the direction of the medical wing.

By the time she had reached the corridor leading to the room the healing chambers resided in, Mukuro could see the concentration of the chaos around a section of rubble that had once been a wall. She could hear voices arguing, but, much to her disappointment, most of them were arguing over which of them should be made to enter the room the disturbance had come from. Unfortunately, almost half of Mukuro's top warriors were not present, either because they were staying in the hotel by the tournament arena or because they were in healing chambers themselves, and the soldiers that remained at the fortress were no match for the individual who had caused the explosion – not even if they all combined their powers and attacked at once.

"Out of the way," Mukuro said, shouldering her way through the throngs of bodies until she saw two demons from her elite 77. "What happened?" she asked them. "I thought we secured him in there."

Mukuro moved further into the room, unsurprised to see Hiei glowering across the room at them from amongst the crumbled remains of a healing chamber he had apparently blasted his way out of in a fit of rage. He was still naked and dripping wet, crouched amongst the rubble, and although he had not moved from the location of his healing chamber, he had somehow managed to acquire a sword – though clearly the weapon was not his own, and so presumably he had taken it by force from the first soldier unfortunate enough to try to contain him.

"The medics say he was thrashing about a lot," one of Mukuro's top soldiers at her side told her. "They said it just happened suddenly. One minute he was fine, the next he was trying to get out. He tried to open the unit from the inside and then suddenly he just erupted and blew out the whole chamber… And about four or five others around him… And the wall…"

"Get me a sedative," Mukuro flatly replied. "And make sure it's a strong one."

The soldier looked a little reluctant to follow her order but she ignored him, walking further into the room towards Hiei.

"You're meant to be resting, you fool," she told him.

"I'm leaving," he replied, before wiping a hand down his face to clear the excess liquid still dripping from his hair. "And don't bother trying to stop me."

"What are you going to do?" she asked, coming to a stop in front of him.

"I'm going to the living world, of course!" he replied.

"I didn't ask where you were going. I already know where you think you're going. I asked what do you intend to do once you get there?"

"…Not your concern."

"Didn't you learn a little something yesterday about rushing into things without planning them out a beforehand?"

Hiei narrowed his eyes dangerously at her but Mukuro was beyond caring as she had just been handed the syringe she had requested.

"If you won't stay here by choice, you'll stay here by force," she said.

Hiei's eyes moved to the syringe and widened slightly. He swung the sword at the syringe but Mukuro was easily able to keep it out of his range, stabbing it forwards into his shoulder as he completed his swing.

"You bitch!" he snarled at her. "You can't keep me here like I'm your property!"

Mukuro passed the empty syringe back to the soldier behind her, holding her other hand out in a halting signal as Hiei started to try to stand up.

"Don't bother," she advised him. "You'll be out before you can even take one step."

He growled at her but the sound was weak as his eyelids began to droop. Mukuro signalled for the medics to return to the room, which they did reluctantly, none of them daring to approach Hiei until he was lying completely unconscious against the floor.

"Was that necessary?" the soldier at Mukuro's side asked.

"Yes," she flatly replied. "And make sure that you secure him in there this time!" she yelled over to the medics who were carrying Hiei towards another healing chamber.

"Judging by the amount of power he used to blast out of there, he was about back to full strength already," the soldier pointed out.

"There's no real need for him to stay in there any longer in terms of his need to heal or recuperate his strength," Mukuro replied. "I just need him to stay in there so that he doesn't do something stupid. There's only one thing that could make him blow up like that, and it's not something he needs to get involved in right now."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"Obviously his twin sister just went into labour."

Botan groaned, pushing off the sheet covering her and turning to lie on her back. Her actions made her fall suddenly, her head and shoulders hitting the ground with a thump that proved to be a rude awakening from an otherwise surprisingly peaceful slumber.

"Botan, are you alright?"

Botan opened her eyes and looked up to see Yukina knelt at her side. A quick glance about herself told her that she was still in the living room of the temple, on the floor next to the couch she had been sat on the night before.

"Yukina…" she muttered, sitting up with a slight wince. "Goodness, did I sleep here all night?"

"You dropped off while I was in the kitchen getting us a drink," Shizuru answered her. "You looked really relaxed, it seemed a shame to disturb you. I was going to ask my brother to carry you to a bed, but he was already asleep too, and… He forgot to cover himself up…"

Shizuru's face twisted slightly before she managed a smile. Botan turned to Yukina, eying her over curiously before looking about the room. There was no sign of Keiko or Kuwabara, so Botan decided to take advantage of the opportunity of neither being present.

"I didn't know what was in Rui's letter," she said, turning back to Yukina. "If I had known, I would have kept it from you until after the baby came. I don't think you needed all that stress. Especially Kuwabara flying off the handle and not understanding…"

"Oh no, but I'm really happy that I read Rui's letter!" Yukina replied, smiling sweetly. "I was so pleased to find out the truth about my brother."

Botan narrowed her eyes slightly.

"…Yes, about that…" she began slowly.

"Everything makes so much more sense to me now," Yukina continued. "I always thought Mister Hiei wasn't quite so abrupt with me as he was with everyone else, but now I know why! He must have known that I was his sister all this time!"

Botan swallowed slowly, moving her eyes to Shizuru, who shrugged.

"Have you spoken to Kuwabara since he got back from demon world?" she asked, moving her eyes back to Yukina.

"Yes," she replied, her smile fading. "I told him not to get angry any more because I'm happy."

"…Okay… And he understands the situation now?"

Yukina frowned and tilted her head slightly. Botan glanced at Shizuru again, who pulled an odd face back at her before producing a packet of cigarettes and leaving the room.

"I'm really glad that you're here, Botan," Yukina said.

"Oh yes, me too!" Botan agreed, meeting her eyes with a smile.

"I thought you might be late because of my brother," Yukina added.

"Oh could you sense that he lost his fight?" Botan asked.

"No, Kazuma told me about it."

"…Right…"

"I did feel a strange sadness last night though. I'm really sorry that he didn't go any further in the tournament, but at least he lost to a worthy opponent."

"Yes, that's the spirit!"

"Are you hungry? I made breakfast!"

Botan paused, her eyes lowering to Yukina's stomach and lingering there for several seconds.

"Aren't you sweet?" she said. "But you really shouldn't be fussing after me."

"It's no bother!" Yukina replied.

"Oh well, alrighty then!"

Botan got to her feet and stretched her arms above her head, feeling a slight pain in her neck, presumably from sleeping in such a ridiculous position. She could not remember falling asleep the night before, but she had been through so much in the last few days she was not entirely surprised that exhaustion had simply taken her over. She made a mental note to apologise to Shizuru later for falling asleep on her, since that had been quite a rude thing to do to such a good friend.

"Here we are!" Yukina said as they reached the dining room.

"This is delicious, my love!" Kuwabara said, grinning up at them from his position next by a small serving table.

"…I made that for Botan…" Yukina said quietly.

"Oh…" Kuwabara said, swallowing the contents of his mouth and lowering the handfuls of food he had been about to devour.

"It's Botan's favourite…" Yukina said, her voice still very quiet.

"Well you shouldn't be running around after Botan," Kuwabara recovered, before continuing to eat. "Make your own breakfast, Botan!" he added through a mouthful of food, glaring at Botan as he spoke.

"Yes, I think I will," she dryly replied, wiping a few stray pieces of sticky rice from her sleeve where Kuwabara had spat at her. "Can I get you anything?"

"No, I'm fine now," Kuwabara answered her.

"I was talking to Yukina!" Botan snapped at him.

"…I wanted…" Yukina started.

"What is it sweetie?" Botan asked gently, turning back to her. "I'll make you anything you want!"

"…Hold my hand…" she answered, her head dipping down, her hair falling over her features and hiding them from Botan's line of sight.

"Okay…" Botan said, taking Yukina's hand in hers. "There we are! Is that better – oh God, Yukina!"

Botan's eyes crossed over and she almost dislocated her shoulder as she tried to wrench her hand free of Yukina's, the cracking sound emanating from her fingers doing little to ease her concerns that the ice maiden was trying to break them.

"…Yukina?" she said in strained voice. "Honey, that's a little too tight…"

Yukina made a growling noise and gripped tighter, and Botan was sure she had just snapped a nerve, as a searing pain shot up her arm to her elbow. She hissed and closed her eyes, too focussed on the pain to even care why it was happening. She opened her eyes again in time to see Kuwabara stand up and approach Yukina.

"Hey baby, are you okay?" he asked her, reaching a hand out towards.

"Don't touch me!"

Kuwabara yelped and leapt back from Yukina, and Botan temporarily forgot about her pain as she realised that the abrasive voice that had just yelled at Kuwabara had come from Yukina's throat.

"…Yukina…?" Kuwabara whimpered.

"Stay away from me!" she snarled back.

Botan leaned forwards, her eyes doubling in size as she saw that Yukina's head was up and facing Kuwabara – and she no longer looked like herself. Her teeth were bared and her eyes were glowing white, and judging by the look on Kuwabara's face, Botan was not the only one who could sense Yukina's demonic energy steadily rising. Botan slowly moved her eyes to her hand that Yukina was squeezing, torn between horror and a sense of realisation as she saw that, from the elbow down, her arm had been encased in a thin layer of ice.

"Kuwabara?" Botan said carefully, turning to the terrified redhead. "Can you be a dear and fetch those things that Rui gave me? You know, the furs and the gloves and the cleats… I think I'm going to need them."

"Why?" he asked, turning to her with a genuinely confused expression.

"Why do you think?" Botan snapped back impatiently. "Stop dallying about and get to it! Right now!"

"You're such a nag, Botan!" he grumbled.

"Do it, Kazuma!" Yukina roared.

Kuwabara mewed fearfully before fleeing from the room. Botan watched him go before turning to Yukina.

"Yukina?" she said. "We need to get you somewhere more comfortable. There's a very nice bedroom just two doors along from this room, how about we–"

"Take me to my bedroom!" Yukina interrupted her.

Botan gulped before slowly shaking her head.

"…Right…" she said carefully. "You mean that room at the top of the stairs? The one in the roof?"

"Yes!" Yukina ground out.

Botan nodded and then shook her head.

"I don't think that's a good idea," she said gently. "Unless we wait until Kuwabara gets back, and then he could carry you up there, how about that?"

"Take me up there now!"

Botan whimpered as Yukina turned her glowing eyes towards her.

"Okay," she squeaked out.

Botan was too terrified to argue with Yukina when she was wearing that expression – it was exactly the same look she had seen Hina wear 99 years ago right before she had turned a troll into a solid block of ice. Although Botan doubted that Yukina was in any way malicious, she certainly seemed to be a little irrational at present, and the damage she had already done to Botan's arm was warning enough.

Botan silently wondered if, after the birth had passed, Yukina might want to learn to control that power and join the spirit detective team. She certainly had the potential to be strong, and she was definitely more reliable and contactable than Hiei.

"Do you think you can walk?" Botan asked carefully.

Yukina said nothing but she started to turn herself around and so Botan hurriedly moved with her, feeling a little redundant to help her as her arm was still frozen and locked into Yukina's vice-like grip. Together they slowly shuffled out of the kitchen and along the hall towards the staircase. Botan tensed as she spotted Keiko and Shizuru running towards them, shaking her head urgently.

"Yukina, are you okay?" Keiko asked, reaching for her as she and Shizuru caught up to them.

"Don't touch me!" Yukina snapped at her.

Keiko recoiled from her in shock but Shizuru took on a knowing look and put an arm around Keiko, holding her back.

"We'll get a basin of hot water," she suggested.

"Right, yeah!" Keiko agreed.

They hurried on towards the kitchen, Shizuru giving Botan's shoulder a reassuring squeeze as she passed her back. Botan answered her with a short, nervous laugh before continuing on to the foot of the stairs. Never one to be stumped in a situation, Botan summoned her oar and carefully sat down onto it. She hesitated for several seconds before an idea occurred to her and she lifted her frozen arm over Yukina's head, wrapping their joined arms around Yukina and putting her free arm around Yukina and gently easing her back to sit on her lap.

Yukina was tense and stiff and even just getting her to sit down had been a strain. As soon as she was confident that they were both securely on the oar Botan began to lift them swiftly and steadily up to the floor above, remaining on the oar until she reached the room Yukina wanted to be in. She then took them to the bed and lowered them down as far as she could before dematerialising the oar, leaving herself sitting on the bed with Yukina sitting on her.

"Here we are!" she said cheerfully.

"…You're so determined…" Yukina muttered.

Botan was unsure if Yukina had meant her words as a compliment or an insult, but her voice had almost sounded normal again, so she smiled and decided to take it as a flattering remark.

"I never give up!" she replied brightly. "That's the ferry girl's motto!"

"…It is?"

"…Well, no actually, it's just the Botan motto…"

Yukina cried out and Botan felt her entire body jerk against her, confirming that it really was time for her to give birth. Botan quickly shuffled herself out from under Yukina, easing her down to lie on her back as best she could whilst still attached to her arm.

"Yukina, could you maybe let go of my hand?" she asked.

Yukina growled and gripped tighter, and Botan felt the temperature of the air around her drop dramatically.

"Oh dear…" she whispered weakly.

"Hey, we brought some hot water and towels!" Keiko called to her from the doorway.

"Bring it over here, quickly!" Botan said to her.

Keiko anxiously crept into the room, keeping her eyes on Yukina the whole time. As soon as she was within arm's reach, Botan grabbed the basin from Keiko's hands and tipped it over her frozen arm, sighing in relief as it melted the ice sufficiently for her to pull her hand from Yukina's. Keiko said something about her wasting things and making a mess but Botan ignored her, shaking out her arm experimentally. She had lost all feeling in her arm from the elbow down and parts of her skin were still glistening with patches of ice: and the rapidly dropping temperature around them was starting to make the wetness of her arm turn to frost.

"Another basin," she said to Keiko. "Quickly!"

Keiko looked a little indignant but took the basin and left the room. Botan grabbed up one of the towels she had left and quickly dried off her arm. She was almost glad that everything was happening so suddenly because it was quickly going badly, and the idea that it might get a lot worse before the morning was over barely lingered in her mind as she tried to catch up with what was going on. She took a step back towards Yukina's side and promptly found herself lying flat on her back and looking up at the ceiling.

"…Ow…" she muttered, grabbing at the leg of the bed and pulling herself up again.

The water she had poured over her arm to thaw it had landed in a puddle on the polished wooden floor and promptly turned to ice. An idea occurred to Botan that, despite Rui having kindly warned her and prepared her with all the right equipment for this event, she was making all the mistakes she ought to be avoiding anyway.

"Heads up, Botan!"

Botan started to respond to the sound of Shizuru's voice behind her but her words were cut off as the furs from the ice village fell over her and she heard the bedroom door sliding harshly shut. Her initial thought was that it had been very rude of Shizuru to throw those things at her – especially the cleats, since they could have taken half of her face off – and it was rude of her to have slammed the door like that: but as Yukina let out a cry of pain that turned into a snarling, animalistic sound and the entire room became bitterly cold, Botan decided to forgive Shizuru's abruptness.

She hurriedly arranged the furs about her shoulders and attached the cleats to her shoes before pulling on the long rubber gloves and moving to stand up: at which point she realised that she was frozen to the floor. Out of desperation she concentrated her own spirit energy into her legs. She lacked the ability to fight off the ice, which was laced with demon energy, but she could at least make her body hotter and hopefully defrost enough of it to free herself.

"Botan!" Yukina cried out.

Botan struggled harder, finally freeing herself and rising to her feet. She was immediately glad for the spikes on the soles of her shoes as they gripped perfectly into the ice and allowed her to move around with relative ease. The furs made the cold tolerable and she supposed the gloves would stop Yukina from freezing her hands again when she touched her.

Botan silently wondered if the gloves were also fireproof.

"Botan!" Yukina screamed.

Botan snapped back to attention, moving around to the end of the bed.

"Okay, just concentrate on breathing," she said.

Yukina gave her a slightly sceptical, slightly homicidal, look and Botan grinned nervously.

"Breathing and pushing, sweetie," she said. "That's all you have to think about."

"Breathing and pushing and pain!" Yukina snarled back at her.

"…Okay…"

"It hurts!"

"I know, but you have to just try to push for just a little while."

"How could you possibly know?"

"…Good point, but let's just try to focus on the breathing and the pushing…"

"I can't!"

Botan mewed and cowered back as the slanted window in the roof cracked. Looking up at it she could see that it had been suddenly frozen from the inside, which, against the warm late spring sun shining down on it from the outside had caused the glass to crack from the sudden shift in temperature. She looked down at Yukina, seeing her face twisted in pain and coated in sweat, the only coherent thought in her mind being that if Yukina was suffering this badly at the start of the birth of her first child, how would she manage to birth two?

Botan then remembered that, apparently, Hina had given birth to Hiei first – perhaps Yukina's current pain was because she was giving birth to a violent fire demon. Rui had said that Hina only survived giving birth to Hiei because she had frozen her own body, which had given her enough protection from his flames to stop them from burning her alive. Looking down at Yukina, Botan could see that, despite the fact that she successfully frozen the bed and most of the room, Yukina had not actually frozen any part of herself.

If she gave birth to a fire demon now, she would die.

"Yukina!" Botan wailed, crawling onto the foot of the bed.

Acting on instinct, Botan grabbed onto Yukina's ankles and started transferring her healing energy into the ice maiden.

Mukuro stopped, barely able to believe what she was sensing. She turned her head to look back over her shoulder for visual confirmation, unsure if she was angry or just amazed to see that Hiei was still twitching restlessly in his healing chamber, despite being under the influence of a heavy sedative. She was not about to let him go running off: she knew that he could not go near his sister's baby, but she did worry about what he might to do anyone else who did, and no demon was above being sentenced severely for murdering a human unnecessarily, not even Hiei.

She started back across the room towards him but stopped short as his jagan suddenly opened wide, glowing brilliantly. He still appeared to be unconscious, but apparently even in that state he was trying to reach out to his sister. It was tempting to "listen in" on what he was trying to communicate or do – it was not as though he had any secrets from her anyway – but she decided that this was one battle Hiei was going to have to fight on his own. He had yet to completely let go of his past, to heal the scars he had been left with, and those were things he could only do himself and in his own time.

Sometimes though, it got infuriating waiting for him to see sense.

Botan twitched as she felt an eyelash rip out of her upper eyelid. She realised then that she was crying, her tears freezing along her eyelids and trapping her eyelashes. She could not decide if she was crying in relief, joy or just simply because she was overwhelmed by the little miracle in her arms.

"It's a girl!" she eventually managed to say.

Yukina said something back, but her words were incoherent. Botan carefully moved off of the bed, moving towards the basin of water Shizuru had slid into the room earlier to clean the baby. She felt light-headed as she moved – was that shock, exhaustion or just over-exertion of her spirit energy? The baby in her arms was moaning quietly and squinting up at her curiously, but there was no mistaking that it was a girl, with big red eyes and a covering of hair that was the same colour as Yukina's. Botan silently thanked King Enma that the child was female and perfect as she began carefully washing the girl down.

"…Botan…" Yukina mumbled.

"It's okay," Botan assured her. "She's perfect, Yukina!"

Botan sighed, realising then that she was also shaking all over. It was still bitterly cold in the room and she was sweating and worn out and still on a high of fear and excitement, so she supposed that it was only natural that she should be shivering so badly. Once she was finished cleaning the baby she wrapped her in a blanket and handed her to Yukina, who still looked pained. She took her baby into her arms, but her head fell down and she tensed.

"Botan…" she groaned.

"…Oh God…" Botan muttered under her breath. "…It's not over yet, is it…?"

Yukina moaned out another indecipherable reply and Botan crept to the end of the bed again, cautiously pinching at the hem of Yukina's kimono and lifting it up to look underneath.

"…Botan, what are you doing?" Yukina asked her, sounding alarmingly like her brother as she adopted a flat, unimpressed tone.

Botan lowered her hand slightly to look over it at Yukina's face, tensing as she saw that Yukina's brow was flat and her eyes thinned, making her also look remarkably like her brother.

"…I was checking for the emiko…" she said.

Yukina's eyes grew large and her eyebrows rose up her forehead, disappearing into her hair.

"Botan, I wasn't expecting twins," she said quietly.

"Well maybe you weren't expecting them," Botan began, still holding up the hem of Yukina's kimono. "But that's how it starts, you see. You think you're safe and then suddenly there's an unexpected pregnancy."

Botan dipped her head down again, peering under Yukina's kimono.

"Botan, seriously," Yukina said, her voice a little firmer. "I'm not stupid. I didn't let Kazuma touch me until I was sure that I was pregnant. I knew that during my natural pregnancy I couldn't possibly get pregnant again until after I gave birth, so I… Well, I'm sure you understand."

Botan slowly lowered Yukina's kimono, finding the ice maiden smiling softly down at her.

"I thought that…" Botan began, pointing a gloved finger at the baby in Yukina's arms.

Yukina shook her head.

"The only sad thing now is that I can't share a physical relationship with Kazuma any more unless we're very careful," she said. "Otherwise I will give birth to an emiko."

Botan nodded, though she felt that she was missing something somewhere.

"It's not that I wouldn't love a son," Yukina said quietly. "It's just that I'm not sure how my brother would handle it."

"Oh well…" Botan began.

The old Botan would have said screw Hiei – he had chosen not to be a part of Yukina's life, and she only now knew of her relation to him by accident – but now she found herself feeling a great sadness instead. She looked down at the gurgling baby cradled in Yukina's arms and all she could think was that it was incredibly sad that the girl would probably never know her uncle, even though he was arguably one of the most honourable souls Botan had ever known. He had overcome so much, and, over the years she had known him, Botan had seen subtle changes in him, slight softening to the hard edges of his personality.

"Oh Botan, I'm so glad you were here with me!" Yukina said suddenly. "You're such a good friend to me, I never thought I would find someone as kind and caring as Rui, I'm so glad I found you!"

Botan smiled, though her eyes did not participate in the sentiment. She was crying again, and presumably Yukina thought that it was with joy over the birth of the baby – but unfortunately it was something far more selfish.

"I'm glad you're alright," she said, hoping to bring her mind back to present matters. "You look exhausted though!"

Botan touched a hand to Yukina's sweating brow.

"Have you thought of a name for the baby?" she asked.

"Yes," Yukina replied. "I'm going to call her Megumi."

"Oh how lovely!" Botan said.

She crouched down at Yukina's bedside and reached a finger out towards one of Megumi's hands, regretting her actions as the baby grabbed a fist around her finger and froze it in the blink of an eye, before releasing it and laughing at the horrified look on Botan's face.

"Oh Botan!" Yukina gasped. "I'm so sorry!"

"No problem!" Botan lied, wrapping her finger into the hem of the furs she was still wearing.

"Oh, and your arm!" Yukina added. "Is it alright? I was so overcome with everything I… I forgot myself! It was so odd, one moment I felt alright and the next I was just furious!"

"It's alright," Botan insisted.

"Can you heal your arm? You must have frost-burn and frostbite!"

"…I'll heal it later… I don't have enough energy left right now… I gave most of it to you to ease your pain."

"Oh Botan, I'm too tired to heal you!"

"Don't worry about it, I'll be fine!"

Botan hoped that her words sounded more convincing to Yukina than they did to her own ears: she still could not feel the ends of the fingers on her left hand.

"I'm just glad that you didn't have twins," Botan added. "Oh, not that it would be bad if you ever had a son, just that, as I'm sure you already appreciate yourself, Hiei would probably kill Kuwabara… And that would be just tragic because Kuwabara would be dead, and also because Hiei would be too, because Yusuke and I would have to arrest him and take him to spirit world prison, where he would be sentenced to death for killing a human…"

Botan caught Yukina staring at her with fearful eyes and she realised her mistake.

"Oopsie!" she said, clapping her hands over her mouth. "But that won't happen, so please don't worry! Please forget that I said that!"

Yukina nodded.

"Thank you for everything, Botan," she said.

Botan smiled at her before noticing that there was something resting on the bed at her side. She reached down and picked it up, smiling again as she realised that it was a hiruiseki. She pushed it into one of Yukina's hands.

"Keep that safe!" she reminded her.

"Of course!" Yukina replied.

"Hey, can I come in?" Kuwabara called to them through the door.

"No!" Botan called back.

Yukina gasped at her response but Botan smiled, touching a finger to her lips.

"…But everything's so quiet, is everything okay?" he asked.

Botan rolled her eyes and Yukina giggled.

"Come on in, you big silly!" Botan called to him.

Botan got to her feet and moved towards the door, holding out her arms to catch Kuwabara as he slid open the door and tried to run in, slipping on the ice and colliding with Botan, almost taking her completely off of her feet.

"Come in carefully," she told him as she helped him find his footing.

He nodded at her before sliding his way over to Yukina's side. Botan leaned back against the doorframe to watch Kuwabara put an arm around Yukina and kiss her tenderly on the forehead before he began pulling what were frankly rather frightening faces at the baby, faces that made him look like he ought to have been born in demon world: but apparently Megumi liked his antics as she began giggling. Keiko and Shizuru appeared at Botan's side, Keiko gasping and becoming tearful and Shizuru smiling in an almost proud manner as she watched her brother take hold of the baby.

"Happy families, huh Botan?" she asked as Keiko began trying to make her way over to Yukina's bedside.

Botan nodded, though she silently wondered what role she or Keiko played in the family around them.

"I'm just going to clean up," she said to Shizuru.

"Are you okay?" Shizuru asked her.

"A little tired, a bit drained and a lot cold," Botan replied.

Shizuru smiled at her, patting her on the shoulder.

"You did good," she said.

Botan nodded before moving out into the hallway. She removed her cleats and passed them to Shizuru to use before depositing the furs by the doorway and continuing to the nearest bathroom. She locked herself into the room and removed the rubber gloves, dropping them into the bath and turning the showerhead onto them. She then took the opportunity to study the damage to her left arm. It looked quite bad, she had to admit – in fact, it looked like the sort of injury one of the boys might have sustained during a tournament battle – but she hoped that she would be able to heal it as soon as she regained the energy she had lost helping Yukina.

When her knees began to buckle Botan hurriedly turned off the shower and let herself collapse to her knees, draping her arms over the side of the bath to keep herself as upright as possible. She decided that she would stay that way until the room stopped spinning and then she would go to bed and sleep – sleep was enough for Hiei to recover from using the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, it should be enough for her to get back to full strength.

"Botan."

"Mwhuh?" Botan groaned, her head lowering, her forehead coming to rest against the cool lip of the bath.

"Botan, can you hear me?"

"Yes…" she groaned.

"Thank you."

Botan caught her breath, her eyes slowly widening.

"…Hiei…?"

Next Chapter: Hiei has a message for Botan and he makes a life-changing decision. Chapter 39: The Sacrifice.

A/N: Unfortunately I've done it again: Part 1 of this fic ended halfway through a chapter (chapter 17) and so does Part 2 – the next chapter is 50/50 Part 2/Part 3 of this fic. Probably it is better that way though, since the end of Part 2 is a bit angsty (like the end of Part 1 was) and wouldn't be a nice ending to a chapter anyway!

Megumi means grace or blessing.