Last Chapter: Kurama reflected on how (the original) Hana entered his life and how she died, his classmate Ayumi caught his attention, Botan and Kaito began handing out seeds, during which Botan thought maybe Ayumi's friend Chisaki could be Hana. Yukina tried to talk some sense into Hiei while he was definitely not playing with Megumi, Botan and Kaito found that someone had managed to grow a climbing plant like Kurama has described and Kurama felt Hana's presence in the same building.
Chapter 7: The Problem
"Who gave you a seed to grow a plant?"
Kaito grunted as Botan poked him in the arm.
"A friend gave it to me!" the startled girl before them answered. "She said it was like a zodiac thing, that the type of plant that would grow would depend on my star sign – I only planted it yesterday, what's happening?"
"Clearly there's been some sort of mistake here," Kaito muttered to Botan.
"What do you mean?" Botan whispered back to him.
"Well, clearly this is not who we're looking for," he whispered back to her.
"What is happening? And how did you get through my window?"
Botan froze, realising then her mistake.
"We climbed up," Kaito answered smoothly.
Botan gave him a sceptical look, but he kept his face surprisingly neutral.
"The plant has stretched all the way down to the ground," he continued. "We wanted to be sure you were alright."
The girl eyed him over warily, before turning her attention to Botan.
"I-I don't recognise you," she said. "Do you stay here too?"
Botan opened her mouth to reply, but again Kaito pipped her to the post.
"She's just here for a few weeks," he said. "As part of a study programme, from another university."
The girl slowly nodded her head.
"What are you studying, gymnastics?" she asked Botan.
"Yes," Kaito replied before Botan could. "She's a visiting gymnast. Because we have a superior facility here."
The girl looked less than convinced, but her attention shifted back to the plant still burgeoning out of her broken window.
"What is that thing?" she asked.
"You should report the broken window to the concierge," Kaito told her. "We will take the plant away for you."
"O-okay," she agreed. "Thanks. I guess…"
Kaito turned around and picked up the plant pot, curling one arm around it and then using his free arm to start pulling strands of the plant from the window-frame. Botan shuffled over to stand alongside him where she began fiddling with one length of vine in a feign of assisting him.
"How do you know she's not Hana?" she whispered to him.
"Hana, according to Kurama and your colleague in spirit world, is a "unique and wonderful lady"," he whispered back.
"Yes, she is!" Botan agreed.
"That standing behind us is neither unique nor wonderful."
Botan pouted at him and he sighed.
"I'll explain later," he said.
Botan finished pulling loose the one strand of the plant she had been toying with before holding out her hand to Kaito. He frowned at her curiously and she rolled her eyes.
"Distract her so that I can take the plant out the window and finish removing it from the walls outside!" she hissed.
Kaito glanced over at the girl, the look on his face clearly demonstrating that he was reluctant to do as she had asked.
"Now!" Botan insisted.
"How am I supposed to distract her?" he asked.
"Offer to buy her breakfast!"
Kaito's face dropped, and Botan tilted her head, suspecting she was close to the heart of Kaito's hesitation: but before she could question him on it, the faint sound of knocking reached her ears.
"You should get that!" she called over to the girl at the other end of the room.
"That's not someone knocking on my door," she replied.
"It's not?" Botan echoed.
Too curious to let the matter drop – and too curious to remember where she was meant to be focusing her attention – Botan crossed the room and opened the bedroom door, crossing a small hall area to the front door. She opened it with a smile, but her smile vanished when she found herself looking out to an empty corridor. She stepped over the threshold and looked left and then right, yelping as she found herself looking at a familiar face she had not expected to see.
"What are you doing here?" they both asked each other in unison.
"This is the girls' accommodation block!" Botan hissed, edging out of the door and pulling it almost closed behind herself.
"I came to see… Whoever lives in here," Kurama said, pointing at the door he had just been knocking on. "But I don't think she's there any more."
Botan gasped.
"You're one door over!" she squeaked. "The girl you're looking for is in here!"
Kurama leaned back and frowned at the door behind Botan, pausing that way for a moment before shaking his head.
"Yes, she is!" Botan said, nodding enthusiastically. "The plant she grew was a climbing plant – and not just any climbing plant, it was a huge climbing plant that broke through the window and climbed all the way up the building! This girl is Hana!"
Kurama stared at the door in front of himself for a long moment.
"I can feel her presence in here," he said quietly, pointing at the door he was facing.
"No, no, she's in here!" Botan insisted.
Kurama shook his head, and, before Botan could argue the point with him any further, a series of things happened, each of which made her gasp louder and more forcefully, until she almost felt as though she would pass out: first of all the door in front of Kurama opened, secondly the look on his face when he saw who was on the other side of the door was a surprised look she rarely saw on his face, and finally, when the person behind the door stepped over the threshold and into her line of sight, she was delighted at what she saw.
"It's a little early for a boy to be wandering around the girls' dorm, isn't it?"
Kurama recovered himself and smiled politely.
"My apologies," he said softly.
"I knew it!" Botan shrieked before she could stop herself.
Kurama and Ayumi both turned to her with vaguely critical expressions.
"I knew some of it!" Botan corrected herself.
"Knew what?" Ayumi asked her.
Botan faltered slightly.
"I sort of maybe knew a part of it," she said quietly.
"A part of what?" Ayumi asked.
"Botan was just leaving, weren't you Botan?" Kurama said.
Botan opened her mouth to try to argue her case, to keep herself present, but the friendly and yet firm way Kurama was looking at her made it difficult for her to protest. She nodded slowly and started to walk out into the hallway, but stopped with a yelp when a hand grabbed the back of her clothing.
"You were helping me with our, uh, project, remember?" Kaito's voice said behind her.
Botan looked over at Ayumi, who was glancing back and forth between Botan, Kaito and her neighbour.
"Yes, we are three normal students working on a normal project for our normal class," Botan said in a mechanical voice as she began walking backwards.
She stopped when she collided with both Kaito and the girl who had grown the oversized plant.
"She's a foreign exchange student," Kaito offered.
"From Sweden," Botan added.
Ayumi's face twisted and Botan turned around and bustled Kaito and the girl back through the door.
"Enjoy your reunion!" she blurted out before slipping through the door and closing it behind herself.
""Reunion"?" Kaito asked, giving her a withering look.
"I didn't say reunion!" Botan wailed.
"You definitely did," the girl next to her confirmed.
Botan gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.
"You're terrible at this," Kaito told her quietly.
"You put me off by grabbing me like that!" she snapped back, slapping at his arm with both hands.
He shirked back out of her reach and she gave him one last disgusted look before turning to face the door again. She reached for the door handle, but before her hand reached her goal, Kaito's hand appeared on the door handle and the girl put her hand on the door from Botan's other side. Botan looked back over her left shoulder at Kaito, who shook his head. She looked back over her right shoulder at the girl, who still looked bewildered.
"I don't know what's going on, but even I know you've said and done enough out there," she said.
Botan turned back to the door and sighed.
"Let's just get this plant out of here," Kaito reminded her.
Botan nodded her agreement and followed him back to the window. Once there, she looked back over her shoulder to see what the girl who lived there was doing, and when she saw her duck into the bathroom and close the door, Botan immediately summoned her oar, and she and Kaito nodded at each other before hopping onto it and flying out the window. They made short work of pulling the plant from the walls it was clinging to, a task made a little easier by the fact that it had, finally, stopped growing. As they went, they were forced to wind the lengths of vine around their arms to contain it all, until they were in a tangled mess of green.
"Go quickly, before anyone sees us!" Kaito urged as soon as they were done.
Botan nodded and sped off, taking them to the flat roof of the building. She landed there and they began untangling themselves.
"What happens now?" she asked as she unwound the cloying plant from her arms.
"I'll chop it up and dispose of it," Kaito answered her.
"You can't do that!" Botan protested. "We have to wait for it to flower!"
"No we don't," Kaito flatly replied. "That girl is not Hana."
"How do you know that?"
Kaito said nothing and Botan quickly lost her patience, tearing the plant from herself, ripping it as she did so, before throwing all of it down and turning to face Kaito directly.
"Thanks, that's saved me a bit of work," he casually commented.
"Anyone could be Hana!" she argued.
"Not that girl. That girl is in no way "wonderful"."
"You don't even know her!"
"Yes, I do. She's in the same book club as me."
Botan paused.
"She didn't appear to know you back there," she said quietly.
"Either she was pretending not to know me or she simply finds me as forgettable as she does repulsive," Kaito curtly replied.
"…What?" Botan muttered.
Kaito sighed, having finally cleared the vines from one of his arms, he stopped his activity and met Botan's eyes.
"We stayed late at a club meeting one night, I challenged her to a game of guessing quotes from famous works of literature and she was actually a very worthy opponent," he said.
"Well now, for you to say that of her, she really must have been," Botan replied with a hint or sarcasm.
"I found the exchange highly stimulating," Kaito continued. "And so I asked her if she would like to have a drink with me."
"And?"
"And she turned me down."
Kaito looked down at his still encased arm and began unravelling the vines around it.
"That's it?" Botan asked. "You asked her if she wanted a drink and she said no?"
"No, Botan," Kaito replied with a sigh. "I asked her to go on a date with me and she was horrified, and she told me – in the manner that only some as articulate as she is possibly could – exactly how disgusting she considers me to be."
"That's awful!" Botan cried.
"Well, that's often how it is for me."
"Oh, don't be pessimistic about it, Kaito!"
"It's a little difficult to see the silver lining on a cloud that has never been anything but grey for me."
"Well I'm going to be doubly optimistic about it for you!"
"Please."
Kaito was clearly implying he was sceptical of Botan's words, that he considered her offer to be merely an empty platitude, spoken merely to help him feel better.
"I mean it, Mister!" she insisted. "If I can find love with someone wonderful like Hiei, then I have nothing but optimism that you will find yourself someone wonderful too!"
Kaito smiled and snorted quietly.
"What is it?" Botan asked him in a low voice.
"I was just thinking about you and Hiei," he frankly replied. "I've heard people say "opposites attract" but I've never found the analogy of applying the laws of magnetism to something as complex as human nature to be a particularly apt one."
Botan's eyes narrowed and her jaw stiffened.
"That sounded to me like a fancy way of saying that you don't think Hiei and I are compatible!" she said sternly.
"And that's exactly what it was."
Botan's eyes grew large.
"Not only are you both entirely incompatible personalities, but you both literally come from opposite worlds," Kaito continued. "There is no common ground to develop a lasting relationship from, and, even if there were, where do you propose to conduct your affair? I mean, other than fleeting moments you can share on neutral ground here in the human world?"
Kaito dropped the last of the plant and met Botan's eyes, his face sobering a little as he did so.
"I'm sorry, I didn't think I was telling you anything you weren't already aware of," he said.
"Well, it's not like Hiei and I are having a perfectly smooth time of things," Botan admitted. "But I know that I love him, and love is the most powerful thing in all three worlds, so that's all that matters."
"Right."
"Right?"
Botan was not sure why she had phrased her agreement as a question, but the worried and anxious look on Kaito's face was only making her confusion turn into panic.
"I have to go," she said abruptly.
"Right," Kaito said. "To spirit world."
"To spirit world, right," Botan said.
"Well then, until tomorrow."
"Yes."
Botan bowed her head and summoned her oar, turning from Kaito.
"Maybe help me down before you go?" he said.
Botan looked back over her shoulder at him, looking about the roof she had taken him to before realising his predicament. She moved over and waited for him to pick up the plant pot and the half-destroyed plant and then take a seat beside her before flying out over the edge of the building. She lowered him to the ground and he dutifully slid off her oar, nodding his head at her. She nodded in reply and wordlessly left him there.
Despite what she had said to him, the last place she intended to go next was spirit world.
"Wow."
Kurama let his eyes linger on the closed door for a moment longer before shifting his attention back to Ayumi, who was still smirking from her ironic exclamation.
"She was odd, huh?" Ayumi asked him as their eyes met. "I've never seen her before. Or that guy she was with."
Kurama looked for a long, silent moment at the woman before him. She was tall, slender, surprisingly bright for the early hour, and pleasantly pretty in that sort of way popular human women her age were.
But she was not Hana.
"He is my former roommate," he lied. "I saw him come in here, and I followed him in to check up on him."
"Oh, is he some sort of bad boy?" Ayumi asked, twirling a strand of her long hair around her finger.
"He is definitely some sort of bad boy," Kurama replied with a wry smile. "I apologise that we disturbed you at this hour."
Ayumi shrugged.
"I was sort of hoping you were knocking on my door because you were looking for me," she said slyly.
Kurama smiled gently.
"My apologies, I merely misjudged which room my friend had entered," he said. "And again, I do apologise for causing such a ruckus at this hour."
"It's no problem," Ayumi said with a casual shrug of her shoulders. "I was up anyway. I usually do get up early. You kinda look like you just got out of bed."
Ayumi purposefully lowered her dark, dark eyes to Kurama's chest and he looked down at himself, realising then that his coat was still open, his pyjama shirt clearly on display.
"I must confess, I was asleep," he said, meeting her eyes again. "My friend awoke me with the ruckus he was causing."
Ayumi smiled brightly.
"Well, that sounds like something else you and I have in common," she said. "My roommate woke me up this morning with the ruckus she was causing."
"Oh dear," Kurama said with a smile.
"Yeah, she was making noise most of the night, I've hardly slept," Ayumi said, shaking her head. "I think I'll ask to change to another room, or see if I can get her evicted. She's kind of a pain in my ass right now."
Kurama found his eyes, and his attention, drifting from Ayumi to a point beyond her left shoulder. She was standing in the hallway of one of the double lodgings, with doors either side of her leading into each of the bedrooms, and a small living area at the end of the short hall behind her. At the back of the living area, two pots were sitting on the windowsill. One contained what looked like it would bloom into a plain daisy, and the other looked like it would bloom into a miniature fuschia.
"Well, anyway, I should probably go," he concluded, meeting Ayumi's eyes again. "I don't think it will do either of us any good if I am caught here in my pyjamas."
Ayumi smiled, twirling her hair around her finger again, and began to try to make a coy joke out of his response, but her words faded into silence when Kurama bowed his head politely to her and turned to leave. As he reached the end of the corridor, he heard her close her door at last, and then allowed himself to consider how ridiculous he really felt: hunting down Hana whilst trying to behave human and follow human social norms was going to be a more challenging task than he had thought.
"What are you doing here?"
Neither Hiei nor Botan answered the question they had asked each other in unison. Instead, for a long moment, they stared blankly at each other.
"I was working," Hiei eventually said.
"Me too," Botan said, slowly nodding her head.
"I was on my way back to demon world," Hiei added.
"I was on my way there to look for you," Botan brightened.
Hiei narrowed his eyes, but Botan did not falter. Satisfied that she was at least alone and seemed innocent, he continued through the portal to demon world, with Botan following him there. He only allowed her to continue a short way beyond the portal before turning and holding up a hand to halt her progress.
"You can't carry on like this," he said.
She immediately looked outraged.
"You can't carry on like that!" she shouted at him.
"This isn't a game!" he shouted back at her.
"I never said it was!" she cried.
"Then take it seriously!"
"I take our relationship very seriously! You're the one who needs to buck up your ideas!"
Hiei literally felt his face fall, and Botan's ire immediately softened. She blinked a few times, in what seemed like an exaggerated gesture, before holding up a finger.
"I didn't mean to shout at you, Hiei," she started.
"I'm talking about that lurid coloured outfit you have on," Hiei grumbled, waving a hand at the pastel neon tracksuit the ferry girl was inexplicably dressed in. "You're too obvious. You need to blend in a little better. This is demon world, not… Which world would that sort of attire be passable? The human one or the spirit one?"
Botan looked down at herself self-consciously.
"I thought you were talking about what I'm doing right now," she said quietly.
Hiei suspected she had spoken quietly in the hope that he would not question what she had said, but he was not one for games.
"I don't care what you were doing," he frankly told her. "Just so long as you don't expect me to be a part of it."
"Oh, well, that's alright then!" she said at her usual volume, looked both extremely relieved and pleased. "It's not something you would want to do anyway Hiei."
Hiei narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Part of him wanted to question her on exactly what she meant by that last statement, but a much bigger part of him was worried that doing so might inadvertently lead to him being drawn into one of spirit world's hair-brained "missions", and so he let it go. Instead, he took her hand and led her to a nearby small cave, where, he was pleased to learn, she was as eager as he was to get physical. He negated to tell her than most of the reason he was taking off her clothes was to avoid having to look at them, but she hardly seemed to mind. Considering how cautious and tense she had been when he had first tried to advance a physical relationship with her, she had quickly grown to be at ease with him. Unfortunately, as the physical side of their relationship became more relaxed, the emotional side of their relationship became more tense. And so, after a fairly tame and tender encounter with her, he felt he was justified in what he did next.
As Botan did that soft, moaning thing she did when she was still coming down off the high of an orgasm, her body laid out on her back, completely naked, one knee bent, one hand on her belly, the other turned over, the back of her hand resting on her forehead, Hiei roughly removed his bandana and bore his way into her thoughts with his Jagan eye. She took far too long to acknowledge his intrusion, but he knew that was largely because she had been so distracted: he had known only too well how dopey she could be in the first few minutes after sex, and had timed his strike accordingly.
"Hiei, what are you doing?" she asked, her hand sliding from her forehead and suddenly sharp pink eyes glaring up at him as he sat by her side glaring back down at her with all three of his eyes.
He grunted a non-committal response and replaced his bandana. She sat up at his side, pressing her knees together and shielding her breasts with one arm as though she suddenly had some sort of sense of dignity.
"Why were you reading my thoughts, Hiei?" she asked, not sounding quite as angry as he had expected she would. "If you want to know something, just ask me. You don't have to read my thoughts. That's quite a dirty trick you know, Hiei."
"Hn, you should know about dirty tricks," he coldly answered her.
"What is that supposed to mean?" she snapped, starting to sound as angry as he felt she ought to be.
"Yes, you may well lash out as your guilt takes hold!" Hiei spat at her.
"Guilt?" she yelped. "I don't feel guilty about anything! I haven't done anything to feel guilty about! You're the one who should feel guilty! You were the one reading my mind because you clearly don't trust me!"
"And well I shouldn't."
Hiei stood up and pulled up his pants, securing them back into place. He grabbed up his cloak and sword, intent on leaving as he was then fully dressed, but behind him, to his surprise, Botan leapt to her feet – dressed only in a pair of lurid white running shows with neon piping – and stomped after him, grabbing the back of his shirt to halt his exit from the cave.
"I haven't done anything to betray you, Hiei!" she argued. "But you have just betrayed me, by invading my privacy!"
"Privacy?" Hiei hissed, glaring back over his shoulder at her. "So you admit you are guarding a secret from me?"
"I'm not hiding anything from you!" she insisted. "But you would know that if you would just talk to me!"
"You want to talk?"
"Yes!"
"Fine, let's talk."
Hiei turned around to fully face her, and, for the first time being in her presence when she was naked, he had no difficulty maintaining eye contact with her.
"What should we talk about first?" he asked sarcastically.
"How about the way you say "talk" like it's a dirty word?" Botan sarcastically replied.
"You were the one who wanted me to ask questions," Hiei reminded her.
"If there's something bothering you then yes, I want you to talk to me about it!"
"In that case, care to tell me why the only thing in your mind is romantic thoughts about Kurama?"
Botan's mouth fell open and she looked horrified, but not really in the way Hiei had expected her to: she looked more upset than shocked or guilty.
"You can't deny it!" he warned her.
"Oh Hiei, it's not like that!" she said.
Hiei paused, the strange sensation that he had just been punched right in the centre of his chest momentarily overwhelming him.
"It's not about me and Kurama, Hiei!" she continued. "I only have feelings for you! Surely you know that?"
"Why are you thinking that way about Kurama?" he asked, trying to ignore the almost patronising way she was trying to sugar-coat the situation.
"I'm not thinking that way about Kurama!" she replied.
"Yes you are!"
"Well, yes, I am thinking about Kurama's romance–"
"So you admit it!"
"Yes, I admit that I have been thinking a lot about Kurama's lovelife! But that has nothing to do with you and me, Hiei!"
Hiei paused again, momentarily unsure how to put into words the only conclusion he could come to after her last remark.
"I see, it's like that, is it?" he growled. "This is just a game to you. You have your thing with me and you have your thing with Kurama. You are not exclusive to either of us, and you expect both of us to be okay with it, is that it?"
"No!"
She looked outraged and finally Hiei started to feel better. He wanted her to feel as outraged and offended as he did.
"I am not romantically interested in Kurama!" she said sternly.
"Don't lie to me!" he shouted back at her.
"I'm not lying!" she shouted, raising her voice higher than his. "You saw how he was when we went to bring Kaisei back from demon world, you know something is going on with him, that's all it is! He's looking for someone, and I'm helping him!"
"That's not all it is."
"Yes it is, Hiei! He's looking for a woman he loves. And I'm helping him. That's it."
"You need to stop interfering with other people's relationships and worry more about your own!"
"What does that mean?"
"You interfered with Yusuke and Keiko all the time, and look at them now!"
Botan's eyes grew large and round, and her face sank. She suddenly looked lost and childish, her eyes flickering slightly as they alternated focus between each of his eyes.
"Don't tell me you didn't already know they have ended their relationship," Hiei said to her in a low voice.
She shook her head, her eyebrows twisting upwards and her eyes blurring a little as though she might be about to start crying.
"Well they have," he told her. "And it's probably because you never gave them any peace."
"Hiei, that's a horrible thing to say to me," Botan said, touching a hand to her heart in what was almost a melodramatic gesture to show that he had wounded her emotionally. "I love Yusuke and I love Keiko, and their love for each other is magical and I've always been supportive of them, as individuals and as a couple!"
"You drove them apart," Hiei hissed. "Keiko told Yusuke she can't be around him any longer."
Botan paused, her sadness softening a little.
"Oh, you mean they had one of their little tiffs?" she asked.
"No, I mean Keiko has removed herself from your little group, and you will never see her again," Hiei coldly replied.
Botan straightened her back and glared at him for a long moment before turning around, her semi-loosened ponytail swinging out behind her, and she marched back into the cave. She began roughly getting dressed, and Hiei duly waited until she had done so and rejoined him by the mouth of the cave, watching her oar appear in her hand before allowing himself a small smile.
"You're not funny, Hiei," she said in a quiet voice. "You're just mean."
She sat onto her oar and gave him a look so cold, for the briefest of moments, she almost looked like another person entirely.
"Where are you going?" he asked her.
"To speak to my friends," she replied.
"You don't believe me?" Hiei roared as she rose up into the air above his head.
"No, I do not," she called back down to him.
"I am telling the truth!" he yelled. "Unlike you!"
"We'll see about that!" she shouted, before shooting off at a speed he was actually quietly impressed by.
However, Hiei's moment was short-lived, as he realised that, by departing the way she had, Botan had successfully gotten the last word in their dispute. He cursed and threw on his cloak, before running off in the opposite direction of the portal she had just shot through.
Kaito frowned, watching as Botan flew off in what he was sure was not the direction to the nearest portal to spirit world. He found it a little odd that she was avoiding spirit world, especially when she had an important role there – did ferry girls get holidays? – but he decided against questioning her on the matter. He sensed a big part of her determination to find Hana was her deflecting some other problem she was facing, and, knowing Botan as he did, he was certain that she would reveal it in time by herself, and the best thing he could do would be to stay quiet until that moment.
And then, just when he was sure his last few days could not get any weirder, he heard a very feminine voice let out a cry of alarm and pain, and he shifted his attention to the end of the pathway he was standing at, seeing a fallen figure by the edge of the grass. He started to move towards her, and, when she pushed herself up onto all fours, and he saw a face he recognised, he broke into a run, quickly bringing himself to her side.
"I'm fine!" she snapped irritably when he tried to take her arm to help her up.
"My apologies," he said, stepping back and pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
She got to her feet, but flinched when she tried to straighten there. A quick glance over her showed that she had scraped one knee and the palms of both hands when she had fallen.
"What are you doing out here at this time anyway?" she asked, bringing Kaito's eyes back to hers.
"I was about to ask you the same question," he replied.
She paused for a moment, and in that moment, Kaito noticed how breathless and sweaty she was. She was dressed in short shorts and a slim-fit T-shirt, an outfit that, in pristine white, had probably looked nice before she had sweated and bled onto it.
"I live here, Kaito," she said, giving him an almost threatening glare.
"I was visiting a friend," Kaito smoothly lied.
She looked over at the building ahead of herself for a moment, before shifting her eyes to Kaito, at her side.
"Well, I guess it's true what they say about high school wallflowers blooming when they go to university," she said with a smile that was borderline teasing.
Kaito suspected she was mocking him, and so he responded in kind.
"I didn't know you were an early morning runner," he commented.
She smiled tightly and dragged a hand down her face – presumably to clear the sweat there, but really only succeeding in smearing blood from the base of her palm down one cheek.
"I tried out for the martial arts school in the North of the city," she said. "And I failed the entry exam. So I'm trying to train."
Kaito's face twisted.
"Yeah, laugh it up, I don't care what you think," she told him sternly.
"I wasn't laughing," Kaito pointed out. "But, if you really do want to join a martial arts school, why are you trying to join one with an expensive membership when you're already dating the best martial arts teacher in the world?"
Keiko smiled and sighed, rolling her eyes skyward for a moment before refocusing them onto Kaito.
"I guess word doesn't travel quite as fast as I thought it did," she said. "Yusuke and I broke up."
"Again?" Kaito asked, barely bothering to conceal the disinterest in his flat tone.
"Yeah, except this time is the last time," Keiko replied. "We're done. For good. So I have to find someone else to teach me."
Keiko swiped a hand at her bloody knee, before sniffing and shaking herself, as though trying to shake off the effects of her fall.
"Well, it was nice seeing you again, Kaito," she said.
"Wait."
Kaito side-stepped into her path, the surprise on her face making her look substantially softer than she had since the start of their encounter.
"Are you serious?" he asked her. "You and Yusuke are really finished?"
Keiko narrowed her eyes, her face hardening again.
"I know you've noticed I've been spending more time at the library," she said.
Kaito had forgotten all about her surpassing him on the list of hours spent in the university library, and he only gave it brief consideration when she mentioned it.
"I just wanted to check, does this mean that you're single?" he asked.
She gave him a long, suspicious look.
"I'm asking for a friend," he lied, as an afterthought.
"Well in that case, please tell your "friend" that I am not looking to date right now," she replied.
"Good to know."
Keiko tilted her head slightly and Kaito let out a short, awkward laugh.
"For my friend," he added quickly. "That information is good for my friend to know."
"Yusuke was the only boy I ever dated," Keiko said, her face softening again. "I don't even know what's like to date at the age I am now. Starting over with someone new seems really scary, and I don't even want to anyway. I don't know what I want, I just know that Yusuke wasn't the person I would spend the rest of my life with. I don't know who is. I need some time to figure that out. And I until I do, I won't be looking to date anyone. Not even your "friend"."
"I will let him know," Kaito said.
Keiko gave him one last weary look before moving on. She had slowed to a jog, the intense sprinting pace she had been moving at before her fall clearly no longer possible with her injuries. She did, however, keep her head up and continue jogging all the way up to the entrance of the female dormitory.
As the door closed behind her, Kaito silently wondered which window was hers.
Botan was a little surprised when she began her approach to a specific window, and found it closed. Usually Shizuru could sense her approach, and would open the window ahead of her, to allow her to fly straight in: and what made the moment even more unusual was the fact that Shizuru was actually standing watching her through the window. Botan stopped, hovering on point, watching through the glass as Shizuru took a particularly long draw on her cigarette, before stubbing it out into a nearby ashtray and blowing smoke out about herself in a slightly odd gesture. She then smiled and opened the window, allowing Botan to drift in.
"Hey sweetie, what brings you here?"
Botan sighed, turning around midair before banishing her oar and dropping to her feet in the middle of Shizuru's bedroom.
"Is it true, Shizuru?" she asked forlornly.
"Is what true?" Shizuru asked.
"Is it true that Yusuke and Keiko have broken up?" Botan wailed. "For good?"
Shizuru hesitated before taking a step towards Botan and putting a hand on her shoulder.
"People can grow apart, sweetie," she said gently.
"But if Yusuke and Keiko can't stay together, how can anyone stay together with anyone?" Botan cried.
Shizuru smiled gently and put her other hand on Botan's other shoulder, guiding her over to her bed and sitting her down. Shizuru sat down next to Botan, and they turned towards each other.
"Is this really about you and Hiei?" Shizuru asked her.
"I'm upset about Yusuke and Keiko too!" Botan protested.
"But this is mostly about you and Hiei, right?" Shizuru pressed.
"I'm upset about Yusuke and Keiko, I'm upset about Hiei, I'm upset about Ayame, Hana, the Guardian of Fate – this is about a lot of things, Shizuru!"
"Okay, okay, calm down, we can talk it out, okay?"
Botan sighed and nodded her head.
"How about we have some tea, and you can tell me all about it, hm?" Shizuru offered.
"That sounds nice, thank you," Botan said quietly.
Shizuru smiled, but her smile vanished a second later when a crashing sound blasted out from behind her closet door. Botan met her eyes curiously, and, for a brief moment, she saw what looked like panic in Shizuru's face.
"What was that?" Botan asked.
Shizuru sighed and stood up from the bed, turning towards her closet.
"You idiot!" she shouted, her hands clenching into fists at her sides as she started towards the closet door. "You couldn't keep quiet for five minutes? Also, how cliché is it to hide in the damn closet? I told you this would only work out if you – oh."
Shizuru's anger melted after she tore open the door and stepped into the closet, her eyes landing on something out of Botan's line of sight.
"What are you doing in here?" Shizuru asked quietly.
"I'm so sorry, I was hiding in here, and there never seemed to be an appropriate time to let you know I was in here," a muffled voice answered her.
"H-how long have you been hiding in here?" Shizuru asked, her voice so low it was almost a whisper.
"I'm so sorry."
Shizuru sighed, her shoulders slouching a little.
"I was just so surprised to hear Botan, I stood up and my head hit this shelf, and it fell on me."
Shizuru turned her head, looking over at Botan for a long moment, before she sighed again.
"Oh what the hell," she said, pushing the closet door open fully. "You were gonna find out eventually anyway…"
Botan stood up from the bed, her eyes doubling in size and her hands rising up to cover her mouth as it fell open in a gasp of disbelief at who she saw crouched under a fallen shelf in Shizuru's closet.
Next Chapter: Shizuru's been hiding a little secret, and when she reveals it to Botan, it becomes one more thing Botan must hide from Hiei. As another day dawns and the plants Botan and Kaito distributed start to bloom, Botan has to rely on Kaito to exam them all as she finds herself disposed by something unusual. Meanwhile, as his search for Hana continues, Kurama reminisces on meeting her the first time she was reincarnated. Chapter 8: The Solution