Chapter 24 – Family Ties
Botan's heart was thundering in her chest when she saw the smoke and devastation covering a large part of one outer edge of Tokyo city. As though the call she had received from Akira were not distressing enough, she had learned – from one of the other ferry girls who had witnessed some of the events during one of her shifts – two SDF officers had somehow ended up at the safe house and they had attacked Akira.
And one of them had been Shun-Jun.
Botan eventually spotted a familiar, large, blue feathery mass, and she dived down towards it, leaping off her oar and finding herself standing between Puu and Yusuke and Hiei.
"Botan!" Yusuke said, brightening upon seeing her. "Great, we need to get out of here, and we won't all fit on Puu. How many passengers could you take on your oar?"
"Yusuke go take a walk," Botan flatly replied.
Yusuke looked genuinely insulted for a brief moment.
"I'm fine thanks Botan, how are you?" he snapped once he had recovered from his initial moment of wounded ego. "It's not like I had to bury two of my friends, cremate one and watch the other one get mauled by a pack of hairless dogs!"
Botan turned fully towards him, feeling a little guilty then.
"I'm sorry Yusuke," she said. "That does sound awful and I know you must have been through a lot lately. But I really need to speak to Hiei right now."
Hiei's head snapped around upon hearing his name, his eyes darting back and forth between Botan and Yusuke.
"It's really, really important," she added.
"You don't have anything to say to me, ferry girl," Hiei said. "Not anything you can't say in front of Yusuke, anyway."
"Yeah, Botan!" Yusuke added. "Friends don't keep secrets from friends!"
"Yusuke, please," Botan implored, hoping to convey to him through her tone and expression that this was not the time or place for joking around.
"The two of us have nothing to discuss," Hiei said sharply.
Botan was growing weary of hearing him say those words to her.
"Hey, this isn't about that time I tried to make the two of you hook up during the first Demon World Tournament, is it?" Yusuke asked, laughing as though what he was talking about was funny.
Hiei turned slightly red and he fixed Yusuke with a death glare. Botan sighed. She already knew that he was ashamed of what had taken place between them and that he hated to be reminded of it: but she needed him to listen to her long enough for her to tell him exactly what had become of Akira since their meeting on High Road four years earlier.
But, as always seemed to be the case whenever she tried to get Hiei alone to talk to him, other people butted in and Botan was relegated to the sidelines.
"Hey Botan!" Fubuki said cheerfully as she joined the group. "We've just had a pretty crazy ride here – you're not here to tell us there's another demon someplace else we have to go fight, right?"
"No, I'm not," Botan said through a sigh.
"My sister's tired herself out," Kaisei said. "I wouldn't mind if there was another enemy: I'm fit for another fight."
Botan gave him a long hard look.
"Okay," she said semi-sarcastically. "Excuse me."
Realising that she would not get her moment with Hiei right then, Botan left the group and instead approached Akira, who was standing some distance away from the others with Kurama, who looked slightly apprehensive to see Botan approaching them.
"Well?" Botan asked, folding her arms as she stopped in front of Akira.
"I apologised to Kurama," Akira mumbled, looking down at the ground.
"That's Mister Kurama to you!" Botan snapped.
Akira suddenly looked up, fixing Botan with that look that always reminded her so starkly of Hiei.
"Kurama's my friend," she said in a tone not entirely dissimilar to one her father would use when he was growing impatient with someone. "It's okay for me to call him Kurama."
"It's polite to call him Mister Kurama," Botan reminded her.
"It's fine for Akira to call me Kurama," Kurama offered.
Botan gave him a hard look and he flinched slightly before forcing one of his appeasing smiles.
"Who told you I was Akira's mother?" Botan asked him, lowering her voice to ensure nobody else would hear her.
"I figured it out myself," Kurama replied. "It was rather obvious."
Botan looked down at Akira for a moment before sighing.
"It's the hair, isn't it?" she whispered, turning back to Kurama. "Lord Koenma said that everyone would assume that Akira was Kuwabara and Yukina's child, but the hair gives it away, doesn't it?"
"What about my hair?" Akira asked, starting to blush slightly.
"The colour of your hair pumpkin," Botan replied. "Do you remember what we said?"
"Oh, yeah, that, right," Akira muttered, looking down at her feet again. "Because you have blue hair and Hiei has black hair."
"Oh…"
Botan turned to Kurama, for although he had only made the noise of realisation very softly, it had seemed quite significant.
"It hadn't occurred to me before that Akira has a unique genetic mutation," he explained.
"Did you just say I'm a mutant?" Akira yelped.
"No," Botan quickly replied.
Akira looked less than sure, but Botan just patted her on the shoulder before turning back to Kurama.
"Does everyone know?" she asked him.
"Does everyone know…" Kurama began slowly.
"That Hiei and I are Akira's parents?" Botan pressed.
"No," Kurama replied. "At least, I don't think so. Kaisei and Fubuki certainly don't seem to think so, and Yusuke doesn't know either."
"That's probably best," Botan said.
"So Hiei didn't tell Yusuke about me either?"
Botan turned to Akira.
"Mister Urameshi," she corrected her.
Akira gave her a withering look.
"Once the Dark Age is over, we can discuss this," Botan added.
"Nothing to discuss," Akira said with a shrug. "I don't care. Just do whatever. We're going to live by the beach and we never have to talk about Hiei again after that, right?"
Botan hesitated and Akira narrowed her eyes in another look that was more common on her father's face – and one that she had only started using in recent years.
"Lord Koenma's going to renege on the contract he signed, isn't he?" she asked.
"Once the Dark Age is over, we can discuss that," Botan carefully replied.
"Once the Dark Age is over, it will be too late to discuss it!" Akira snapped.
"I hate to interrupt, but we do need to leave this place," Kurama said.
Botan turned to him harshly at first, but when she found him looking back at her quite sternly she relinquished.
"Yes, of course," she agreed.
"I think Fubuki's waving at you, Kurama," Akira said, pointing over at the others.
"Mister Kurama," Botan muttered under her breath.
"We're friends," Akira stubbornly replied.
"It's really fine for Akira to call me Kurama," Kurama insisted. "We are friends."
He smiled and winked at Akira in what appeared to just be a friendly gesture, but when Botan turned to Akira and saw a strange look and slightly gooey smile appear on her face, a sickening thought occurred to her.
"Hey, Puu can only carry four people," Fubuki shouted over.
She had run halfway over from the others towards Botan, Kurama and Akira.
"So me, my brother, Yusuke and Hiei are taking the bird," she continued. "Botan, can you take Akira and Kurama on your oar?"
"No," Botan immediately replied before anyone else could respond. "Kurama should go with the boys."
She put a hand on the small of Kurama's back and pushed him towards Fubuki.
"You come with us, Fubuki," Botan said.
"Why?" Fubuki asked.
Botan wanted to yell at her not to ask stupid questions, but she controlled herself and tried to remain diplomatic.
"Because I use spirit energy to fly my oar, and I can only manage one passenger or two light passengers," she lied. "So I'll take you two girls, and Kurama can fly with Yusuke and Hiei and they can discuss what's been happening in Demon World."
"Well, I wanna know what's been happening in Demon World too," Fubuki said. "Hey, I know! Me and Kurama will go on Puu with Yusuke and my brother, and Yusuke can tell me, Kurama and my brother about Demon World, and you can take Hiei and Akira, and Hiei can tell you and Akira about what's been happening in Demon World. Also, Hiei's like half my size, he's gotta be lighter than me for you to take as a passenger."
"No men on the oar!" Botan snapped.
"What?" Fubuki and Akira both asked.
"Just… Do what I said the first time!" Botan responded irritably.
Kurama gave her a strange look, but nodded at Fubuki and then started towards the others. Fubuki pulled a face at him as she passed him on her way to join Botan and Akira, but Botan pretended she had not noticed. Botan waited until Puu had taken the men out of sight before turning to Fubuki.
"Could you just give me two minutes with Akira please?" she said as sweetly as she could.
"Okay, but I think we should leave soon, so make it quick," Fubuki replied.
"The quicker you move away, the quicker I can start and finish, and the quicker we can leave," Botan sarcastically replied.
Fubuki nodded, though she looked a little surprised and insulted, and she obediently jogged away from them.
"I'm allowed to call him Kurama, mom," Akira moaned.
Botan spun around and glared down at her.
"But you're absolutely not allowed to have a crush on him!" she snapped.
Akira's jaw dropped and her eyes grew enormous – but, Botan noticed, she made no attempt to deny the accusation.
"Akira, you are a very young girl and he is a very old man!" Botan continued.
"I'm not a young girl!" Akira argued, starting to look angered. "I'm a young woman now."
"You're fourteen years old!" Botan pointed out.
"Yeah, but even you admitted I'm mature now," Akira said, folding her arms over her chest.
"Yes, you've matured into a sulky teenager that I sometimes cannot reason with…" Botan growled.
"You can't tell me what to think."
"Akira, Kurama is a very old man – and what you can see of him right now is not the real him. He is not a pretty man in his thirties, he's a vicious old fox demon, and he is your father's best friend! Are you trying to cause drama?"
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"Really?"
"Really."
"So you don't have a crush on Kurama?"
"…Crush is a really dumb word."
Botan sighed.
"Akira… Please don't do this!" she begged. "I think you're just angry at your father–"
"Hiei's not my father," Akira muttered.
"Yes he is Akira," Botan corrected her.
"Nope."
"Yes."
"No."
"He's the only man I've been with – are you implying I might have been with another man?"
"No."
"Because if I hadn't been with Hiei at all, you wouldn't even exist."
"I'd rather not exist than be related to him."
Botan groaned.
"We'll talk about this later," she said.
"After the Dark Age?" Akira asked.
"No, little miss sarcastic pants, we'll talk about it later today!" Botan replied. "Fubuki!"
Botan practically screamed the girl's name, but Fubuki appeared not to care, as she happily jogged back over and smiled at them.
"We're leaving," Botan told her as she summoned her oar.
She sat down and Fubuki sat at her side, looking about herself.
"Hey Tet, there's not much room for you," she commented. "Can you sit on the blade?"
Botan started to protest that sitting on the blade would affect her ability to steer and that Fubuki ought to shuffle over a bit, but before she could finish, Fubuki had grabbed Akira and pulled her down to sit on her lap.
"You can just sit here with me, kid," Fubuki said cheerfully.
"Okay," Akira replied.
"Are you sure you'll both be comfortable like that?" Botan asked as she started to lift them up into the sky.
"Yeah, it's no bother!" Fubuki replied.
"You're very close…" Botan grumbled.
"We're the best of friends," Fubuki said. "Right, Akira?"
"Yeah, we're friends," Akira said. "Fubuki's really cool."
"Akira helps me do my hair and my nails and we talk about life," Fubuki told Botan. "It's great. Akira's like my little sounding board when I'm having man trouble or family issues."
"That does sound great," Botan replied.
"It really is!" Fubuki said brightly.
"As a mother, I have absolutely no concerns about the fact that my teenage daughter has a crush on her father's best friend and her own best friend is a randy grown woman who encourages her to chase after men."
"What?"
"Nothing…"
"And then we got back here, realised Godzilla's equine cousin was raining hell down on Tokyo, and we came this way, and that's when we found you guys."
Kurama nodded as Yusuke finally finished recapping everything that had happened to him and Hiei since the commencement of their efforts in Demon World.
"I'm surprised you know what the word "equine" means," Kaisei commented.
"I'm not an idiot!" Yusuke snapped at him.
"That is grave news that we have lost four fighters and valued friends," Kurama said solemnly.
"It's worse that one of our allies is an agent of the enemy now," Hiei replied.
Kurama gave him a hard look, but found himself unable to maintain it as it was returned with a look that might as well have come from Akira.
"It is also quite dire that Jin is now effectively our enemy," Kurama conceded.
"He's not our enemy, he's just saying a bunch of stuff he doesn't want to!" Yusuke argued.
"I'm glad you've been able to keep sight of that fact," Kurama said.
"I'm not," Hiei grumbled. "Once someone falls victim to the Dark Force, they are the Dark Force, and trying to think of them as anything otherwise only weakens our defences and slows our efforts to push the enemy back."
Kurama turned to Yusuke to attempt to rephrase what Hiei had just said in a more diplomatic manner – as it was, after all, a quite valid point – but stopped when he found Yusuke sneering at Hiei.
"He's been like this since the start," Yusuke complained. "Rinku would still be alive and fighting with us if Hiei hadn't had that attitude. Rinku saw through Risho, and if Hiei hadn't killed him, he probably would have helped the rest of us to see that Risho was wrong before he managed to kill Shishi. And then if Rinku and Shishi hadn't died, we might have–"
"Yusuke, I do appreciate how you feel, but this is not the time for hesitation or regrets," Kurama gently interrupted him.
"Does all of this mean the Dark Age is actually at stage two now?" Kaisei asked.
"Yes, it does," Hiei replied before anyone else could.
He turned to Kaisei with a hint of a condescending smirk on his face that Kurama found to be highly inappropriate under the circumstances.
"I hope you're little play sessions with your coquettish sister and the volatile child have been productive," he continued, his tone suddenly dripping with sarcasm. "Because stage two of the Dark Age means stage two of the defence plan: Yusuke and I will be stationed here, in the living world, and neither of us will tolerate any deadweight on our team."
"You don't have to worry about me, Hiei," Kaisei confidently replied. "And my sister might be coquettish, but she's just as tough as I am. She's probably a little stronger, but I'm definitely faster. We're both better fighters than Kuwabara."
Yusuke shot Kurama a dark look, but Kurama gave a small shake of his head to warn him not to comment: Kaisei had clearly never seen the fullest extent of Kuwabara's powers, or else his ego was much more inflated than Kurama had originally thought it to be.
"The kid is unreliable, that's true," Kaisei continued. "But he is useful for scouting work and he's small enough to crawl into air ducts, so sometimes he can be quite useful for stealth missions."
"I dunno, I've heard the kid is actually pretty tough, but he hides it."
Kurama, Hiei and Kaisei all slowly turned to Yusuke, who was looking down at Puu's back as he eased out a loose feather. Kurama was almost certain that Yusuke was merely trying to wind Kaisei up, but he did not have that telltale cheeky glimmer he usually got in his eye when he was setting up a joke.
"I did a little background check on the three of you."
Kaisei's face dropped when Yusuke lifted his head and met his eyes.
"When did you do that?" Kurama asked.
"Clearly he's making an attempt at a joke," Hiei snorted. "He may have been a detective for Spirit World, but investigative work was never his forte…"
"Well, screw you three eyes, because I'm telling the truth," Yusuke casually replied, keeping his eyes on Kaisei. "I wasn't happy leaving everyone in the safe house with only Kuwabara and Kurama to protect them, so I made a few calls."
"Are we expected to believe that you called people from Demon World to check up on me?" Kaisei asked him.
"I called Keiko," Yusuke replied. "And Shizuru. Because I can do that. Because they have communication mirrors."
Kaisei twitched and Kurama started to grow curious: after all the arguments Keiko had had with Kaisei, she surely would not have given him a fair appraisal to Yusuke.
"And I called Koenma," Yusuke added.
Hiei was starting to look mildly curious.
"And Botan."
Kurama gulped, his eyes moving to Hiei. He was not really sure what Hiei's past relationship with Akira was, but from their present relationship, it appeared as though he had either denied the child from birth or else disowned him, and Hiei would surely not want to discuss the matter with anyone, least of all Kaisei.
"I didn't get much out of Koenma beyond the usual," Yusuke continued. "He said you and your sister were as good as your mom in her heyday – and that was before you went to train with Kuwabara – and that now he thought you were about as strong as I was at the end of the Dark Tournament. So that's pretty good."
"I'm pretty sure I'm stronger than that," Kaisei muttered, his face reddening slightly. "I mean, I've seen recordings of the Dark Tournament, and I can see areas where you made a lot of mistakes in battle–"
"Botan and Keiko really only told me what you and your sister were like as people and not as fighters," Yusuke cut him off. "Which was also useful, because now I know what sort of team-mates you'll be. Koenma told me the kid was a competent fighter – and that was his exact words – but he didn't say much else. Botan and Keiko were both weirdly quiet when I asked about him, but I got a slightly different story from Shizuru."
Kurama silently wondered where Yusuke was going with what he was saying: if Botan herself had not told Yusuke who Akira really was, he doubted Shizuru would have betrayed the secret they had apparently all been sworn to keep.
"She said you were an arrogant son of a bitch, but really clever and quick-thinking," Yusuke said to Kaisei. "She said you rush into things without thinking sometimes because you overestimate your own strength, but generally you can be quite strategic if someone else pulls back on your reins."
"She's always hated me…" Kaisei grumbled.
"She said your sister also rushes in without thinking, but it's not so bad when she does it, because she's a bit stronger, a bit more fearless and a bit more fierce than you," Yusuke continued. "She said Fubuki is more open to learning something new that you are, but she's less likely to remember the lesson if she thinks she doesn't need to."
"That's fair," Kaisei said.
Hiei rolled his eyes.
"She didn't say too much about the kid either, but she did do me a useful favour to help me find out more about all three of you," Yusuke said. "She called one of my old buddies from the living world who had met the three of you and who didn't hold back with his opinions on you all."
Kaisei's face dropped again.
"Not that know-it-all Amanuma?" he asked.
Yusuke shook his head.
"Oh, so it was the guy Fubuki almost had in tears," Kaisei concluded. "Mitarai, right?"
Yusuke shook his head again and Kurama was suddenly more curious than he has expected himself to be.
"I'm talking about my old buddy Kaito," Yusuke said.
"Kaito?" Kurama echoed.
"The obnoxious, bookish one with bad skin," Hiei offered, apparently under the assumption that Kurama could not remember him. "He went to that stuffy human school you went to, did he not?"
"Yes, I do remember who Kaito is," Kurama patiently replied. "But he only briefly met Kaisei, Fubuki and Akira, and not in combat. We met him in a café on our first full day together as a team."
"He said Kaisei and Fubuki were tough, but he didn't think they'd be strong enough to go against any of Sensui's gang, even if they double-teamed each one of the seven individually," Yusuke said, ignoring the horrified look his words earned him from Kaisei. "But he said Akira was hiding something. He said the kid was treating the whole situation like a "formality" he said – like he's just making the minimum amount of effort to get by – and that if he was to really try hard, he could probably take you and your sister. At the same time."
"Kaito really said that?" Kurama asked.
"Yeah," Yusuke replied.
"Well he's an idiot," Kaisei pompously announced.
"He likes to torment people by speaking nonsense," Hiei said to anyone who was listening.
"I thought that too, at first," Yusuke said. "But then I started thinking about it a bit more, and it started to make sense."
"Yusuke, I'm sorry to interrupt, but this doesn't make any sense," Kurama said.
"No, it doesn't," Hiei added. "That kid is pathetically weak."
"No, it's not that," Kurama said, ignoring the glower Hiei gave him upon his dismissal of the emiko's declaration. "That day we met Kaito, he took me aside and told me that he thought, based on first impressions, that Fubuki was the best fighter, but that she didn't take things seriously enough."
"That's not quite right," Yusuke said.
"How do you know it's not right?" Hiei asked. "You weren't there. Were you?"
"No, he wasn't," Kaisei replied.
"Kaito told me Akira was the one he thinks doesn't take things seriously and is way stronger than Kaisei and Fubuki," Yusuke said to Kurama. "And – get this, because it is hilarious and you will laugh – he thought Akira was a teenage girl!"
Yusuke laughed and looked around the others, but none of them joined in his merriment. Kaisei still looked irritated that his own abilities had been criticised so readily, Hiei still looked disgusted that they were even discussing Akira and Kurama was suddenly wondering if what Yusuke had just revealed about Kaito's conclusions on Akira – both regarding his potential as a fighter and his gender – were perhaps true.
"When were you making all these sneaky calls to the living world?" Hiei asked Yusuke.
"Probably about the same time you were having all those sneaky meetings with Mukuro…" Yusuke muttered.
Kurama sensed that there was a bit of animosity between Yusuke and Hiei, though after what they had been through – losing half of their team, witnessing one being turned into a puppet and having to leave behind another – it was not surprising that they were tense. Puu was starting his last descent towards Genkai's temple and, once they were at their destination, Yusuke would surely gain some solace from mixing with Kuwabara and Keiko again, which would surely help him to forget any difficulties he had with Hiei.
And as he saw Botan landing on the porch with Fubuki and Akira, it occurred to Kurama that Hiei was about to stay in the safe house with a bitter teenager he had never admitted to being the father of.
Puu landed and Fubuki hurried over to meet them, punching her brother in the arm and joking with him about something. Yusuke jumped down and started towards the house, greeting Botan cheerfully as he passed her and giving a stilted greeting to Akira, who stared blankly back at him. Kurama and Hiei leapt down to the ground together and both stopped there as Puu retreated to his favoured roosting area at the back of the temple and the Sato siblings continued on towards the house. Within seconds Kurama found himself standing alone on the lawn with Hiei, facing Botan and Akira on the front porch.
And for a long, silent, tense moment, all four remained that way.
Akira was the first to react, turning as though to go inside: but Botan quickly grabbed a handful of his sleeve and turned him back around. Akira looked very worried then, but his face quickly changed to one of mild disappointment when Hiei darted off into the woods beyond the limits of the temple lawns. With Hiei gone, Kurama started towards the porch, watching carefully as Botan put an arm around Akira's shoulders.
"I don't care," he heard Akira say.
"Your father doesn't really like large gatherings of people," Botan said.
"Neither do I, but at least I know it's bad manners to run away from them," Akira moaned.
"He'll come around soon," Botan said. "And when he does, do you really want him to see you looking like you've been dragged through a bush backwards?"
"Mom…"
"Let's get you cleaned up. You don't have to wear those clothes all the time, you know. And would it kill you to run a comb through your hair at least once a day?"
"I'm not brushing my hair and changing my clothes just because Hiei decided to show up. You're not tricking me with that one. Not again."
Botan clenched her jaw and grabbed a handful of Akira's hair at the back of his head as Kurama started up the porch steps.
"Ow," Akira said sarcastically.
Botan ignored him, smiling sweetly at Kurama.
"Hello," she greeted him.
Kurama continued past her and closed the front door before turning around, finding that Botan had turned to face him, releasing Akira in the process. Akira made to go inside but Botan grabbed the back of his shirt, halting his escape.
"Don't you have something you want to say to Kurama, Akira?" Botan asked.
"No," Akira quietly replied, lowering his head.
"Well I do," Botan said, turning her attention back to Kurama. "I understand that this is probably awkward for you Kurama, but I wondered if I could ask you to just refrain from talking to anyone else about Akira's relation to Hiei."
"Yusuke appears to be unaware that Hiei is Akira's father," Kurama replied. "And I will not tell him otherwise. It's not my place to."
"Hiei's not my father," Akira muttered.
"We've been over this already, many times," Botan sternly replied. "Hiei most definitely is your father."
"Aunty Shizuru said he's just a sperm donor."
Botan's face turned deathly pale and then flushed red.
"Don't use language like that!" she snapped. "Where did you even hear language like that?"
"Aunty Shizuru," Akira repeated. "Weren't you listening to me?"
"Well you shouldn't repeat things Aunty Shizuru says to you!" Botan argued. "She just has a very negative opinion of your father."
"Because he's a lousy father."
"He's not a lousy father!"
"Yes he is. I've met him three times now, and every time he's tried to kill me."
"Those were exceptional circumstances! If your father had been around when you were growing up, I'm sure you would see that he would have been a wonderful father."
"That fact that he wasn't around is mostly what makes him such a lousy father."
"Would you stop calling your father "lousy"!"
Akira turned away from Botan and Botan turned to Kurama, who smiled awkwardly.
"If I may play mediator for just a moment, I think I can help you both reach an understanding with each other on this issue," he offered.
"Yes, thank you Kurama," Botan said, calming a little. "As Hiei's best friend, will you please tell sulky pants here that Hiei is not a lousy father?"
"I'm afraid I wasn't going to offer to take sides in your quibble," Kurama replied.
Botan's face dropped and Akira smiled.
"The problem here is that you are both approaching this from different mentalities," Kurama explained. "And not just because of your differing experiences of Hiei. Botan, you have to consider that Akira is part demon, and we demons are less forgiving than spirits, and for Akira, Hiei's absence is a sign of rejection and an inability to commit, and those are the reasons Hiei seems to be a bad father."
"Exactly," Akira said, turning to Botan.
"And Akira?"
Akira turned back to Kurama curiously.
"Your mother is a spirit, and it's in her nature to always focus on the good in any soul she encounters," Kurama explained. "Your mother is trying to focus on the fact that, because he was never around, Hiei never actually had the chance to prove whether he could be a good parent or not. She's trying to put a good spin on a bad situation, and she probably doesn't even realise what she's doing because that manner of thinking is so ingrained into her being."
Akira nodded.
"That's true," he said. "But there's something else you haven't taken into consideration: my mom's in love with Hiei, and she won't let anyone say anything bad about him."
"Akira!" Botan snapped.
"It's true," Akira insisted.
Kurama held up his hands as Botan started to look furious.
"This is clearly a very tense issue and I appreciate that," he said. "But I'm afraid now is not the right time to try to resolve it."
"Because the Dark Force might try to use Akira to get to Hiei," Botan said, putting her arm around Akira's shoulders again.
"I think that only works if he cares about me," Akira muttered. "Which he clearly doesn't…"
Botan sighed, looking genuinely weary of the matter.
"Pumpkin, you're giving Kurama the impression that you and I do nothing but argue with each other," she said, placing a hand on top of Akira's head and gently running her fingers through his lilac hair.
"We only ever argue about Hiei," Akira told Kurama.
Kurama saw a flicker of guilt pass over Botan's face before she forced a smile.
"And about someone remembering to use a hairbrush," she said, looking down at Akira again.
"Okay, I'll brush my hair," Akira conceded.
"It's supposed to be a pixie cut," Botan told Kurama as she attempted to style the front part of Akira's hair upwards.
"Because I don't look like a pixie enough already without having a hairstyle like one too," Akira said.
Botan pouted at Akira, who grinned back at her.
"And wash your face," Botan added. "You look a bit grubby and you have such a lovely skin. Just like your Aunty Yukina."
"So just like Hiei then?" Akira asked, his grin vanishing.
"No, like Aunty Yukina and the ice maidens," Botan replied.
As they stood watching each other curiously, Kurama found himself reminded of what Yusuke had spoken about on the way back to the temple. He took a moment to consider the words Botan had just used before deciding to approach the subject as tactfully as he possibly could.
"Yusuke doesn't appear to know that Hiei is your father, Akira," he said carefully, drawing Akira's attention to him. "But he does still think that you are a ten year old boy. How do you feel about that?"
Akira shrugged.
"People think I'm younger than I am all the time. It's because I'm short. Like Hiei."
Botan rolled her eyes.
"I don't think that's what he meant, Akira," she said.
"Oh you mean because Yusuke called me a boy?" Akira asked. "But everyone here does that. It's what they do, isn't it? Isn't it like a cultural thing for humans and demons? Like how they all call Mukuro "Lord" Mukuro or "Sir" even though she's a woman? Fubuki said sometimes people call her "the man" and she's really feminine, but it's just what happens to women who are physically strong, right? People refer to strong women as though they're men, right?"
"Nobody thinks you're a boy, Akira!" Botan replied. "You have such pretty bone structure in your face, it's obvious you're not a boy!"
"Pretty bone structure like a pixie?"
Botan's face dropped and Akira grinned again.
"I don't know where you got your cheekiness from," Botan grumbled.
"Maybe you shouldn't have left me with Lord Koenma all day while you were working when I was a kid," Akira replied with a shrug.
"That's probably true," Botan said, turning to Kurama.
Kurama forced a smile and nodded, but on the inside he was feeling ridiculous for not noticing before that Akira was a teenage girl – especially when even Kaito had been able to see it.
"Pumpkin, could you go inside and ask Aunty Yukina to lay out some blankets for me?" Botan said to Akira. "I'll stay here tonight, in your room."
Akira looked pleased, but only momentarily.
"Are you sending me away so that you can talk to Kurama about me behind my back?"
"You get your paranoia from your father," Botan replied.
"And my insecurity from you."
"Go and ask Aunty Yukina to lay out blankets for me!"
"Okay."
Akira begrudgingly trudged past Kurama and into the house. Once the door was closed again, Kurama turned back to Botan and found her watching him with a strange look on her face.
"Akira doesn't trust many people, but she appears to trust you," the ferry girl began. "And she appears to have started trusting you very quickly. She's very like her father – she doesn't trust people easily – so I hope you would never do anything to betray that trust."
"Of course not," Kurama replied. "I actually had a conversation with Akira about trust earlier today, and I promised then that I would never betray–"
"If the Dark Force takes control of you or consumes you, I will kill you without hesitation."
Kurama froze.
"I mean it Kurama," Botan said, despite looking and sounding unsure of her words. "If there's any chance that you could be a threat to my daughter, I will consider you an enemy."
"That is how it works," Kurama carefully replied. "Anyone who falls victim to the Dark Force will, unfortunately, become an enemy to the team."
Botan nodded.
"I have a question for you though," Kurama continued. "How is it that two of my friends had a child together fourteen years ago and I have only recently found out about it?"
"I didn't tell anyone about Akira at first," Botan replied. "Not even Hiei."
"But Kuwabara and Akira are very close and Kuwabara claims to have known Akira since… Since the day she was born."
Kurama still felt a little odd referring to Akira as a girl: so much so that he felt the need to address the matter.
"And why has Kuwabara allowed everyone to call Akira a boy all this time?" he asked.
"Lord Koenma told us not to correct any conclusions anyone jumped to about Akira's origins," Botan replied. "He said he expected you and Yusuke to assume that Akira was Kuwabara and Yukina's emiko son, and that it was better you think that than learn the truth: which has been killing me, because that girl is my pride and joy, and these past few years I've had to pretend to not even know that she exists sometimes!"
Botan clenched her fists at her side and shook her head as though trying to shake her thoughts into order.
"A-and yes," she added, her tone calmer. "Kuwabara has known Akira since she was a baby. I took her here often, mostly for my own sake, because I didn't like always leaving her with Lord Koenma and George when I had to work, and she always loved staying with Kuwabara and Yukina."
Kurama nodded slowly as another thought occurred to him.
"At some point during this, I assume you let slip to Yukina and Kuwabara that Hiei is Yukina's brother?" he asked.
The look on Botan's face was all the answer he needed.
"I see," he said softly.
"It wasn't like that, Kurama!" she quickly said. "I never intended to reveal Hiei's secret! Either of them…"
She sighed and covered her face with her large kimono sleeves before slowly sliding her hands down to peer through her parted fingers at Kurama.
"The thing is Kurama, it wasn't exactly easy telling Hiei about Akira," she said, her voice muffled against her hands.
"But you did tell him?" Kurama asked, the horrifying thought occurring to him that Hiei perhaps did not know the truth.
"I tried to many times," Botan replied, her hands still over her face. "But after Akira was actually born, it was hard to find the time to go chasing after him – he's so difficult to find as it is – and so I waited until the second Demon World Tournament, because I knew he would be there and I could talk to him then."
Botan's hands slid down to her sides.
"By then Akira was already a young child," Kurama pointed out.
Botan nodded.
"She was two," she said. "And my plan was to attend the tournament like I had attended the first tournament."
"I don't remember you being at the second Demon World Tournament," Kurama said. "I only remember you attending the first: thereafter, Koenma always arrived with only his ogre assistant at his side."
"Yes… Well… About that..."
Botan looked about herself as though she was worried that Hiei might reappear and join the conversation before stepping closer to Kurama.
"The thing is Kurama, I could never get to Hiei until the second Demon World Tournament," she said. "But on the first day that I went to the demon world for the tournament with Lord Koenma and George, the very first thing I did was seek out Hiei. I made sure I got to see him. I had to talk to him. But… He didn't react the way I thought he would – not that I knew how he would react – not that I had any idea about it – though I had thought about it a lot – but–"
Botan stopped short as the temple door opened. Kurama turned around to see Kuwabara limping out to join them. He closed the door behind him and began rubbing a hand at the back of his head in the same way Kurama had seen Akira doing earlier.
"Hey you guys, how's it going?" he asked.
"You have to stop doing this, Kuwabara!" Botan said, looking both guilty and angry.
"I was just asking how you were," Kuwabara replied, feigning innocence.
"No you weren't!" Botan said. "You're out here because Akira told you she thinks I'm talking to Kurama about her, and you came out here to spy on us for her!"
Kuwabara smiled sheepishly.
"Is that true?" Kurama asked.
"Akira's my little buddy," Kuwabara quietly replied. "We look out for each other. She was worried she was in trouble."
"She's always worried she's in trouble," Botan said. "She's paranoid and insecure, and being a teenage girl and having half of Spirit World accusing her of something she isn't responsible for makes her even more paranoid and insecure!"
"She's a good kid though, Botan," Kuwabara said.
"I know that, Kuwabara," Botan replied. "And you know I appreciate how close you are to her – which is just as well, because apart from George the ogre, you are the only adult man in her life that she can trust."
"She trusts Kurama already," Kuwabara said.
Botan gave Kurama a strange look, but said nothing.
"So what are you guys talking about?" Kuwabara asked.
"I just asked Botan how and when it was that you and Yukina learned about Hiei's relation to Yukina," Kurama offered, hoping to draw attention away from the fact that he and Botan had actually been discussing Akira.
"Oh yeah, Botan told us Hiei was Yukina's brother at the same time she told us Hiei was Akira's father," Kuwabara replied.
"I was just getting to that…" Botan muttered.
"Well I can tell the rest of it if it's too difficult for you, Botan," Kuwabara offered. "Me and Yukina were babysitting Akira while Botan went to the second Demon World Tournament, but Botan came back after one day because when she went to go tell Hiei about Akira, Hiei basically told her he didn't care. Botan got really upset, Urameshi found her crying and then he encouraged her to go get drunk with him, and she flew back here drunk and she told me and Yukina everything."
"I was drunk," Botan added.
"Yukina was really upset that Hiei had never told her before that he was her brother and I was really mad that he wouldn't come see Akira," Kuwabara continued. "The next day, after Botan stopped spewing up her guts all over the place–"
"Nobody needed to know that part," Botan interrupted.
"She called Koenma and he said she didn't have to go back to watch the tournament, but she didn't have to go back to Spirit World either, so we – you know, me, Yukina, Botan and Akira – all took a little summer holiday in Sapporo."
"Akira likes the beach."
"And then we did that every time there was a Demon World Tournament."
"Yes. Every time there was a Demon World Tournament, the four of us – and sometimes Shizuru and Keiko and Kuwabara's father too – all went to Sapporo for two weeks."
"And after two weeks we all came home. Except Botan and Akira."
"Akira and I stayed there for the duration of every tournament. It was nice. After the Dark Age, we're going to live there."
Kurama nodded.
"Okay," he said. "There's just one thing I don't understand: Akira made a very good point – why hasn't Hiei ever mentioned her to Yusuke or me before now?"
Botan opened her mouth to answer, but Kuwabara beat her to it.
"Because Hiei's the sort of guy who doesn't care about family," he said coldly. "Look at how he never told Yukina who he was all that time. He kept telling her that her brother was probably dead and it broke her heart. He messed his sister around for years and now he's messing around his own daughter with the same mean tricks."
"It seems odd that Hiei allowed Akira to be raised in Spirit World," Kurama pointed out. "Tonight he mentioned that she should have been raised in Demon World."
"Oh yeah?" Kuwabara scoffed. "By who? Because he sure wasn't gonna raise her there, was he? Not after he wouldn't even come and see her after Botan told him about her."
Kurama still thought it odd that Hiei had never mentioned Akira or else acknowledged who she was when she had been introduced to Kurama and Yusuke as one of the living world defenders: however, it was not so difficult to believe that Hiei would distance himself from his child, especially after the way he had always distanced himself from his sister. Kurama could almost hear Hiei's voice saying something along the lines of "it was better this way, better that she never know me".
Kuwabara suggested they go inside, and, after once more accusing him of spying on behalf of Akira, Botan agreed and followed him indoors. After one last look over his shoulder for any trace of Hiei returning, Kurama followed them in too and closed the door.
Next Chapter: Fubuki tries (and fails) to befriend Hiei, Yusuke decides it might be fun to wind up Akira (but sorely misjudges his choice of subject material), Koenma arrives to deliver some startling news from Spirit World and Yusuke unintentionally unleashes a monster. Chapter 25 – Messenger