Silver

Summary: When Kurama gets afflicted by a deadly curse, Botan is the only one capable of curing him. Forced to go back in time to save him, Botan meets THE Youko Kurama. Cold, belligerent and cunning, the best she could hope for is to settle the mission while trying to get him to at least stop looking like he wanted to kill her.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Chapter 1

When Botan first caught wind of Kurama fainting at Yusuke's apartment, needless to say, she was more than concerned.

The ferry girl had summoned her oar and made her way to the human world with the utmost breakneck speed she could muster as her upsurge of worry for her friend's well-being compelled her to fly all the way over to Genkai's temple. By the time she had arrived at her destination, the entirety of Reikai Tantei, Genkai and Koenma were already gathered around the insentient fox, the air shrouding the room he was in unbearably tense as she stepped inside.

She perched herself in a sitting position on the floor next to Kuwabara before craning her neck slightly forward in order to study the redhead's comatose face. To her surprise - and horror, her reaper senses detected the feeling of the orb that was his life force being eaten away little by little with each passing minute. Kurama's delicate features, however, appeared serene by all accounts, almost as if he was simply in a deep slumber. But upon leaning forward and obtaining a closer look, Botan could catch a glimpse of the pitch-black discoloration adorning his neck - except it wasn't discoloration, and instead seemed to be something she could only distinguish as a result of a curse spreading in his body. Shadows crept up his once beige-colored skin as millions of baffled inquiries perturbed the recesses of her mind.

"You recognize it, do you not, Botan?" Koenma's solemn voice echoed in her ears, bringing her partially out of her petrify-induced state.

She diverted her broad, shell-shocked eyes at the prince, profuse concern fusing with a growing touch of alarm as the emotions swirled in her pools of lilacs. Drawing her lips tight first before steadily parting them open, Botan voiced out her answer in a barely audible affirmative, "Yes, Koenma-sama. It's a curse."

The profound mixture of distress and bewilderment that had been building around the space immediately reached a boiling point as Yusuke's controlled visage shortly contorted into a furious guise.

The growled out question that rumbled through his chest complemented the flash of brewing anger in his brown irises as he verbalized the words, "What curse? Koenma's been babbling about some curse shit for a while now, but he doesn't want to tell us anything until you got here. So would either of you mind explaining what's happening to Kurama right now?" He paused for a moment as Botan creased her brows into a deep frown, apparently as confused as he was, before he then levelled a withering look at the teenage form of the spirit world's prince. "And I think you of all people would know not to keep things a secret by now, pacifier breath. Stop beating around the bush and keeping us in the dark and start talking."

"I agree with Yusuke for once," Kuwabara muttered under his breath, voice level-headed until Botan perked up her ears and caught the sliver of repressed annoyance lying underneath. "We waited an hour for Botan. Now she's here and it's time for you to give us answers."

Koenma permitted himself a second of brief respite as he mulled over the right choice of words. He gave the pacifier between his lips a thoughtful, agitated suction before articulating a grim response, "It's a curse brought upon by revenge - more precisely, it stems from a deep-rooted resentment from a dead soul...usually one that would soon be reincarnated into a ferry girl. Not many people are aware of its existence except the spirit beings living in Reikai, and even then it's actually a rare occurrence. It's called the Death's Kiss and it spreads in a miniscule scale over time."

Ruby orbs blinked as Hiei's black eyebrows knitted together into a visible frown, his normally neutral countenance reflecting a speck of puzzlement as he echoed, "In that case, why is it only taking effect now? I'm pretty damn sure it takes Reikai a few decades before they designate a new grim reaper. To say that he ignited vengeance from a mere woman before they became a ferry girl is…" he trailed off all of a sudden, his slanted irises growing wide in a steady pace as the revelation slowly but surely dawned on him. "It's someone he did wrong back when he was Youko, isn't it?"

He received his concurring riposte in the form of a firm nod from the prince. "Yes, I would assume as much as well. Youko was a ruthless thief during the days of his reign of terror after all, therefore it wouldn't be a farfetched supposition to reckon that he probably instigated a lot of awful massacres. The soul was most likely one of his long list of victims."

"Then answer what shrimp asked," Kuwabara prodded. "If that's the case, why is the curse coming into effect now? He's about twenty-two this year and I'm convinced that whatever Youko did possibly happened a few years before that. Pretty weird for someone who's adamant in their pursuit for retribution to put their plans into motion so late."

"Contrary to your beliefs," Botan chimed in after a while of being silent, the shock having dwindled from her system a little as she finally rallied her voice, garnering the other's attention as she murmured, "most souls curse their murderers without the intention to do so. It's the hatred that runs deep in their veins that causes them to involuntarily put a curse on someone. A vast majority of curses are rendered invalid after a few years though, but if it's caused by a ferry girl then that's a different story altogether. The Death's Kiss usually takes effect ten years after the soul is reincarnated into a grim reaper, and before that it habitually lays dormant in the recipient's body. It's honestly unnoticeable until it starts functioning."

"Then bring the ferry girl that died and jinxed him like this in the first place," Yusuke uttered the suggestion as his lips tugged down into a single thin line of muted chagrin. "We'll make her eliminate the curse and Kurama can go back to normal."

"I knew you didn't have a lot of brain cells to begin with, but try to use your head, dumbass," Genkai's penetrating voice blared in the room as she gestured the demeaning scoff at Yusuke's direction. She disregarded the sharp daggers he shot at her in return as she shrewdly went on, "Think. If they were capable of doing that, Koenma would have called for the ferry girl instead of Botan."

"Unless she's the one who originally placed the curse on him," Hiei snorted in interruption before directing an icy, dubious glare at the blue-haired deity. Botan flattened her lips in fermenting ire from the rather uncalled accusation, but wisely opted to keep her mouth shut as she sought to push down the savage retaliation that threatened to crawl up her lips.

"Unfortunately, Hiei," Koenma briskly started in Botan's defense, his voice equally tight as the taut muscles under his face as he drily drummed out an elucidation, "Botan's been a ferry girl for a good couple of centuries already. To think that she was the genesis of Kurama's anathema is nothing but a fallacious conclusion made without any conjecture. I don't need to reiterate Botan's elaboration that the hex takes effect ten years after the person responsible is reborn into a ferry girl, do I now?" He added the sharp reminder for emphasis and watched in triumph as Hiei's shoulders slumped down in defeat, the fire demon's nose scrunching up in displeasure at having his mistake pointed out.

"Yeah, Hiei. I can't imagine Botan being the cause of this," Yusuke enunciated the solid justification for his friend. "She's not the kind of bitch who would approach someone she hates just to make him suffer. Do you honestly think someone like her would be harboring ulterior motives?"

The fire demon seemed to consider this for a moment. "I suppose not. She's too much of an airhead to conjure up a brilliant strategy to begin with."

Botan expelled a heavy, exasperated sight as the ill-conceived barb, but once again decided against countering his insult with her own snide remark as she quelled her frisson of infuriation. Although, a shred of impatience remained latent beneath her moderately clipped reply, "Whoever inflicted the malediction on Kurama doesn't matter at any rate because bringing her here isn't an option. The Death's Kiss doesn't work in the same way as most curses do, and the person who placed it can't be the same person who obliterates it. For starters, ferry girls are required to go through a memory-erasing process before they get started on their job, so I doubt she remembers anyway."

Kuwabara's slanted pupils broadened into the size of saucers as a torrent of comprehension washed over him after the ferry girl's clarification was over and done with. "Then...is that why you're here, Botan?"

The deity nodded once. "I would think so. Koenma-sama is entrusting me with the task of getting rid of the curse and saving Kurama's life."

"Get started then, woman," came Hiei's habitual scoff, the sound eliciting a heated glare from Botan as she aimed a contemptuous glower at the Jagan master's direction.

"To remove it is not as effortless as you think," Botan asserted the offhanded retort, repudiating her infinitesimal ill-temper as she enounced. "I would have to retrace his past to the point before he did something to arouse the curse to begin with. Or at least, if the soul had already imposed it on him, I would have to terminate it in half an hour after it was placed. Other than those two scenarios, my powers won't be able to work the way they're supposed to."

Genkai proffered her a deep frown at that. "Saying that gives us the impression that you'd be traveling back in time," she spoke in a calm manner, though an ounce of surprise was dormant in her composed timbre. At Botan's lack of response, she knew that her presupposition had hit the jackpot. "Is that even possible?"

"It is," Koenma chiselled in after another fleeting suction on his pacifier. Reaching one hand underneath his robe, the prince fumbled around for something before retrieving an argent-framed mirror and pushing the item towards the side of Botan's hips. "This is the Wish Mirror. I guess you could call it a time machine of some sort."

The ferry girl slowly seized the mirror into her hands just in time for Yusuke to loudly crack his knuckles as if in a token of preparing himself before curling his fingers into fists and pumping them in the air. "Alright then! I guess me, Kuwabara and Hiei are going to go with her. Gotta hurry up before anything worse happens to Kurama."

He was on the verge of stretching himself when Koenma offered his rebuttal. "No, Botan is going alone," he uttered in a blunt tone.

Yusuke and Kuwabara both did a double take before they eventually registered his words, confounded astonishment flitting over their features as Hiei furrowed his brows into another nonplussed frown. Kuwabara was the first to verbalize his protest, "Hold up, Koenma. You're letting Botan go all by herself? I don't think that's safe." The concern was palpable in the midst of shattering surprise in his gruff timbre.

"I concur with the ugly oaf for once," Hiei briskly followed the opposition with an incredulous scoff, swerving his body aside just in time to side-step Kuwabara's attack as the carrot-top sounded an indignant bellow before going to tackle him to the ground. Kuwabara's muffled, grudging whine was scarcely audible as he fell face on the floor in return.

The fire demon ignored the grouse curses he could distinctly catch coming out of Kuwabara's throat as he spared Botan a brief, condescending glance for emphasis before going on, "Do you really think a girl as feeble as her would be able to take the Youko Kurama, of all people?" He halted mid-sentence only to allow a derogatory snort to rumble from the back of his throat. "Judging from the information we've gotten so far, I'd reckon that she would have to either do some negotiation with the fox or take him down so that he doesn't do anything reckless that might end up stirring up the curse again. I already have my doubts she would be able to pull off such a difficult feat even with our company, much less if she's going alone."

"Oh, I didn't know you were that worried about me, Hiei. Thanks for the concern," came Botan's sarcastic bleat as it echoed in a low-octave whisper under her breath. She rolled her eyes in mutual irritation as the Jagan master in question shot her a scathing scowl in return.

"You think that I don't have my own schemes to safeguard her? The mirror can't take more than a single person to the past, and Botan's the only one capable of completing the task," Koenma butted in with the snippy riposte before Hiei could confer the ferry girl an offensive interpose. The prince shook his head and heaved a loud, exasperated sigh before retrieving yet another object from underneath his robes. He dangled the pendant in his clenched fist before releasing it as Botan took it out of his grasp. "Wear that. I don't have the time to explain everything, but I doubt Youko would resort to blindly attacking you if he sees that."

The deity arched a single, delicate cerulean brow at him in an inquisitive manner before averting her gaze to the necklace nestled on the surface of her palm. The purple-tinctured jewel wrapped around the golden frame glinted at her, and for a fraction of a second, she could have sworn she saw a faint spiral of a grey cloud inside before it dissipated from her view, leaving her to ponder over the odds of her eyes playing tricks on her. There was a scintilla of hesitance in her pools of lavenders before she reluctantly but surely undid the clasp and hooked the gilded chain of the lavalier around her neck. Botan diffidently clasped it once more, a startled gasp escaping her as the instant she did, she caught the sensation of a powerful surge of power coursing through every nerve of her being. It waned in the twinkling of an eye, the feeling ebbed away as quickly as it had assaulted her.

Biting on the tip of her tongue, Botan prevented the questioning syllables from slithering up her throat as she halted herself from bombarding her boss with a slew of inquiries. Taking into account his rather secretive demeanor, she realized that, in all likelihood, he probably wouldn't spare a second to elaborate on what the pendant was. Regardless, there was not even a remnant of pain anywhere in her body, thus Botan concluded that it was not something that would cause her harm. In spite of her urge to implore for some exposition from Koenma, she knew that there was no more time to lose and forced herself to go along with the flow.

"And you have to go there with your human body, Botan," Koenma went on, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"I am in my human body, Koenma-sama," she patiently replied as she caught the plump skin of her lower lip and chewed on the poor flesh before articulating another question, "Is this why you told me to come here like this? I'm not supposed to let Youko know that I'm a ferry girl, am I?"

She received her answer in the form of a dismissive shake of his wave. "No. Although Reikai and Makai are on good terms at the moment, they are at war during Youko's days of being a legendary bandit. Best case scenario is that he'll leave you alone, but then that would make the mission harder for you to accomplish. Worst case scenario is that he'd possibly kill you on the spot if he finds out, nevertheless of the fact you're wearing the necklace or not."

A nauseating feeling puddled in the pits of her gut, blood and color draining from her face as her visage turned pale white from the notion of her probable demise. She pursed her lips forward as she speculated the chances of her success, dubiety merging with dread as the whirlwind of emotions struck at the middle of her chest. In all truth, Botan was still uncertain if she was up to the task, but she was vividly aware of the fact that the entirety of Kurama's life laid on her frail shoulders. He was a friend and she couldn't just coward her way out of this. Inhaling a long, calming intake of breath, Botan snubbed the residues of fear and ambivalence from her system as she mustered up every smidgen of courage and steel resolve she could.

The gleam of determination in her violet orbs reflected the prominent will power in her refined voice as she nodded her head. "Alright, Koenma-sama. I'll keep that in mind."

The prince reacted with his own affirming nod. "Good. Take the communication mirror along with you. Keep us updated with whatever's happening so that we could somewhat help you by advice or something of the sort in case you get into any trouble. But you have to make sure not to use it in front of Youko."

"I understand." She paused as she took a fleeting second to appreciate her decision of maintaining her trademark pink kimono before coming to Genkai's temple. She hadn't managed to change into her modern garments due to her concern over Kurama's well-fare causing her to hurry over, but she apprehended that a present-day attire would have been conspicuous and would have no doubt ignited Youko's suspicion. "What about Kurama? Won't his mother get worried about him?"

"That matter is resolved," Koenma answered her. "I told her and his step-family that he'd be...helping me with a business project, thus travelling to a foreign country for a few months."

"Months?" Yusuke repeated the word with a dumbfounded tone, a frown marring his forehead as he inquired, "What the hell does that mean?"

The prince pursed his lips forward as he seemed to consider something for a second. "Despite everything, the curse spreads at a snail rate. It'll take a maximum of a couple of months for it to completely consume Kurama. And I don't think that Youko's going to trust Botan that easily in such a short duration of time, so I made sure that the mirror would send her to a month and a half before the incident. And even then, I'm not really certain that the plan will work. Then again, the Death's Kiss is a sparse phenomenon to begin with, so there are also a lot of risks to the ferry girl tasked in lifting the curse. That's why most of the time Reikai tends to...leave the victims of the anathema be. But this is Kurama. Do we really think we should let him die like this?"

Yusuke drew his lips tight, displeasure written all over his face as a response rippled out of him in a rather bitter timbre, "But you're fine with letting Botan deal with this by herself. What if something happens to her?"

"Then I'll take full responsibility," came Koenma's hushed whisper.

He earned a doubtful, blistering glare from the Mazoku in return. It was apparent that Yusuke didn't like the bleak circumstances. As deep-seated as his trust in Kurama was, he couldn't exactly nurture the same perception towards his demon half - especially not during an era before he merged with Shuichi Minamino and learned humanity in the first place. The idea of sending Botan alone not only made his blood boil but it was also ridiculous to a large extent.

"I'll be fine, Yusuke," Botan briskly reassured him, her lips outlining a consoling smile. "I mean, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. But I can't not do anything to help a friend, especially not when I know that I'm the only one who can do something to save him. Kurama needs me and you guys need to have a little bit of faith in me. I'm not that weak."

"I know that," Yusuke grumbled under his breath, seeming to mutter something incoherent under his breath before he then suspired a soft, defeated sigh. Levelling the ferry girl with a forbidding gape, Yusuke adopted an equally firm baritone as he told her, "Fine, we'll leave Kurama in your hands. But you have to promise us that if the situation gets too dangerous, you'll come back here in an instant. We're not losing anyone just to rescue one of us. If it gets too much for you, we'll try to think of another solution."

The ferry girl gave him a warm smile before raising one hand to her forehead in a mock salute as she beamed, "Aye, sir!"

"Don't do anything reckless, Botan," Kuwabara chimed in with the reminder, profound uneasiness patent in both of his countenance and his voice.

"You guys worry too much," she sounded the light chastise despite the blended trepidation and anxiety dormant in the pits of her stomach. Giving each of them a final, fleeting glance, Botan then rerouted her purple gaze back to the Wish Mirror in her lap.

"I'm ready...I think," was all she could say before she then skated her fingers over the reflecting surface of the mirror, squashing down the last fragments of hesitation from her chest as she watched the flat plane of the mirror wobble, assuming a puddle-like guise as it gradually pulled her digits in little by little. She could feel it start to engulf her hand, the sensation similar to that of slime cloaking on her skin and almost as if the mirror was devouring her and tugging her inside.

Jolts of electricity poured out of the artifact, shooting out at various parts of the room as a white mist began to gyrate around her. Yusuke and Kuwabara hovered over Kurama's unconscious body in order to offer the insentient redhead some protection from the flashes of lightning streaming around the room.

By the time the fog and streaks of thunderbolt was gone, Botan had disappeared as well.

Botan felt an intense tide of lightning assaulting every cell in her body, the sudden shock jolting her awake and out of her temporarily inert state. Her heart thumped in wild, clamorous palpitations under her chest, the sound of the beating appendage deafening as it heavily rang in her ears. She positioned one trembling hand over the fabric of her kimono and willed it to calm down, taking a few moments to catch her breath and recoup her presence of mind before she could even scan her surroundings.

The moment she did though, an acute upsurge of consternation swarmed around her again, her brain sending her countless alerts of danger as the impulse to flee perturbed her composure, tattering her once regained tranquility for a second time. Her heart reinstated its nimble and booming pounding once more as she took in the horrendous sight presented before her.

A great manifold of corpses laid on the ground around her, puddles of blood rapidly forming underneath the lifeless carcasses and tainting the stony surface a bright scarlet as the stench of carnage and ichor intruded her nostrils, prompting her to clamp a hand over her mouth to prevent bile from glissading up her throat. She tried to coerce her body into moving, but it refused to function according to her desperate pleas as her knees quaked, violent tremors shooting through her and robbing her of the capability to even stand as she collapsed on her butt onto the cold, hard surface of the ground.

She caught the distinct noise of shuffling, the sound immediately followed by a loud thud and causing her to instinctively direct her gaze to her left, her breath hitching in her throat as she was greeted by the horrifying sight of none other than Youko standing before her. His shimmering aurelians flashed in a menacing manner at her before he wrenched his hand out of a poor man's chest, gore spilling out and splattering all over as the man's body limply fell to the ground, the once unsullied soil quickly smeared with vivid red blood. A forceful spate of fear struck at the middle of her chest, but Botan could do nothing but stare back at him with eyes wide with panic as he levelled her with a contemptuous glower.

Youko brought his ichor-shrouded hand to his lips, his tongue darting out to lap at the gore on his clawed fingers as his lips formed a chilling, feral grin that bared his sharp fangs at her.

"A woman?" His voice dripped with sinister undertones as he spoke, his disquieting timbre sending chills down to the base of her spine. "Another prey for the taking I see."

A/N: Yes. I'm aware that I have a lot of ongoing works, but this plot has been bothering me for a while now lol. Fully Youko x Botan from start to finish, and is actually a sweet and heartwarming story despite this gory scene lol. I won't get started with the second chapter until I finish Love Through Time, however. (though I'd give that story about three to four more chapters before it reaches an end.) Hopefully, this is a short fic, though I can't guarantee. (Look at LTT. I said it was going to be short but it dragged out anyway lmao).