Heya all! ^^ I'm back! And with a new chapter. Hope you enjoy.
~*~Vocab~*~
gomen~ sorry
hai~ yes
iie~ no
sensai~ teacher
kuso~ shit
demo~ but
ohayo~ good morning
baka~ idiot
Only a 1,000 years of learning to maintain a calm facade kept Kurama from running down to Botan and hugging her and asking her what the hell was going on. But as it was, he only tensed. 'What the…she's dead…isn't she? Yet why is she standing in front of the class…what will the others say…' His thoughts trailed off as Botan went to sit next to a girl named Mura. She did not even look at him. It was as if she didn't recognize him… 'But that can't be, can it?' He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. It was definitely Botan all right. But there was something strange. Why wouldn't she give him some sign that she recognized him? And why would she be enrolling in a college? And there was something just…off…about her. Something that made Botan Botan was missing.
"Suuichi? Man, is that new girl hot or what?" the guy sitting next to him. Kurama rolled his eyes.
"Hai, I guess…" He realized his mistake as soon as he said it.
"Wow…normally when I ask you that, you don't answer or say something like 'maybe' and you've never admitted to them being pretty." The guy grinned. "Could it be that the great Suuichi Minamino actually likes someone…? Wait till your fangirls get ahold of this…"
"Suuichi? Kentaro? If you two are done with your conversation, then would you mind joining the discussion again? Or maybe share the conversation with the rest of the class?" Everyone laughed as Yuki blushed and Kurama bowed his head. He looked at Botan as she did, but she didn't meet his eye. It was as though she was avoiding him…or that she didn't even know him… 'Impossible.'
"Gomen Kana-sensai."
After that, class went on as usual, but Kurama had a hard time focusing.
~*~*~*~
When the bell rang, Kurama tried to catch up with Botan but Yuki blocked his way. Kurama resisted the urge to push back the younger boy he normally enjoyed talking to. Yuki was a year younger, having skipped a grade. He was a genius, really. And for some reason, he worshipped Kurama.
"Hey Suuichi. What's up?" Kurama almost growled as he saw Botan leave with Mura. He sighed and ran a hand through his thick red hair.
"Hi Yuki. Not much." Yuki beamed. "But if don't mind, I'm in a real hurry, so would you please move?" Yuki nodded and stepped aside. Kurama practically ran down but when he made it to the hallway, she was nowhere in site. "Kuso."
~*~*~*~
Keiko came out of the bathroom. 'Please don't let me be late. Please don't let me be late.' She bumped into a body in her rush and fell. She saw a hand that looked familiar. "Gomen Kurama."
"Keiko, we need to talk. Something's happened."
The bell rang. "Ooooooh, I'm going to be late now! We'll talk later! Bye." She rushed off, oblivious to Kurama's tone of urgency. Kurama gritted his teeth and ran after her, grabbing her arm. She gave a gasp and turned to him, shock written across her face.
"We'll talk now."
Keiko nodded slightly, more shocked and surprise than actually scared. "Class can um…wait."
"Good." With that, he led her outside to a bench where noone was and sat down. "Keiko, I don't know how to…phrase this…demo…something's come up."
Keiko stiffened slightly. "Yusuke…?"
He shook his head. "Iie…" He sighed. "It's about Botan." At that, Keiko looked up and a small gasp escaped her lips.
"Ne? What about her?" The still-raw hurt in her voice mirrored her expression every time she thought about her best friend.
"She's alive." Keiko jerked back away from him in shock, mouth opening to deny it, but he cut her off. "I know it sounds weird, but I'm not halluncinating. I swear, she is. In my first class, we got a new student: Botan Rekai." Keiko just sat there. "Now we need to find the others. And then later, we can find her and see what in the world is going on. But it'll mean missing your classes."
Keiko stood up. "Classes? What classes?"
Kurama mustered up a small smile.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Kuwabara munched on his apple as he did his work from his first class. He had to admit, much as he hated math, engineering was quite interesting. He was so involved with it that he failed to notice the shadows that descended on him.
"Kuwabara!" Keiko's voice brought him out of it and he looked up.
"Ohayo. I thought you had a class?" She shook her head, out of breath from running.
"It's important! We have to find Yusuke." Kuwabara stood up.
"More of those damn monsters?"
"Iie. Botan's alive!" Kuwabara dropped his apple on his foot, but he didn't even notice.
"Nani?! What are you spouting Keiko?" It couldn't be…she was dead… 'but then again, Yusuke came back too…' a little voice in his head said. He grabbed his papers and stuffed them into his bag, not caring if they got wrinkled. "Ok, let's find Urameshi!" Keiko nodded and said as the two rushed off, "I'll tell you on the way!"
~*~*~*~*~*~
Yusuke shoved his hands into his pockets and he stepped out of the apartment he stilled shared with his mother—he didn't have enough money to move out and he couldn't live at the dorm, seeing as he wasn't in college—and strolled down the street. He walked purposely to a certain warehouse. Even if it had been a week, he was still pissed as hell at those damn creatures, and at himself for letting it happen. 'Dammit…and it was supposed to be fun. A celebration. But no~o…those things had to ambush us.' He made a turn into an alley and then stopped. He had goosebumps…which meant that someone was following him."You're off guard. And considering that those things might still be out, it's pretty careless of you."
Yusuke turned and sighed. "Hello to you too Hiei. Weren't you supposed to be finding out information on those things?"
Hiei nodded. "Hai…I found some things out. I saw you and decided that I should tell you. Where were you going?"
"…"
"To the warehouse?" Hiei shook his head. "That's a stupid plan. What, were you going to go there and fight anything you found?"
Yusuke clenched his jaws. "That was the plan, hai."
"Baka."
Yusuke fisted his hands. "What do you mean by that?"
"It won't help anything."
"No, but it'll feel damn good!"
"And it might get you dead."
Yusuke shrugged. "Nah, I'm not that easy to kill."
"But Botan is…?"
Yusuke snapped. "Shut the hell up! She was one of my best friends, and you better believe I'm gonna try to kill the person who ordered those monsters to kill us! And if you don't give a shit, then don't slam me for caring!"
Hiei pushed himself up from the wall where he had been leaning. "Who says I don't care? I may not be making rash decisions, but I want to hunt down her murderer just as much as you do."
Yusuke bowed his head. "Hai…gomen."
"Hn."
Yusuke opened his mouth to say more but stopped when he heard his name being called.
"Yusuke!"
"Urameshi!"
Yusuke popped his head out of the alley and shouted, "Keiko? Kuwabara! Over here." A minute later the red head and brown haired joined up with the two.
"Keiko? I thought you had class. Not that I'm complaining though…" He moved to put his arm around her waist. She accepted it, but only because she was out of breath. Kuwabara was only slightly better. Hiei looked between the two of them with a raised eyebrow.
Kuwabara managed to wheeze out "Botan…she's…alive and …class." Yusuke's jaw dropped to the ground and behind him he heard Hiei utter a slight gasp.
"What the…what the hell you spouting Kuwabara?"
Kuwabara had recovered and he straightened up. "Kurama saw her. She's alive Yusuke. She's alive."
All four stood in silence until…
"YATTA! Botan-chan's alive?!" All three turned to look at Hiei. All three had a look of surprise and wide eyes. Hiei looked back at them with a "What the hell?" look. Then Hiei turned and sighed.
"Yukina? I thought I told you not to follow me."
Kuwabara strode forward. "Yukina-chan's here?"
The petite green-haired girl came out from the shadows. "Gomen ne Hiei-kun, but I haven't felt safe in the temple ever since Botan-chan died…" Her face took on a sad look but then she brightened. "But she's alive, ne? That's good." She smiled at them. Kuwabara felt as though he would drown, but then he shook his head. They had more important things to think about. As much as he loved Yukina, he had to think about other things right now. He reluntanctly stopped walking to her and instead just gave her a smile. He never saw the critical yet impassive gaze Hiei gave him.
Just then, Kurama arrived. He took one look and nodded. "Glad you're all here." He looked at Yukina for a minute before looking at Hiei, who nodded.
The koorime turned to the girl and said, "go back to the temple. Genkai will be waiting." The girl pouted but then smiled and nodded.
"Ok! Ja matte ne!" She turned and walked away. Hiei and Kuwabara watched her go. Then Kurama turned and started to walk, calling over his shoulder "I found out where she is. We better hurry or she'll move."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Keiko hurried along with the others. The fact that she might see her best friend again was overwhelming. She had witnessed a lot of strange stuff over the years. And people coming back to life wasn't unusual, Yusuke had after all. But she had not seen him die, and he had not… 'Iie! I can't go there! I won't go there! It hurts to think that…iie! Stop!' Keiko sped up as she tried to outrun her painful thoughts.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The group slowed to a power walk as they entered the campus. Kurama led the way and then they rounded a corner, leading to the garden part of campus. Sitting on a picnic table, books spread out in front of her, her long blue hair let down from her usual ponytail, and wearing a pink jumper-dress, sat Botan.
Yusuke stopped short, nearly being knocked down by Kuwabara, as he saw his friend sitting there, just as normally as if they were sitting in Keiko's diner, eating Ramen or going over mission plans. She was as at ease as ever.
Kuwabara barely stopped from hitting Yusuke, but he didn't even notice it as he took in his first crush. She was as beautiful as she had ever been, even if she paled in comparison to Yukina, and he felt his throat constrict.
Keiko felt tears prick her eyes as she took in her friend's smile. That same smile that always made Keiko smile or laugh as she tripped, but no matter what, she kept that same smile on.
Hiei stared with his mouth slightly open at the girl who always amused him with her happy ways and clumsiness. He could her her humming, just like she always did when she was doing something. He mentally smiled. She was so upbeat.
Kurama hesitated when he noticed his friends had stopped. He gave a rueful smile. He had been frozen too when he had rounded the corner and saw her. The kitsune took a deep breath and started forward. The others took his lead and followed. It seemed to him to take forever, and it was all most of them could do not to run forward and hug her to death.
Kurama, Yusuke, and Keiko say down on the other side of the table while Hiei and Kuwabare stood. Botan looked up and fixed them with a dazzling smile.
"Ohayo minna-san." The voice was filled with warmth and joy. Everyone sighed a sigh of relief. It was the same Botan. But the sigh quickly turned to a horrified intake of breath at her next comment.
"I'm Botan Reikai. And you are…?"
Ack! Another cliffy…don't kill me! I've been working on this for a long time and that's as good as any a place to end…right? I'll try to update as soon as I can, but I have so many others stories and all…
What's Keiko hiding about her feelings? And what will their reactions be
Eunc ~ I stopped cause this chapter just had so many problems. I revised the beginning so many times, and then ugh! -_- It was just problem after problem. But, then ^^ I managed! And it was good. And thanks for all the other compliments, and yeah…KURAMA/BOTAN 4EVER!
SSKA ~ Thanks.
Jessified ~ Thanks. ^^
Millie Ackhilliades ~ Shizuru/Hiei? Hm…I might. So far, I haven't decided who Hiei will get with or even if he's gonna get with anyone. That'd be funny though…Kuwabara and Hiei would be brothers-in-law. Oh, the insanity!
DarkRoseAngelScarlet ~ O_O Please don't do that…that's my corner! You can go in that corner! ^^ But since I continued it, you don't have to go to any corners. ^^
Botan Minamino ~ Well, it's darkest before dawn, ne? And those moments will be coming up.
Airam ~ Thanks! And I'll try to make the chapters longer…^^;;
I won't tell ~ thanks. As for why she's back, well, you'll just have to wait and see, ne? ^_- And yes they do…
Tigerz_Angel ~ Thanks so much!
Tidus ~ Thank you!
Lady Bulma ~ -flattered- Thank you. I'm glad I can help convert people to the good stuff. ^^
Lynderia ~ Thanks, and your questions will be answered in later chapters. ^^ After all, 90% of all stories is suspence. I think…__ _
Lanny ~ Thank you. ^^
JC^ ~ Lol, thanks.
Sumire ~ Thanks.
Lady Nightshade ~ Lol, Thanks so much.
Maggs ~ thanks.
Botan-chan ~ ^^ Thanks.
Electria Anastasia Kazama ~ Thank ya.
Distance Star ~ ^^ Glad to make your day. And thanks!
Attitudetwinz ~ Thanks!