A/N: New chapter! Yay! 4! Whee! Whoo! Err...excited? YEAH! Whee! Enjoy!
"Well this sucks…" Yusuke said. "MAJOR TOGURO BUTT!" Hiei finished in a singsong fashion, giggling all the while. Youko just shook his head, picked up the giddy demon by the waist, draped him over his shoulder, and shrugged. "Looks like you're used to this job. What, did Botan here pay you to watch the little freak or something?" "No I did not, Yusuke! That would just be torture! Plain and simple!" Hiei babbled in the background, wanting desperately his aerodynamic toy. 'And speaking of bribery…I still have that little bargain to keep up with Koenma-sama, don't I?' Botan thought as her shoulders dropped. Oh well. Now was a good a time as any to give it a whirl. "Hey Hiei." The Jaganshi shot his head up and looked alert and ready to listen to Botan…that is if he was capable of doing such. "Can I ask you a favor?" He nodded instantaneously. "You like helping people right? Well I have a fun and exciting thing for you to do for Koenma-sama. If you do it, I'll give you as many of those…cheap aerodynamic thingies …as you want!" Hiei's eyes grew wide and shone with glee and delight. "Really Botan? Yooooooou'd do that?!" He said as he tried to struggle out of Youko's hold. "All you have to do is do whatever Koenma says for a week. If you can do that, then I promise to give you the toys." He nodded like a good little fire demon. "Um…Botan…did you spike your own food or what? You're acting a lot ditzier than usual…" Yusuke announced, holding up an index finger. Botan rolled her eyes. "Trust me…you have NO idea…"
"By golly you're right!" Yusuke exclaimed. "...And I don't want to know." Botan raised an eyebrow. "Yusuke, that's the first smart thing you've said in like...ever." "Love you too, Botan," he said sarcastically. "I LOVE EVERYONE!!!!" Hiei chimed in. Yusuke, Youko, and Botan exchanged a worried, three-way glance. "Well, that explains why he never drank with the rest of us..." Yusuke mumbled under his breath. "Although...this will be entertaining during parties..." "Don't you even THINK about it, Yusuke!" Botan warned. "Try any such thing and YOU get to deal with him on a hangover!!!" He gulped. "Okay...never mind." He turned to Youko instead. "So...you come here often?" Youko shrugged. "Only for the games. I only got stuck in here because the announcement system wasn't working at the arcade, and for some reason they never bothered to turn the power off...weirdos." "Amen. What games you play?"
"Soul Calibur, Zelda…man that kicks ass, um…other stuff because honestly, school sucks." Yusuke's eyes lit up. "A FELLOW JD!!" Youko raised an eyebrow. "Actually, I'm pretty damn smart if I do say so myself. I GO to school…but that doesn't mean I like it." Yusuke's joy went down in an instant. "It looks like no one is a slack off like you, Yusuke…" Botan said as she folded her arms. "Shut up…" Yusuke mumbled. "EVERYONE CAN SPEAK!" Hiei chimed in again, trying to braid his white bandana while wearing it at the same time. "Wow…this…is…fun…" Yusuke admitted drearily as he looked down four floors. "Well what I did is of absolutely NO use to your troupe of weirdos so I think I'm gonna get outta here…" "And how are you gonna do that?" Youko cried out. "Easy! I'm gonna go…and…you know…open…CRAP…" Yusuke stomped his foot on the ground. "INTERPRETIVE DANCE?!" Hiei said again as he hurled himself off of Youko's shoulder and onto the floor where he began to stomp his feet on the floor, mimicking Yusuke's original foot motion. "Whoa…I didn't know that I had a friend that could river dance…" Yusuke muttered under his breath.
"Uhhhh, Yusuke? I seriously doubt Hiei knows what river dance IS," Botan pointed out. He shrugged nonchalantly. "Meh, whatever. Anyone got any popcorn?" Youko and Botan pointed simultaneously at the popcorn store Hiei had found mere moments ago. Yusuke's eyes lit up. "Geee, thanks. Popcorn and entertainment. Gotta love it. Hey, do either of you want any?" "Thanks, I'm good," Youko told him absently, searching around for a record store and boom box in order to test whether or not Hiei could, in fact, Irish step-dance. Sure, he'd only known these people for a few hours (Yusuke for about five minutes), but hey, they were cough interesting and he still had a whole lot of film left. Forget what people said; blackmail was a wonderful thing. "I want aspirin," Botan announced, trooping off toward a convenience store. "I WANT WOOOORLD PEACE!!!!" Hiei exclaimed, doing a surprisingly good back flip and landing in a pile of (not so) conveniently placed cardboard boxes. The other three paused for a moment to stare at the odd spectacle. There was a moment of silence (during which the distinct tune of 'It's a Small World' came from the general direction of the box pile) between the three. Then... "Hey, dude!" Yusuke yelled over to Youko. "Could you lend me a copy of that tape when you're done?" "It's Youko! And sure!" Botan just groaned and renewed her search for a bottle of aspirin.
"Damn, thank Kami that I got this camera for my birthday. It's a gold mine!" He called over to the grinning Yusuke, who was coming back with the rum flavored popcorn that Hiei was so addicted to. Meanwhile, Hiei was still in the heap of boxes, lightly singing in a high-pitched voice. "It's…a world of laughter a world of tears…it's a world of hope and a world of fears…there's so much that we share that it's time we're aware it's…a…" Hiei paused and stopped his singing for just a moment as soon as he had laid eyes on the popcorn in Yusuke's left hand. "MY CORN!" Hiei hissed as he leapt from the boxes to the arms of a delusional Yusuke. And once Hiei had tackled Yusuke to the ground did the delinquent freak out. "What the HELL?! Get off me you psycho!" Yusuke cried, holding up his bag of popcorn so that he could salvage that above everything else. He didn't really care about being harassed by the Jaganshi…he just wanted his eats. "You-suck-ee! You stole my food!" Youko pulled out the trusty camera and used it yet again. "Man, I'm reaaaaaaally thinking of entering this thing in for a Oscar." "And it'll win one too…" Botan remarked nonchalantly.
"Gee, ya think?!" Youko asked her excitedly. Botan just smacked herself in the forehead and didn't answer. Oh, it was a sad, sad day when she was the sanest one in the entire group. And the saddest part was, if Cabbit and Jin were still there, it would still be true. Although, where in Reikai's name had those two gone?! Meanwhile, Yusuke had finally tired of Hiei's manic attempts to steal his beloved junk food, and caught the crazed demon by his scarf, dangling him out at arm's length. Then he quickly proceeded to toss him right back into the cardboard box pile from whence he had emerged. "Botan?" the delinquent said solemnly. "As much as I hate to admit it, this is a serious problem. Is there any way to get Happy Doo-Dah over here sober?" She shrugged helplessly, but Youko looked over. "Coffee works really well--I mean, so I've heard, anyway...Of course I'VE never gone drinking MYSELF..." Botan sighed. "But will the normal methods even work on him? Yusuke! You should know! Your mom's a friggin' alcoholic!" For once he looked seriously offended. "Gee...THANKS, Botan. Always payin' a compliment, aren't you?" "I KNOW, ISN'T SHE GREAT?!!!!!!!!!!!" Hiei screamed over, adding his two cents as usual. Yusuke looked over at him with wide eyes, then immediately became serious. Well, as serious as Yusuke can get. "Sorry, Botan. The whole thing about my mom being an alcoholic is that she NEVER gets sober. No help there. Guess we're stuck with the coffee idea, huh?"
"But what about the Irish step dancing thing? I mean, yeah I can make flame boy here do anything! Don't make him sober yet!" Youko said as he pointed to his camera. "Oh, you're right, man! I forgot that I still wanted a copy of that tape!" Yusuke replied with a half-grin on his face. The two teen boys flashed pitying glances in Botan's direction. "Sorry, Botan but just for that insult, I think that we should keep Hiei going a bit more. Yeah, payback is a reeeeal bitch, isn't it?" Hiei started laughing uncontrollably. "HE SAID PAYBACK! YOU-SUCK-EE IS THE FUNNIEST THERE IS!" He then looked in splendor at one of the cardboard boxes. "We should play Noah's adventure! And make it rain for 500 days and 245 nights!" Hiei squealed again as he jumped in a box, pretending with his ever so 'vivid' imagination that he was in a boat. "Yeah…you go ahead and stick to bible stories, while I find that boom box," Youko muttered to himself. He had already (conveniently) found the Irish CD and was only in dire need of the machine to play it. "Yusuke, Botan, I trust you can handle the freak while I'm gone!" Yusuke paused and watched Youko use the non-working escalator to reach floor five. "You heard him, Botan. Looks like we're on guard duty…"
He suddenly spotted the arcade Youko had been found in earlier. Apparently, the power remained on. "Scratch that, YOU'RE on guard duty," he announced, wandering off in the direction of the lights and loud noise. "WHAT?!" Botan screeched, but it was too late. She stared forlornly at Hiei, who had ceased in his cardboard bonanza and was now staring back at her. It was actually kind of creepy. No, it was actually REALLY REALLY creepy. She backed away a little, when the youkai suddenly asked, a little sadly, no less: "Do you hate me?" She stopped and gave him a weird look. "Uh...WHAT?" "Do you hate me?" he repeated. She thought for a moment, and decided that, surprisingly, she did NOT hate him. Of course, that could be because under normal circumstances there was too much fear for any hatred to be squeezed in anywhere, but still. "Er, nope," she told him. His eyes lit up. "So, do you LOVE me?!" he asked excitedly. Botan sweatdropped heavily. "Uhhh......" Hiei suddenly burst into tears. "YOU HATE ME!!!!!! YOU HATE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" "NO NO NO!!!!!" the highly stressed ferry girl shouted back in frustration. Unbeknownst to both of them, Youko was still filming the scene despite his own absence--he had hidden the camera in a nearby potted plant.
"Hiei, I don't hate you! Please calm down!" Botan said in between her usual hysterics whenever she had to deal with the Jaganshi. "Hiei…there's no way in Reikai that you're sobered up again…even though you DO look it…" Botan muttered as she still looked ever forlornly at him. "I just wanted to know!" Hiei replied sourly as he made a sort of cute and sort of childish pout. "I don't want you to cry! Um…I'll tell you what…" "You love me?!" Botan raised an eyebrow, wondering why he wanted to know the answer to that question in the first place. "Since we're already here at the mall, I'll go and get you some ice cream! How does that sound, Hiei?" Botan added, trying her very best to comfort the fire demon. "You…you mean…the sweet snow?" Hiei said in a small voice, wiping his eyes and coming closer to Botan. "You'd do that for me?" "Why sure I would!" Botan announced. And just when she thought that Hiei wasn't going to go clinically insane again, a scream from the video game store caused the hardly romantic moment to go up in flames. "HEY! It's WAAAAY too quiet over there! What's going on? You have Hiei in a stranglehold, Botan?!" Yusuke called out like a roaring drunkard. "BOTAN WAS JUST GOING TO TELL ME THAT SHE LOVES ME!" Hiei replied to a certain Yusuke, now stumbling over his own feet, trying very hard to contain his laughter. "Okay, Botan…you'd better not be on something now." "Hardly Yusuke! I can't believe you would take his word over mine!" The delinquent cocked an eyebrow. "Well ya didn't SAY anything to begin with but go on, I won't stand in the way of your ROMANTIC getaway with Hiei in the local mall! Be my guest and by all means, smooch away!" The Reikai Tantei was milking it for all it was worth, while Botan stood there, as beet red as a tomato.
It was then that she heard what had to be the most chilling word of all. "Okay!" Hiei exclaimed, and despite everything, both Yusuke and Botan's jaws dropped in shock. Then Yusuke's mouth twisted into a very VERY amused grin, and Botan slowly began to back away from the fire youkai. "NO!" she shouted, forming the cross with her index fingers. "Stay, boy! C'mon, haven't I gone through ENOUGH humiliation for one night?!" "No, I'd say not," Hiei replied in an oddly conventional tone of voice, giving her a rather evil smirk. Then, using his oh-so-convenient super speed, he proceeded to knock the frazzled ferry girl over and, well, kiss her. Again. 'Kami-sama, why MEEEEEEEEEEEEE????' Surprisingly, Yusuke was not yet dying of laughter, but she gave it thirty seconds before he got over the shock. 'Well, whatever, but he better NOT still be kissing me in thirty seconds!!!!!!!! I CAN'T TAKE THIS!' And, just when she thought things couldn't GET any worse... "Oh, would you look at that! Silly me, just dropping my camera in the bushes like that!" In the corner of her eye, Botan saw, to her great dismay, Youko come meandering up (now equipped with a Boombox) and fish his camera out of a bush that was uncomfortably close to her. To make matters worse, he COMPLETELY ignored her predicament. Well, not completely. He filmed it. Wahoo.
"Clumsy you? Haha! More like Lucky you! That was GENIUS!" Yusuke said, yukking it up. "Hiei! Do it again!" The Jaganshi looked at Botan, smirking evilly. Uh oh. Yeah, she recognized that look. It wasn't his most evil look but FRIGHTENING nonetheless. It was the 'I can do whatever I want' look. What the Jigoku did Botan ever do to deserve something like the torture that she was receiving? Hardly much. "Oh, you know I have the Boombox here so I think all this lovey dovey crap is gonna have to wait…and just in case Hiei's on the verge of making his metamorphosis into hangover-hood, I've got more popcorn," Youko said with a nonchalant smile on his face. "Way to go man!" Yusuke cheered. And all Hiei did was grab the food and began eating in a barbaric manner. Great. At least he wouldn't sober up and kill everyone anytime soon. There was always a plus side wasn't there? "Okay…and now for some real entertainment!" Yusuke whooped as he watched his newfound partner in crime plug in the Boombox in a random outlet and whip out the Irish CD. "Hope they call you Hiei 'Twinkle Toes' Jaganshi…" Botan muttered angrily under her breath.
Both Yusuke and Youko's grins were a mile wide as the mischievous brunette dramatically pushed the 'play' button. But, to their great disappointment (and Botan's equally great relief), instead of riverdance-worthy happy Irish folk tunes, solemn Irish chanties began to play. "Darnit!" Youko snapped, flipping over the CD case and scanning the back quickly. "I KNEW I needed to brush up on my English!" But Hiei, despite failing to perform his interpretation of Lord of the Dance, was listening to the melody in wide-eyed wonder. "Botan, what is that pretty noise?" he whispered quietly. "Oh, I think it's the flute solo or something," Botan replied absently, searching for her long-forgotten bottle of aspirin. "...Flute..." Hiei repeated thoughtfully, sounding out the word. He lept up suddenly. "I WANNA LEARN HOW TO PLAY THE FLUTE!!!!" he announced boldly. This would have been incredibly amusing, except for the fact that he then added, "I am off a'questin'!" and suddenly vanished from sight. The silence lasted for about...oh, three seconds. Then Yusuke asked uncertainly, "Uhhh, this is bad." "Gee, ya think?!" Botan yelled. "KOENMA-SAMA WILL KILL ME FOR THIS!!!!! HELLO, HE JUST GOT BACK ON PROBATION!!!!" "Uh, what are you people talking about...?" Youko tried to interject timidly, but the other two weren't listening. "Okay, okay, it's not like he could be anywhere in the world, he has to be in the mall somewhere, right?" Yusuke muttered distractedly, pacing around. Botan stomped her foot on the ground. "Oh, if only we had someone here who really KNEW him! Like...like...KURAMA or something!" Yusuke snapped his fingers. "Botan, you're a genius!" he exclaimed, whipping out a cell phone and quickly punching in a phone number. "Did you have that on you the entire time...?" Youko tried to ask, but sadly, the pair was still ignoring him. "Hello, Minamino residence, how can I help you?" came a familiar, polite voice on the other line. "Kurama! YES! There IS a God!!!" Yusuke shouted happily. "Yusuke, if there were anyone who should be incredibly aware of that fact, it should be you," the kitsune replied dryly. "Mind telling me why you're calling me at one in the morning?" Yusuke took a deep breath. "Okay, here's the deal. I'm trapped in a mall with Hiei and Botan and some really awesome other kid who scarily enough is named Youko, and we can't get out! Plus we just lost Hiei right now, and you KNOW he's still on probation!" Kurama sighed. "Well, that's not SO bad...just so long as you haven't gotten him drunk." Yusuke gulped, then laughed nervously. "Heh, well, it was the damndest thing..." "YUSUKE! Okay, fine, now it IS a bad thing. Okay, what was the last thing he said before he vanished?" Yusuke shrugged, not realizing that Kurama couldn't see it. "Something about a flute and a quest, I think." "And you haven't yet tried the music stores because...?" "KURAMA, YOU'RE A GENIUS!!!!!" "Gee...thanks...because that means SO MUCH coming from you, Yusuke."
A/N: 4 COMPLETE! Hope you liked it because this was a long chapter now please make us giddier than normal and please review! Over and OUT!
Kinaka Capri & Son Christine