Hiei was frantically rubbing at his eyes, blinking madly all the while. He could see dim, hazy outlines of the two other people in the room, but that wasn't enough to satisfy him. However, he figured that it would have to do. Besides, Kurama's ki was completely unmasked and wildly out of
control--
"Fucking fox!" he spat again. "Hurry up and mask your ki,
you idiot!"
"You're not helping!" Botan shrilled at him.
"Yes, I am! Do you want every demon in the vicinity showing up for a fight? Let alone those pesky humans we have to work with," Hiei said irritably.
"What are you talking about"" Botan demanded.
"Can't you feel it? Demons twenty miles away must know there's someone itching for a battle in here!" Hiei snarled. He dragged his sleeve across his eyes again and glowered at the fuzzy, bloodstained figure that was not growling and giving off a near-burning fighting ki. "This is asking for trouble in the worst way."
"You, wanting to avoid trouble"" Botan asked snidely.
"It's not the demons that matter," Hiei said dismissively. "It's the humans."
"It's always humans," Kurama said roughly. "Humans, humans, humans. This wasn't a demon's work, it was a human. Humans are the problem and humans must be destroyed. It was a demon's idea, and we couldn't condone it. Perhaps we just didn't understand. But I understand." Kurama smiled, his shaky grip on the table slackening. "I understand."
Hiei barely had enough time to dodge to the left and snap his katana up as Kurama flicked his rose whip around without his customary pomp-and-circumstance creation.
Hiei felt someone roughly grab hold of his upper arms from
behind with sticky hands that reeked of blood. "We're getting out of this room," Botan's voice said in his ear. "Because I don't want to be sliced to death."
Hiei angrily shook her off and took two steps towards Kurama. "Kitsune..." he began warningly.
"Koorime..." Kurama mocked. "What is it you're saying, Forbidden Child? You don't want to hurt me?"
Burning dark anger swept across Hiei's mind. "I want to hurt you," he said softly. "I crave to hurt you, kitsune."
"You didn't do this," Kurama stated.
Hiei smirked. "I said you, kitsune. You."
Being partially blinded as he was, Hiei didn't have a chance to note the intrigued look that Botan cast first upon him, then on Kurama.
Kurama was also too far gone into the land of the deranged to understand the speculative expression on Botan's face. He merely tightened his grip on the rose whip clenched in his right fist and shifted his weight uneasily.
Botan began edging out of the door. Hiei's eyes flickered over to her briefly, then back to Kurama. Let her run, he thought. It'll only make my job here easier.
Then his eyes widened as Botan froze.
"Who is that?" he asked levelly of the hammering on the door.
"I don't know," Botan replied just as calmly.
"Well then, why don't you go find out?" Hiei sniped.
Botan glared at him and began edging out the door once more.
Five seconds later, she screamed.
*
Botan clapped her hands over her mouth, splattering blood onto her face. Oh, kami-sama, no! Why'd they have to come?
Suddenly Hiei's mocking words about Kurama's ki came back into focus. They felt it...and came here...
Taking a deep breath, she snatched up her oar and slammed it across the doorway. "No sightseers allowed!" she said officiously. "Go away!"
Keiko's hands went to her mouth in an unconscious imitation of Botan's. "Botan-san, what happened to you...?"
"What happened to Kurama and Hiei?" Yusuke amended.
"I said, no sightseers allowed!" Botan repeated coldly.
"We're not sightseers, we're friends," Yusuke said. "Look, it's just us two. Kuwabara's not here yet. No need to keep us out on account of being insensitive."
"It's not that!" Botan protested. "You can't take Keiko-chan in there! And...and...Kurama's not taking visitors!"
Yusuke looked intently at Botan, then tried to look around her into the hallway. Botan leaned with him, blocking his move with her body. "What aren't you letting me see?" Yusuke demanded.
"Look, get Keiko-chan out of here," Botan pleaded. "There's too much blood for any human to be around."
"Tell me what happened," Yusuke said stubbornly. "What's so bad that you scream when you see us?"
"Uh...I...um, well, it's a long story, and you'll have to get Kurama to tell it to you sometime..." Botan started off, trying to do what she did best: waffle.
"Botan-san!" Keiko said, using the tone that usually worked, whether it was on Yusuke, Kuwabara, Botan, or Hiei.
Botan stopped. "Yusuke, Keiko, his mother's dead," she whispered. "Why else would I be here?"
"W-was it an accident? Why-why're you so bloody?" Keiko stammered.
"She was killed," Botan said simply. "Killed by a human. Kurama won't want to see you, or anyone of your species. You all...well, you do smell alike to demons, and Kurama's not quite thinking logically right now. I don't know for how long Hiei can keep track of him, since he can't really see at all, so I've got to get back in there. You know what you can do for me? Try and reach Koenma-sama! I don't know what I'm going to be able to do..."
"Wait, wait, what?" Yusuke asked quickly.
Botan swallowed, took a deep breath, then went back a few steps. "Hiei got here before I did. I found him in the kitchen with Kurama and...and his mother." She swallowed again, this time convulsively. "It was very brutal, and Kurama...he threw blood into Hiei's face, and Hiei won't stop trying to take shots at Kurama in order to clean it off properly." Botan took another deep breath. "I have my hands full trying to keep them from killing each other or anyone else. Hiei swears he can take Kurama, but right now I doubt that very much," Botan said truthfully.
Yusuke nodded. "We'll wait out here until we can call the cops."
"And try and get to Koenma-sama," Botan added. "I don't care how. Please…"
"He probably already knows," Yusuke said disgustedly. "And we'll--oh, no," he added, whipping around.
"Urameshi!" Kuwabara bellowed. "What's going on?"
Botan heard a low growl from the kitchen.
"Keiko-chan, go!" she said, dropping the oar and giving the girl a shove with her bloody hands.
"Call the cops," Yusuke said. "Quick, go!"
Keiko wavered, then nodded and raced away down the road.
Botan snatched up the oar, then whirled and slammed it into Kurama, knocking him out of the air as he jumped at Yusuke, Botan, and the newly-arrived Kuwabara blindly. She flipped the oar over and planted the handle in his solar plexus firmly. "Hiei, you bastard!" she screamed, her voice shaking with panic. "Get your worthless ass out here!"
No response.
Kurama snarled wordlessly and tried to squirm out from under the oar, reaching for Kuwabara. The taller redhead was staring with horror into the kitchen. Yusuke had halted behind him, staring unabashedly at the same point.
"Hiei!" Botan yelled as one of Kurama's flailing hands hit her ankle and sent her flying off him. She skidded into the kitchen and fetched up against something that felt a lot like a body. She whimpered and scrambled away, looking behind her. Was that Shiori? She prayed it hadn't been.
Then, as her eyes fell on the obstacle in her former trajectory, she found herself very much wishing that it
actually had been. "Hiei!" she yelled ineffectually. Kurama had obviously taken advantage of the fact that there wasn't much Hiei could do on a long-range scale with a sword and taken him out neatly and
quietly. She took a deep breath, then turned her head and called out into the hallway, "Try and hold him down out there!"
"Easy for you to say!" Yusuke squawked.
Botan poked the fire demon with the oar. "Hiei! Get your sorry ass up here! I can't believe you! All this bragging about how you can take on a pissed-off youko, and here you are, out cold on the floor. What happened to the great and powerful fire demon that we all know and fear? At this rate, even Kuwabara could take you on and win!"
No response.
Botan sighed, snatched up the oar, and dashed back out into the hallway.
Kuwabara was sprawled in a corner, rattling off questions wildly as Kurama sparred with Yusuke. 'Sparred with' was a deceptive phrase, however, as the fight mainly consisted of Yusuke dodging every move Kurama made.
Botan tightened her grip on her oar and, pivoting on one foot, slammed Kurama across the back of the head hard and fast. Kurama crumpled to the floor.
Botan propped herself up on her oar, panting somewhat.
Yusuke looked up at her. "Nice timing. Look, the police are going to get here any minute."
"We have two unconscious demons in this house," Botan said thoughtfully. "Why don't you go have Kuwabara fetch Keiko-chan? They can stay and wait for the police?" she suggested.
"This is your field," Yusuke said, backing up with his hands held before him. "I'm alive now!"
Botan's shoulders sagged briefly. "You know the rules as well as I do, though. I can't even catch her spirit, it's so wired right now. My best bet is to get things fixed up here."
Yusuke nodded. "Should we...where should we put Kurama?"
"In the kitchen," Botan decided. "We don't want to get it any messier anywhere else."
"We're messing up a crime scene," Yusuke said brightly.
"This isn't a TV show," Botan warned him as she helped Yusuke and Kuwabara with the unconscious redhead. They manhandled him to under a window, then put him down with no small amount of relief and backed away prudently as he stirred lightly.
"Good show," Hiei said from behind them, sounding amused.
"Oh, now you wake up!" Botan said, hoping to drive the embarrassment home out of sheer spite.
Hiei glared at her. Or, well, glared at a space somewhat to the right of her. "Females. Always so catty," he said huffily, turning his back. Botan's glare only intensified.
"Oh, mask your fucking ki too," Hiei snapped, striding over to the sink and clumsily feeling for the knob. Botan felt a pang of pity as she looked at the demon. The blood streaking down from the back of his head showed that he'd been blindsided by Kurama's Rose Whip, literally. Then she stomped on the mischievous imp that dared pity the impudent bugger with a ferocious mental effort.
As Hiei resumed his inelegant efforts to restore his sight, Botan turned back to Yusuke and Kuwabara. "Now what?" she demanded.
"Kuwabara is going to go away and get Keiko. Isn't that right?" Yusuke said darkly.
Kuwabara nodded. "Poor Keiko-chan must be feeling so bad over this," he said importantly and strode off.
Botan raised an eyebrow. "So tell me, is Yukina the only thing keeping you from strangling him on days like this?"
"Just about," Yusuke admitted.
"Hn," Hiei contributed as he ran water over his eyes.
Yusuke looked at the floor, then hastily averted his eyes. "Do we have to be in here?"
Botan and Hiei exchanged glances as well as they could, then both looked irritated that they had done such a comradely thing.
"Yes, I know both of you are immune to this, but I'm not," Yusuke said irritably. "So…just stop rolling your eyes at each other and answer me. Do we have to be in here?"
"I'm not done yet," Hiei said sulkily.
"Go outside if it bothers you," Botan said.
Yusuke looked with distaste at the blood smearing him. "Like this?"
"Kuwabara and Keiko are both out there already," Botan pointed out.
"Oh, right," Yusuke said. He started out the doorway, then froze and turned around. "The police are here. You two should...do something," he said desperately.
Botan nodded. "You done?"
Hiei shut off the water, rubbed at his eyes one last time, and said, "Hn."
"Good," Botan said, moving around the table to the window. "Now we have to do something about--Kurama!"
"Yeah, so?" Hiei said.
"No, you misunderstand me," Botan said, her eyes fixed on the window, which was now open. "He's gone."
Hiei dashed to the window and leaned out, tugging the bandanna off of his Jagan eye. He swung his feet over the sill without another word and prepared to jump down.
"Where are you going?" Botan hissed, putting up a hand to halt him.
"He's gone after the ningen who did this," Hiei said, a savage grin lighting up his face.
"He can't!" Botan whispered.
"Well, I'm going to witness this," Hiei said and blurred from sight.
Botan jumped after him and kicked off from the ground, soaring up into the air. "Bastard!" she screamed, looking around wildly. "Don't you dare leave me like this! Get back here or I'll have you arrested!"
Hiei zipped back into appearance. "Don't slow me down again," he said warningly.
"I'll slow you down all I like," Botan said angrily. "Now show me which way he went!"
Hiei grudgingly pointed. "Why are you so fucking concerned?"
"If he kills that ningen, I'll have to arrest him, that's why," Botan snapped. "He'll probably be executed even if he repents. He's got too many black marks against him, and attacking his own team would come into factor. He's going to be lucky to not be imprisoned just for this!"
Hiei's eyes went wide. "You blasted office-types and your senses of mortality should all just burn in your own little hell," he snarled. "He should be allowed this!"
"I agree with you," Botan hissed. "It's not my decision, and I'll get arrested if I don't carry out Koenma-sama's order. So I'm going to go stop Kurama, and then I'm going to go pick up Shiori, and after that I'm going to go talk to Koenma-sama about what's going to be done about this horrible ningen," Botan said angrily. "Because ningen justice isn't justice."
Hiei looked at her with an odd kind of respect, which was nearly invalidated by the ten levels of impatience showing in his gaze as well. "Then get your ass in gear and follow that fucking kitsune before he does something really stupid," he said, the hostility in his voice as prominent as ever. "You lead the way," Botan replied. "Hn." Hiei sped off, Botan following determinedly. Meanwhile, behind them, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Keiko gathered at the front doorstep with the police, all wondering quite how they were going to explain things.
Good luck to them.
