Yes, I'm back, sorry. I dunno if anyone apart from my one single KIND, CONSIDERATE, reviewer actually read this but I'm posting the next chapter anyway. I know it sounds like it's going to be boring but really it isn't. PLEASE I need some more reviews, I'm starting to get really depressed. To my one wonderful reviewer Ani Mei, please keep reading. You never know, you might be in for a pleasant surprise.
EAE: Have you finished yet?
Nope, still waiting for you to do the disclaimer.
EAE: Thanks a heap. If we owned it we wouldn't be writing fics about it know would we?
Chapter 2
A day had gone by and Koenma found his thoughts constantly brought back to the photograph. Sitting at his desk, he allowed his eyes to drift down to the drawerin his desk where he had placed the small picture.
I will not take it out I will not take it out I will not take it out I will not take it out I will not take it out.
He reached down and pried the drawer open, pulling the photo out and running his eyes speculatively over the frozen figures.
Maybe… maybe if things had been different…
"Koenma-sama!"
Koenma's head snapped up and he shoved the photograph swiftly back into the drawer, slamming it shut. Unfortunately, he slammed it shut on his fingers meaning that the sharp swearword and the consequential waving his hand around in the air hardly helped to divert Botan's curiosity.
"Koenma, why are you waving your hand around and swearing and trying to hide things in your desk whenever someone comes into the room?"
Koenma really wished he hadn't made Botan head ferry girl sometimes.
"I don't know what you mean Botan," he said airily (or at least as airily as one can with their teeth clenched and trying desperately not to start hopping around on one foot), trying to salvage some tattered shreds of his dignity. His eyes were drawn to the large box in her arms and he raised an inquisitive eyebrow. Usually it was Jorge who delivered the mail.
"What's that Botan?"
She shrugged as best she could while trying to balance the rather bulky package in her hands. "Can I put it down now?" He nodded, taking the box from her as she held it out to him. It was rather heavy and, he noticed with some surprise, it was made out of metal. Most of the Reikai deliveries to him were in cardboard boxes with the red stamp URGENT on the lid. This one was bare.
"Are you going to sit there all day or are you going to open it?" Botan rolled her eyes in exasperation and he glared up at her. "I could do with a little less sarcasm and a little more respect from you Botan," he said darkly, pulling at the lid of the box.
"I pay you all the respect you deserve Koenma-sama."
The sharp retort he had been about to make died in his throat as he stared numbly at the contents of the box.
"Koenma-sama?" Botan frowned; the young lord of Reikai looked suddenly unwell. She craned her neck forward trying to see what was in the box. Koenma slammed the lid shut and pushed the box away, looking sickened.
"Don't… don't look Botan."
She was really worried now, he was white faced and seemed to be trembling.
"Koenma, what is it?"
He swallowed hard a few times, closing his eyes.
"Stefan."
Botan frowned again; the toddler was making no sense.
"What about him? Is he in trouble?"
"Not anymore." There was a note of a sort of despairing sarcasm in his voice.
"Koenma, what's in that box?"
Koenma pushed his chair back a little inhaling deeply.
"Stefan is in that box Botan. Well…" he smiled mirthlessly, "most of him."
The ferry girl blanched and stared down at her hands, appalled. Koenma pressed his knuckles to his forehead.
"Botan, I need you to gather the rest of the group and bring them back here. Try their communication mirrors." The ferry girl shook her head slowly, the dismay on her face deepening.
"I… I already did… I tried to contact Kimera… I thought there had been an equipment malfunction or something. I tried Amaor and Miela but…" she bit her lip and buried her hands in the sleeves of her white kimono. Koenma threw himself back in his seat.
"They're dead aren't they?" Botan's quavering voice hit his eardrums like the knell of doom.
"Koenma-sama?"
Jorge – the ill-fated one as Botan had come to call him – poked his head cautiously around the door.
"I have a delivery for you – "
"Not now Jorge!" Koenma snapped irritably. The ogre quailed under his master's glare but impressively held out.
"But Koenma-sama," he quavered, "it says that it's in connection with the last delivery."
Botan snatched the flat package from the oni's trembling hands and pushed him unceremoniously from the room. The parcel she held was not metal but wrapped neatly in brown paper upon which was stencilled a series of delicate kanji that read,
To be delivered to the lord of Reikai urgently in connection with a previous delivery.She blanched and held the package out to Koenma, keeping it at arms length. He took it dubiously, staring at the message.
"No signature…"
Koenma drew in a deep breath and reached across his desk, picking up the letter opener and slitting the paper. Agonisingly slowly, he pulled the paper away. There, lying in the centre of the discarded packaging was a dull mirror framed in ebony. He picked it up cautiously, noting that the symbols etched into the frame were in the language of the Makai.
Suddenly, the mirror flickered. Koenma blinked and held it closer to his face, squinting at the plain grey surface of the glass. He could have sworn…
The silver suddenly flared with a blinding red light. Koenma gasped and threw it back to the desk, covering his eyes.
"Koenma!"
"It's okay Botan."
He blinked hard a few times, willing the starburst of light to fade away. He glowered at the object that was still lying on his desk, hellish orange light boiling beneath the glass. Cautiously he picked it up again, holding it at as far away from his face as possible. The lord of Reikai jerked back in surprise when a large pair of bright blue eyes snapped open, seemingly nestled within the flames.
"You will not stop us now the Toushin is dead."
Koenma stared transfixed at the eyes as mocking laughter filled the small office. All at once the flames burst through the glass and leapt up, consuming the ebony and silver alike. Koenma yelled and threw himself back from the blaze. The flames blazed brightly for about five seconds before inexplicably vanishing, leaving nothing but a dark scorch mark on the polished wooden surface.
It was these kinds of messages that really made him curse being immortal on a Thursday.
"Koenma…"
"No Botan."
Koenma folded his arms and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. The remains of the mirror had been swept away into the waste paper bin (he wasn't really sure if it was waste paper but it hadn't seemed important at the time as sweet wrappers, apple peel, orange skin, paper clips and fingernail clippings also seemed to count as waste paper) Botan's fists were clenched and her jaw was set in a way that might have been considered unladylike if Botan actually cared about that kind of thing. She didn't.
"Koenma look at what's happening! Your detectives are dead, there's some psycho freak demon going to try and destroy the three worlds AGAIN and you aren't doing a damn thing about it!"
He opened his calm hazel eyes, meeting her angry amethyst ones.
"We are not having this discussion again Botan. I will take care of the current situation."
She snorted incredulously. "More likely you'll just scrabble around your office trying to find a demon to fight for you that won't get its head lopped off and sent back to you in box!"
"Botan!" he glared at her, "I have told you before and I will not tell you again, Yuusuke is DEAD! If I could bring him back I would but I can't! Do you understand?"
Her expression turned beseeching, "Please, just tell me where – "
"This meeting is over Botan." He turned away from her and pulled a stack of files out of his desk and began to sort through them, ignoring her. She fumed silently for a moment before turning on her heel and storming out of the room. He winced as the door slammed shut.
Pushing the papers to one side and glancing warily up at the door, he pulled the photograph out of the drawer again. After a moment of deliberation, he opened the very bottom drawer of his desk and began ferreting through the junk. A cloud of dust and a few colourful curses later he emerged with a dusty photo frame in his hands. It was quite a nice one, a pure silver frame and made from the finest Reikai crystal. It had been a birthday present from Botan, despite his protests that it was not his birthday and that technically, as he was a god he didn't HAVE a birthday. Botan had told him that he was a very sad person and to stop whinging.
Koenma opened the back and slipped the photograph inside, being careful not to damage it. He stared at it for a moment longer and then set it, almost hesitantly on his desk, making sure it was hidden from view where only he could see it from behind a pile of papers.
He heaved a deep sigh and closed his eyes. If anyone else had been in the room, they might have seen the single line of liquid light that fell from the demigod's eye, might have heard the two whispered words that were choked from his throat.
But no one was there.
No one saw, and noone heard.
"I'm sorry…"
Botan soared through the darkening sky, the folds of her white kimono swishing around her; dusky pink eyes fixed furiously on the skyline. How dare he! She had served him faithfully for longer than any of the other ferry girls, she had stood by him (except when he was being a complete and utter prat like now for instance) and he was treating her like some sort of incompetent child!
She urged her oar on to greater speeds, the bright scenery flashing past in a colourful blur. And to cap it all, he knew. He had the answers to all of their problems in the palm of his hand and yet he turned his head away, wanting to be the noble hero! She snorted again, her glare intensifying as her bright blue hair whipped around her face, coming loose from the tight bun.
Well, she thought furiously, if he wouldn't tell her, then by Kami, she would find someone who would!
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