Sunshine – Chapter Three: Psychopomp

OOOOO

"Now what would make you think that?" Botan joked with a nervous voice, pulling out a bright yellow handkerchief from somewhere in her uniform, "Here, use this," she told Kurama, handing it to him when she saw that there were no napkins in sight.

"Thank you," he said, gratefully accepting the hankie and wiping the lukewarm substance off his face. He would have to explain the rule of inside and outside voices to Shura when the two of them moved on to better terms.

"He seems much angrier than I thought he would be," the ferry girl mused, "Did anything happen last night?"

Kurama sighed, "I kicked him around—verbally," Kurama lied, upon seeing Botan's frown, "and struck a bit of a weak spot."

He finished wiping his face, "I'll have this cleaned and back to you tomorrow," Botan nodded in regard and he continued, "Apparently he doesn't like me talking about his father so casually."

"You're damn right I don't," a new voice added to the conversation. "You and he are not friends. I don't care what he said to you about forgiveness, because it isn't true," he growled, accenting the word "forgiveness" with a clear disgust.

"Good morning, Shura," Botan greeted pleasantly in an attempt to distract the prince from another argument with Kurama.

Shura glared at her, "Don't try to shift the topic. He needs to be put in his place." The prince set himself into a battle stance.

"Erm, Kurama?" Sweat appeared on Botan's brow, "Didn't you say you had to go to class early this morning?" she asked.

Shura silently fumed. He hated to be ignored.

"I did, didn't I? The professor's offering extra credit…" he mused aloud, brushing past the raging prince and into the living room and picking up everything he needed for the day.

"I should be back before the both of you return from school. Thank you for reminding me, Botan!" he called back into the kitchen, the sound of a closing door following his voice.

Shura's eyelids slid down over his eyes as he took in a very deep breath. As much as it seemed like trashing Kurama's apartment and killing both Botan and the youko would solve all of his problems, it would probably only make them worse.

Something brushing up against his legs threw him out of his contemplation. "What the hell is that?" Shura asked, scowling down at his feet to see a furry quadruped walking between his legs in figure eights.

"It's a cat," Botan answered simply, taking a sip of what was left of her tea.

Shura glared at her again. "I know that," he said acidly, squatting down to glare at the cat directly in the eye, "but what's the filthy thing doing here?"

"I take it you don't like cats," Botan remarked, putting down her cup to reach out to pet Alfador, who ran in her direction after sensing Shura's aversion. "Kurama's Mom gave it to him. I think it's precious." She said, trying to boost the feline's self-esteem.

The prince 'hmph-ed' and sat down across from Botan, bringing his head to rest on his palms and giving her a blank stare.

"So…" she started good-naturedly, "Are you ready for your first day of school?"

Pink eyes drove themselves into the ferry girl's head, answering her query with silence.

She responded with an uneasy smile—maybe Shura just was not a morning person. Ever the optimist, she tried again, "Oh, don't be so biased. You've never been to a human school. I bet you'll like it!"

Botan's face fell as Shura snorted from across the table and began to chuckle. "I'd much rather spend a day with Kurama than be around a big group of whining humans," he said, choosing the lesser of evils.

"Well, too bad!" Botan said with a little spite. That spoilt brat always had something smart to say back to her. Koenma had better plan on allowing her some vacation time after this whole ordeal comes to an end. 'If it ever ends…' she mused glumly, thinking that if she were not already a spirit Shura would be her ticket to an early grave. "You'd better eat something," Botan added, "We're going to have to leave soon and we don't want to be late our first day!"

Shura sulked. He hated how she made everything plural. "I'll be fine," he grumbled, wanting to put off eating human food as long as possible.

The fuku-clad girl would not take "no" for an answer this time. Grabbing a tamago-yaki next to her bowl of rice, she stomped over to Shura and pulled an all too familiar black box out of her uniform. The prince opened his mouth to protest, but before he could say anything, she stuck the rectangular shaped omelet into his mouth, her finger only a threatening inch away from the red button. "Eat it," she ordered.

Shura's eyes vacillated between the button and Botan for a while before he decided it would be wise to appease the lunatic just this once. Begrudgingly, he began to chew the foreign food.

Botan smiled upon seeing Shura swallow it, "See now, it wasn't that bad."

Actually, it was not. However, the prince would never let his seemingly bipolar tormentor know that, "…I've had better."

As childish as ever, but at the moment, Botan didn't mind that much. In fact, she was expecting him to spit it out at her. "Of course," she said, putting on a pseudo-sweet smile, "Now, go get cleaned up and ready for your big day!" she exclaimed with much more pep than usual, a subtle revenge for his behavior earlier.

Shura cringed as his babysitter's screechy voice pierced his eardrums. 'Big day all right…' he thought with a grimace, retreating to his temporary room to prepare. 'Someone kill me.' He pleaded to anyone who would listen, exiting the kitchen while hearing Botan bustle about, humming an animated tune to herself.

OOOOO

The sullen prince reemerged from his room about twenty minutes later, fresh and ready to go.

"Oh, don't we look so cute!" Botan exclaimed, forgetting all animosity between them received less than a half an hour ago.

Shura was in the standard Meiou High School uniform, hideously red and incredibly restraining. The yellow trimmed collar and sleeves covered his words completely, only adding to Shura's displeasure. As far as any human was concerned, he was one of them. The very thought of being brought down as an equal to something so weak made him want to retch.

"Turn that frown upside down, Shura!" Botan said happily. "We are going to have fun today! I even made bentos!" she babbled, presenting Shura with two red square containers filled with a variety of human foods that she had pulled out of her bag.

"Oh boy…" he drawled acerbically, grabbing his schoolbag and walking past Botan out the door.

The ferry girl growled, the sound barley making it out of her throat. Making a vow to herself that she would not abuse the privileges bestowed upon her by Koenma as Button Master, she followed Shura's path out the door, trotting to catch up with him.

"Slow down!" she demanded, finding it difficult to keep up with Shura's brisk pace. "You don't even know where the school is!" Botan reasoned, grabbing a hold of his arm and not letting go until he reduced his pace, "Besides, the elevator's this way," she said, pulling Shura back in the other direction.

The prince remained silent as he let Botan drag him to the two metallic doors at the end of the walkway. The ferry girl pressed the down button and waited patiently for the elevator to make its way to the top floor.

"…Are we going to be in the same class?" Shura asked.

"Of course!" Botan replied, stepping into the elevator that had arrived a second before, "I have to be around you at all times."

"Oh," Shura replied, accepting Fate with a silent loathing as he followed Death into the dark green tiled elevator compartment.

"Now…" Botan began, pressing the ground floor button, "I know you're not used to being around a lot of people—human, demon, or otherwise—but you're just going to have to go with the flow," she told him, almost sympathetically. "Think of it like a vacation," she added, hoping it would help some.

"A vacation in Hell," he muttered.

The elevator stopped and shifted before opening, revealing the richly decorated lobby of Kurama's apartment building.

"But a vacation none the less," Botan ended upon hearing his hushed remark, chucking and exiting the compartment while leaving Shura to follow her.

"Here we go!" she said to both herself and Shura with anticipation while walking down the plush carpet, eyes sparking with eagerness as she came closer and closer to the sliding glass doors that would allow them to enter the city.

'At least someone's excited about this,' he thought, now having to quicken his steps to keep up with the ferry girl's anxious pace.

As they neared the doors, the electronic sensors under the carpet picked up their weight and signaled for the doors to open, allowing the sounds of hustle and bustle of the street before them enter the tranquil lobby.

"Ready?" the blue-haired girl beamed up at Shura.

Shura rolled his eyes, "Does it really matter?"

"Nope," Botan said, shrugging and yanking the reluctant prince over the threshold and onto the busy sidewalk.

"If we keep on walking at this pace we'll be there in about ten minutes. I'm glad Kurama lives so close," Botan thought aloud, not particularly caring if Shura responded or not. "It's only the second week of April," she continued, "so I know we didn't miss that much of the first term." She glanced over at Shura who just nodded while taking in the sights around him, not really paying attention to his companion.

"We wouldn't want to fall too far behind, right?" she asked him.

"Uh-huh," he answered, looking at a parking meter curiously as they passed, giving a generic answer to appease Botan.

Botan smirked, knowing that he was not paying attention to her, "Don't you think Kurama looked so cute this morning when he was shuffling around for his stuff?" she asked, wondering if the response would be different.

"Uh-huh," Shura said, not knowing what he was answering, his attention still taken by those odd metal poles sticking out from the concrete.

Botan broke out laughing, attracting the attention of not only Shura, but also several confused passers by.

"What's so funny?" the prince asked her with a muddled look on his face befitting of a five-year-old.

"Oh, nothing, nothing…" she said, waving her hand dismissively at Shura, who just gave her a weird look and went back to his own little world.

The two false students passed a nice looking outdoor café, in which a familiar patch of red hair caught Botan's eye.

Having been kicked out of his apartment early, Kurama had decided to make use of his free time by just enjoying a nice breakfast and coffee. He saw Botan stare at him out of the corner of his eye and lowered the newspaper he held in front of him, giving Botan a smile.

Upon recognizing him, Botan returned the smile as he gave her a thumbs up and quickly ducked behind the newspaper to avoid a confrontation with Shura, who would have undoubtedly made a scene upon finding out that he had been lied to.

Fortunately, Shura did not notice Botan's movement and kept silent, now glaring at a man up ahead who was talking too loudly on his cell phone.

"What's wrong?" Botan asked, giving her attention back to Shura.

"Uh-huh," he answered vaguely, still not listening to Botan.

She narrowed her eyes, "Fine then."

Her anger was short-lived as she spotted what were presumably some of their classmates running along on the street across from them, "Look Shura!" she exclaimed.

"What?" He asked her, shocked out of his reverie and looking around.

She pointed across the street, "Some students."

"So? We are going to the same place, after all."

"Yes, I know. But, don't you want to go talk to them? You know, socialize? Both Koenma and your father think that that would help you some," Botan said.

Shura snorted, "No, I don't want to talk to them."

The ferry girl pouted, "How will you make any friends if you don't talk to them?"

His eyelids slid halfway down as he stared at Botan in silent contemplation. …How could one be so dense?

"Oh fine," she huffed, continuing ahead, "They're gone anyway."

'Big loss.' Shura thought to himself, knowing that verbalizing his apathy would only get him a scolding.

"Hey! I see the school!" Botan exclaimed, momentarily forgetting the failure of getting Shura to come out of his shell.

Shura, merely for the pursuit of his curiosity, looked up and observed the school. It was fairly large, he surmised, never having seen another human school beforehand. Around it was a wall surrounding grassy area and trees, and a metal gate at its center.

They were early, Botan noted, which was good. It would give her time to settle down some and find their homeroom class.

"Let's see here…" she mumbled, slowing her pace and opening the silver clasp on her bag.

Noticing that his escort had disappeared from his side, Shura turned around. "What are you doing?" he asked, watching the ferry girl rummage through the contents of her already messy schoolbag.

"Looking for a few papers Lord Koenma gave me," Botan said, shuffling papers around, looking for the right ones. "I knew I should have cleaned this out after Sarayashiki…" she mumbled to herself after receiving a small paper cut.

Shura stood there staring at her bumbling about until she finally pulled her hand out in triumph.

"Ah-hah!" she spouted, shoving the papers under Shura's nose, "We'd be lost without these. Now then…" Botan started, moving the papers away from Shura's face to read them, "It says here that we are both transfer students. I'm a girl transferring from Kyoto to be closer to my… Sick grandmother?" she asked to no one in particular. 'Honestly, Koenma. How bland…' she thought, knowing that her boss could have come up with something more believable than that.

She skimmed the paper once again, "You, on the other hand, Shura, are a distant relative of Kurama's that's coming from Kyushu to live with him for…umm…" Botan trailed off, seeing that whatever had been typed there before was now inked out and replaced with "being a big stupid trouble-making brat!" in Koenma's sloppy handwriting, "…For domestic disturbances," Botan finished, not really far from the truth.

The blue-haired guide flipped the page, browsing over the next. "We're in classroom 2-B," Botan smiled, "To be or not to be!" she said loudly, giggling at her own lame joke.

Shura blinked a few times, not really understanding, "Weirdo," he said under his breath, pivoting on his foot and started toward the front gate.

"Hey! Wait for meeee!" Botan yelled, quickly stuffing the papers back into her bag and jogging after Shura.

Catching up with the little prince, Botan took a glance at her watch, "Eight ten… We have about fifteen minutes until homeroom begins. That should be plenty of time to actually find our homeroom."

Shura did not respond. He had already had enough of Botan's chatting, and it was onlymorning. He was hit with the urge to repeatedly run his head into the stone wall they had just passed. He knew he would not be able to take a whole day of this.

"Hold it!" Botan blurted out, grabbing Shura's arm and preventing him from advancing further into the school.

The prince glared back at her, "What is it now?"

"You can't just walk in there wearing your shoes," she said as-a-matter-of-fact-ly, pulling Shura over to where she stood.

"Why the hell not?" he asked, getting aggravated from all of the details going to school involved.

"Just because," Botan answered, kneeling down and taking her shoes off. She searched the shoe slots for a moment, looking for her surname. Upon finding it, she pulled out a pair of shoes with her identification on them. Slipping them on, she turned to Shura. "Well," she said, "get yours. They're alphabetical. Minamino, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah…" Shura grumbled. He found them easy enough, but he lacked the desire to put them on. They were blue, the assigned color for all second year students, and on the tips were written:

Minamino, Shura – 11 – 2-B

Feeling Botan's gaze on him, he let out a sigh. "Fine, fine…" he muttered silently, knowing that her stare was screaming at him to put on the damned shoes. At this point he was willing to do anything—short of hurting his dignity—to get Botan to leave him alone. Then again, the fact that she is still alive could be considered damaging to his pride.

With a sigh, the prince followed Death up the stairs, hoping that he wouldn't have to interact with her—much less anyone—for the duration of the day.

"2-B, 2-B, 2-B…" Botan said to herself, breaking the silence between the two. "5-B, 4-B, 3-B…" she counted with anticipation. Why she was excited was anyone's guess.

'She must not get out much.' Shura thought, finding it odd that anyone would be so excited about going to a school.

"2-B!" the ferry girl hollered a bit too zealously for Shura's tastes. She opened the sliding door that led into the classroom, carefully stepping over the threshold. Shura stomped into the room behind her, not caring for the ostensible enthusiasm Botan had for the experience.

"Guess the teacher's not here yet…" she said, sounding disappointed.

Shura grumbled and went to sit at the desk in the back right corner, conveniently the furthest away from Botan.

"You know, I could shock you right now," she said, boasting her control.

Shura scowled at her. "On what grounds?" he asked acidly, looking at her through narrowed eyes.

"You're not within a five meter radius of me."

"You wouldn't," the prince stated bluntly.

"No. But I'm just telling you I could…" she trailed off, hearing someone walk in behind her.

"Could what?" the stranger asked, tone of voice obviously stating that the speaker was looking for any misbehavior.

"Could go look for our teacher," Botan covered up smoothly, an art perfected after so many years of Koenma coming in on the tail ends of her private conversations with George, Ayame, and various other Reikai staff.

"Oh," he said, relieved that these unfamiliar faces were not there to cause him any trouble. "Well, you've found him. I'm Mr. Tanaka. I take it you two are the late arrivals this year."

"Yes sir!" Botan said with a smile.

"You are… Nanami?" he questioned Botan, who answered with a nod. "So that means you're Minamino." He said happily, turning toward Shura, "I had your cousin a few years ago. Brilliant boy. Straight As. I just know you'll meet the standards I have for you."

'Minamino' stared blankly at his teacher before snorting, preparing to tell the man off for even assuming that he and the fox were related. He also had a bone to pick with the human for complimenting that traitor in his presence.

Botan, catching the prince's intentions just in time, interrupted, "So? When's the rest of the class getting here? They don't have a lot of time."

Shura glanced at the plain, black-rimmed clock mounted on the wall: 8:22.

"It seems I've been landed with the bad lot this year. They normally wait until the last second until they decide to come in."

"Oh," Botan said with empathy, knowing first hand what it was like to be stuck with a 'bad lot'. She gave Shura a stern glance.

Shura stuck his tongue out when Mr. Tanaka was not looking.

Choosing to ignore that recent show of maturity, Botan decided that the prince had been pretty well behaved, so she sat down in desk in the front left corner, giving Shura a kind of reward for not making their situation as difficult as it could have been.

Several minutes later, students began to trickle into the classroom, taking seats wherever their friends were sitting. Once the class was full, Botan peeked over right shoulder with the intent of catching a glimpse of the poor soul who chose to sit next to her young charge.

He was an average-sized boy with short, trimmed brown hair and a bored look in his blue eyes. She turned back around and rested her chin on her palm, cocking her head to the side. Where had she seen that boy before? Though he was most definitely human, she could not shake the feeling that he was important somehow. Then it hit her, her eyes widening in sudden recollection.

Hatanaka Shuuichi. Kurama's stepbrother.

She chuckled, slightly amused. Avoiding a Shuuichi all morning only to run into another. She doubted Shura would protest too much, as he was clueless to their relation. It would probably behoove her to keep him in the dark about it, too.

"Class," Tanaka began, breaking Botan's chain of thought, "as you may or may not have already noticed, there are two new faces in the room today." Some students had noticed the new girl and boy when they had entered the classroom and others perked up considerably at this and looked around for the aforemated new faces. "Miss Nanami and Mister Minamino, would you please come up and introduce yourselves?"

Very similar to Pavlov's dogs, at the sound of the word "Minamino" the majority of the females in the class swooned and a look of euphoria overtook their faces.

Botan noticed this as she walked to the front of the room and chuckled to herself, 'Poor girls. They're in for such a disappointment…'

Someone who did not swoon at the fox's name was the younger Shuuichi, who was wondering why he had not heard of this new Minamino from his stepmother. Something was not right.

"Hello!" Botan greeted, first impressions being her forte, "I'm Botan and I know I'll just love it here!" she said happily, giving everyone a smile. She nudged Shura's arm, signaling him to say something.

"I… Um…" he started, telling himself he had nothing to be afraid of in a crowd of teenage humans. However, they were all staring at him. "I'm Shura and I'm just… happy to be here."

Botan made a move to return to her seat and Shura followed suit, glad to be out of the spotlight.

Everyone returned to doing their own little thing as the teacher began to write down the current lesson on the chalkboard at the front of the room. All but one pair of eyes continued to follow Shura, their focus upon his forehead.

"What are you looking at?" the prince snapped at the brown-haired boy sitting across from him, going back into his default nature.

"Nothing," his classmate sniped back, immediately disliking the newcomer who claimed to be a relative of his. He turned away and looked to the front of the classroom.

Shura scowled and slumped forward, resting his head on his folded arms. He quickly tuned out the lecture, wrapping himself up in his own little world, Mr. Tanaka's voice muted in his ear, as if traveling through water. Before he knew it, Botan was tapping him on the shoulder, thought what she was saying was unintelligible.

"It's lunchtime Shura," she said for what felt like the fiftieth time, "Come on!" she said a little louder, successfully getting Shura to acknowledge her.

"…Oh," he finally answered, standing up. "Where do we go?" he asked her, noticing that the rest of the class had left, even the teacher.

"I was thinking outside," she said, starting toward the door, "Come on. I have a proposition for you I can explain on the way."

Shura followed her with no fuss, wondering what sort of plan she could possibly have that would interest him.

"Lunch break here is forty-five minutes long." Botan started, taking a left subconsciously, having already studied the layout of the school beforehand.

"And?" Shura asked impatiently, not really knowing where she was going with blurting out random information.

"Legally, you're only allowed to be away from me for thirty minutes." She continued, ignoring his questioning. "But…"

"But what!" he yelled, hating how his uninvited guardian was beating around the bush.

Botan rolled her eyes, "What I'm trying to say is that if you behave, and I mean really behave, I'll let you have those extra fifteen minutes away from me, just as long as you tell me where you're going and that you be back in the classroom on time," she said, stressing the last two words.

The ferry girl paused for a moment, but then decided to continue and answer Shura's unasked question, "Because if I so much as suspect you of trying to flee the area…" she trailed off, raising her fist so Shura could see it and moving her thumb in a way that would suggest the rapid use of a button, "…Let's just say both of us wouldn't be very happy," she finished, trying to sound as threatening as a girl of her stature could.

"Well?" she asked as they approached the door leading outside.

"Deal," Shura said, almost smiling at that. Almost.

"Great then! Where will you be?"

Not knowing much about the school, Shura picked the most deserted looking spot he could find, making a mental note to eventually know the school well enough to find a place where no one would bother him, "Over there under that tree," he said, pointing to a shady spot that was a shadow combined of the tree and the wall it grew next to.

"I knew you'd say that," she said, "I'll let you off today, but part of you coming to school was to try and become more sociable, you know."

Choosing not to comment, Shura started to walk toward his destination.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Botan said, grabbing his arm and placing a red bento box in his hand, "You forgot your lunch!"

Eyeing the box carefully, he nodded to her in a sort of thanks and went to sit under the tree.

Deciding to leave him to his own devices, Botan went in the opposite direction, hoping to find an empty spot of her own. After all, who said their agreement only had to have one benefiting party?

OOOOO

Stepping into classroom right on the dot, Shura let out a sigh of relief. He had gotten somewhat lost. Not that he would give that as an excuse to his captor if she asked for one.

Botan gave him a small wave with her left hand, noticing that he looked rather pale. She smiled, happy to see that she had a little control over him, even though a fancy version of a shock collar seemed rather inhumane to her. Though Koenma would argue that she was not human and therefore it should not bother her.

'Touché, Koenma,' she thought, turning her head to look out the window. In some situations, she was glad she was not human—like now, for instance. Though she was excited before—having been to school with Yuusuke and Keiko on occasion— actually sitting through the lesson was quite a chore. At Sarayashiki, she would pop in and out between classes, occasionally staying with the two for a nice lunch outside and chatting.She yawned and slumped forward onto her desk. Boring.

Shura made his way to the back of the classroom, making sure to give an extra special glare to that weirdo next to him. 'Yeah, I see you staring at me again.' With the promise of fifteen free minutes tomorrow, Shura repressed the urge to slug the cretin and quietly took his seat.

The rest of the school day passed with little event. With great pleasure Shura noted that Botan looked bored, and he was dancing on the inside to know that she no longer seemed to enjoy school. He hoped that it would serve to take the bounce out of her step for the rest of his stay in the Ningenkai. The first thing that he noticed about his chauffeur was that she was far too peppy for his sanity.

When the dismissal bell rang, Botan jumped out her daze and gathered her stuff, making sure to copy down the homework; though she was positive she didn't process anything Mr. Tanaka had said. Oh well. It was not as if she lacked access to the archives in Reikai—a place where she could easily find the answer to any question the mortal realm would dare to throw at her.

Shura packed up as well, though he did not bother to catch the homework. Firstly and foremost of all, he did not give a damn. Secondly, he knew Botan would tell the fox what it was, and then they would team up on him and make him do it. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. Irksome Human, as Shura had dubbed the older boy, was staring at him again. Torn between turning around and glaring or leaving the school as quickly as possible, Shura decided that Irksome Human was the lesser of the two evils and followed Botan out of the building.

"Isn't the fox's building this way?" Shura asked while pointing in the opposite direction Botan was heading.

"Yes, but don't you remember?" Botan asked, looking a bit offended that he had forgotten whatever he was supposed to have committed to memory.

"Remember what?" Shura asked.

"We're going shopping! You can't just wear what you came here in everyday, you know," she said, grabbing the prince by the hand and picking up the pace, "Come on. I told the girls we'd be there right after school."

No, he had not forgotten that bit of information. He had just repressed it, hoping it had all been just a horrible, horrible dream.

They walked quickly through the crowds that began congealing on the sidewalks, all having somewhere else to be. To be more accurate, Botan broke out into a light jog while dragging Shura behind her like a stubborn mule.

"Botan!" he heard someone call over the crowd of people.

Both Shura and Botan looked in the direction of the voice. Waving her arms in the air was Yukimura Keiko, girlfriend to one Urameshi Yuusuke, both of whom worked part time at the Yukimura family's noodle house.

"Keiko!" Botan greeted her friend with a second wind of energy, lugging Shura along.

Botan began to chat happily with the human she called Keiko. Shura, finally thankful to be free from the ferry girl's clutches, plopped down onto a white bench and observed the area. They had come to rest in a sequestered part of the city, a park set aside in the madness that was human commerce. It was not that big, but the surrounding trees acting as soundproofing gave it a feeling of seclusion.

Not too long later, two other girls joined the group. The taller one, also a human, was a tough looking woman known as Kuwabara Shizuru. Like Keiko, her relation to Botan was unknown to Shura. The other girl, unmistakably a demon, was short and had long aqua hair, which she had pulled back in a ponytail. However, the fact that she was a demon is not what caught his attention. Her eyes were a deep red and bore a striking resemblance to those of Hiei, Lady Mukuro's right hand man. At the thought of Mukuro's heir, Shura scowled, 'That short bastard.'

"So, you must be the Mighty Prince Shura." Shizuru announced with an air of sarcasm, coming over to sit by the sulking prince. He glared at her, as if to will her into submission, but she was surprisingly unaffected. That alone puzzled him.

She laughed, "He glares like the midget."

"Shizuru! Don't call Hiei that! He could be nearby…" Botan jumped, shifting her eyes around. She was, after all, scared to death of the boy in black. Most people were afraid of Hiei though, so she did not feel too picked on.

Shura laughed a little. The Shizuru human was not too bad in comparison to the others he had met today. She topped the irksome one—that was for sure.

"Let's go!" Botan exclaimed, all thoughts of small talk and scary fire demons out of her mind. With refueled abandon, Botan pulled Shura up and began to drag the prince in the direction of the shopping center. He allowed himself to be dragged along like a rag doll, at this point too tired to find out what it would be like to further incur the wrath of his guide.

After all, one cannot spell psychopomp without psycho.

OOOOO

Comments: In theory, I have written a fairly accurate description of the Japanese school system. If you find a mistake, please, please, please tell me so I can change it. I also did a little spelunking for Japanese foods. Alas, most of this knowledge came from Google, so I don't know how dependable it is. But, a little research never hurt anyone. :)