Disclaimer: Don't own YYH! And here (finally) is a battle!
Chapter 59: Paddle Power: A Botan Battle
"Okay, then," says Botan, with a bite of pure impatience in her voice, "Shall we go, before we all lose our nerve and run home, screaming and crying like babies, terrified of the consequences, should we fail?"
"Not helping, Botan," Jin and I say at the same time.
"But we have to go, regardless of death, injury, maiming, scars, torture, soul-taking, soul-sucking, corruption, dissection, poison, becoming food, insanity, overpowering fear, burns, frostbite, suffocation, smothering, confusion, snipers, stabbings, shootings, fire, mind control, and even---"
"NOT HELPING, BOTAN!" Shout Jin and I in unison. That shuts her up, which was what I was going for. Now I can think straight. However, I am unable to resist. I add out of spite, "Something tells me we won't have to worry about all of the inevitable wounds we'll accumulate. Botan here will just tell us what they are and how unpleasantly we will die because of them, and we'll be so afraid, we won't even think about the pain." Botan glares daggers at me, and I smirk. Mwahahaha.
Finally, Jin speaks. "Okay, I'm already getting nervous, no thanks to Botan. It's now or never."
"Now," I say grimly. We all open the door together and the three of us walk out. When we come to the intersection, we head straight in the "POWER" direction. To my dismay, the path leads downwards instead of up. Perfect. I'm going to die below sea level, even!
Finally, after walking in silent dark for about 10+ minutes, we reach a heavy iron door. We all look at each other warily.
"Well, this is it." I say.
"Yeah."
"For Katrina's dad and Lahri."
"Yeah. As well as Mie, Genkai, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, Touya, and ourselves."
"The fate of 9 people rest on us."
"Yeah. Not counting the human and spirit world."
It isn't funny, but we break out in laughter, desperate for any sound at all to break the awful silence plaguing us.
Jin finally says, "Well, Katrina, would you do the honors? It's your dad."
"My pleasure." I turn panther, and yank open the door with all my strength. The doorknob is super cold – it makes the skin on my paws tingle angrily. But other than that, the door opens easily with a loud creak. It obviously hasn't been used in quite a while, judging from the innumerable amounts of cobwebs draped over it. I can't say I'm surprised; cuz most would have to be either very brave or very stupid to want to face off against the toughest demon in the world. I count myself as both of them. I demorph, and wipe a cobweb out of my hair to hide my shaking hand from my partners. The last thing I need is for them to mock me for my mild fear of the dark.
None of us wants to go into the dark stone passageway that lies ahead, dark-a-phobia or not, but somebody has to, so I do it, building up my small amount of confidence. Botan follows hesitantly, gripping my filthy robe, and then Jin with his teeth gritted tightly, who is also gripping Botan's robe.
We walk for a surprisingly short period of time before encountering a huge, pitch-black chamber. Gee, I wish I were a bat. I could just echolocate and find out what this is all about. From what I can tell, the room is a perfect cube, and it seems relatively safe. I even start to relax slightly.
My relaxation period is seriously killed when I hear this deep voice, terrible, poisonous, and cruel, which breaks the silence out of nowhere. I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. Jin grits his teeth even harder, and Botan is trembling silently.
"Challengers. Who are you?"
"Kat, Jin, Botan."
"Will you accept the rules?"
"Um…yes?"
The awful voice booms. I cover my ears in agony, as do my friends. God, VOLUME! Watch the VOLUME! My mom was a screamer, but not of this VOLUME. "EXCELLENT. YOU WILL FIGHT TWO WARRIORS SERVING UNDER MY RULE, BEFORE TRYING TO DETHRONE ME, IN ONE-ON-ONE BATTLES. ONCE YOU KILL OR SUBDUE THE WARRIOR, YOU WILL GAIN ACCESS TO THE NEXT ROOM THROUGH A KEY THE WARRIOR CARRIES. DO YOU ACCEPT?"
"We accept," says Botan confidently, her clear voice quickly swallowed up by the silence.
"Then let your challenge commence." The voice gives an air of great enjoyment.
That line must have tipped off some high-tech machinery, because at that moment, four spotlights turn on in each of the corners of the gym. I see a stone door like the one we just entered on the other side. That must be the way to get through to the next arena.
Yet strangely, no one is here.
Why is that?
"Sensu, show your challenger." Jin is speaking this time. I guess his Shin Obi training taught him to be brave. Or maybe I am just comparing him to myself.
"I'm coming." The voice is different; terrible, but not as bad as Sensu.
Then, the entire left wall splits in half with a loud screech, withdrawing into the other walls. I hear monstrous footsteps that are slightly making the ground tremor.
As they get louder and shakier, Botan grips my left arm, her nails digging into me like needles. I chance a glance at Jin. His teeth are gritted very hard, hands shoved into the pockets of his robe. He's taking it rather well, or at least, better than Botan.
Seeing her shake gives me a boost of confidence, the way sugar gives quick energy. I'm way above that.
A creature finally walks in.
As it comes into the light, the wall shuts behind it with a deafening BANG, followed by quite as bad a screech as the first time, and I get a good look at this massive demonic thing.
At 12 feet tall, it is a sight to see. Thick dirty-white hair covers its whole body, giving it a slightly Abominable Snowman look. Inch long teeth jut from its mouth, dripping saliva, and it would have looked scary enough without the yellow eyes. Something bright hits my vision, temporarily blinding me; I realize it must be the key to the next room hanging on an iron chain around its huge neck.
Something stirs in my memory.
Gee, it looks very similar to the creature in Botan's memory!
"Botan," I hiss. "Was this the thing that took a chunk outta your back?"
I realize she's let go of me, and says, very confidently, "Yes, this is most certainly it. I'm looking for some payback."
Dude, what's with Botan's change of attitude? I didn't know she was so combative! Jin also looks surprised. He's never seen this side of Botan. I feel a pang of guilt. I brought this change. But maybe the change is a good thing. I mean, she can actually fight now, right? In her previous state, she couldn't do nuffink, right? Doesn't that justify it?Ugh, this is going to seriously haunt me to my grave.
The Snowman speaks. "I am Rhiharl, the first challenge. I have never been defeated. Choose your challenger."
Botan steps forward before I can stop her. "I do, Rhiharl."
"But Botan," I hiss at her, grabbing her sleeve in an effort to drag her back. "No offense, but you're very weak! Let Jin or I do it! C'mon, please don't do this!"
"No offense taken," she growls. "But don't you get it, Katrina? This is not about some stupid heroine contest, or moronic dominance thing. This is about trusting myself. I need to know that I can depend on me. If I stand back and let him fight and hurt you or Jin, I'll never forgive myself." She glares at Jin and I menacingly, violet eyes glinting dangerously. "Don't either of you dare step in, no matter what happens! Do you remember that Mie nearly died trying to save me? That's been haunting me for too long. Today, I repay my debt. I'm taking Rhiharl down."
I don't know what to say. I never heard as good a speech as that one was, even though it was kind of Yu-Gi-Oh-ish. She should've been a politician or a lawyer. Maybe even president Tch, yeah right. Botan president? Not a chance…(A/N Botan as president/emperor? That would make Bush and Kerry look like governmental saints…)
"Well, Rhiharl?" Botan asks politely, coldness in every single etch of her voice.
"Move."
The start to run around each other, testing each other's speed. Botan is actually matching him. Impressive, for such a skinny, weak looking, fluffy girl. Rhiharl really isn't that fast. All that bulk must really weigh him down. Even Botan is slightly faster, and that is very sad.
Rhiharl unsheathes his claws, and takes many mad swipes at her while both of them are still in motion. Botan dodges them all, using martial art dodges like that of Jackie Chan. Man, she's full of surprises. I can't figure out how she got that good. Who trained her? Could Genkai have trained her too?
I see Botan's hands (which she has just hidden behind her back, by the way) are starting to glow with yellow fire. So she's building up her power and keeping it out of his sight. Very wise.
God, I feel like a commentator. ' "And there she goes, a quick dodge to the right, and – OH – a very near miss there, my she's getting ready for some fightin…" '
He takes several more wild swipes, but that doesn't distract Botan. She aims and fires her own brand of Spirit Energy and hits him. I think she's triumphed, but that barely hurt his health at all. He does have a slightly smoking wound on his shoulder, and Botan seems to get overconfident. He takes another swipe and strikes her a glancing blow on her arm. She doubles over, twitches her hand in a kind of flick motion, and I think she's going to get hit again, but as he makes that strange undisciplined swipe…she vanishes?
I realize what she did. "YEAH BOTAN!" I scream. I wasn't a cheerleader in 7th grade for nothing! (A/N Cassie, don't start hating her! Not all cheerleaders are bad!)
Jin hisses, "What did she even do? I've never seen a move of the sort! A-a vanishing spell?"
"Shrunk," I say simply.
"Ah."
I see Rhiharl (He will now be referred to as Rhi) look around, puzzled. I really wouldn't have thought Botan could have conceived a plan like that, but well, you learn something new every day, right?
I focus on the spot Botan first was, and indeed see a little 3 inch tall figure. But unfortunately, Rhi sees her the same time I do. He raises a massive hairy foot and stomps, but I see a little figure whizzing away on a small paddle just in time.
"What a woman," sighs Jin.
Ugh. He hits on one person to the next, doesn't he? I grin to myself, glancing sideways at him slyly. He'll never learn.
I watch further, using panther vision. Rhi is now trying to swat Botan the way a human would swat a fly, but she's even faster on a stick than on the ground. There's no way he'll catch her that way.
But one problem with Botan is that she has little or no offense when she's that tiny, even if her defense and evasion rate are spectacular. But no one ever beat a foe by avoiding them constantly.
But what can she do?
Botan isn't faltering yet, but I can tell the lazy, calm way she is drifting back and forth is boring her. She soars over to us…a little blue-haired pixie girl on a paddle.
"What do I do?"
"Get big, TinkerBell," I say simply. "Use the…"
The creature has seen us talking to the air, and has made the correct assumption being that's-where-she-is. Oh goodie, I didn't think he'd even get that far in his thought process. Rhi has been running over, swiping madly, and it's not only Botan who is in danger. I cartwheel, and Jin and Botan let the wind carry them away.
So instead, Rhi strikes the wall with his thick skull, leaving a great many cracks in his impact position. He shakes his head and the new tan lump sitting on it, trying to un-dizzy-ify himself.
Unfortunately for him, that was all the time Botan needed. When he turns around to resume playing cat-and-mouse with the bug-girl, he gets a faceful of life-sized paddle.
Staggering dazedly and blinking those bright yellow eyes, he stumbles backwards, where Botan continues to whack him forcefully. But several times, he sees her let her guard up and slashes viciously in her stomach. She does not recoil, though, which I really admire. I would. When Yusuke did it to me, I was totally defenseless. That's my main problem…I have little stamina, unlike this warrior princess I am watching battle.
But then Rhiharl, grinning in spite of his facial wounds, grabs her staff without warning and takes it roughly. He swings it with impressive speed and gets Botan in her stomach in the perfect spot, sending her flying into the wall. Rubble falls on top of her.
He grins wider, still holding the paddle. He advances toward his motionless enemy. Botan opens her eyes and painfully stands up, only to get hit again with her own stick.
I advance angrily on Rhi, but Jin stops me by grabbing my cloak.
"Let me go!" I hiss. "This is ridiculous, we never should have allowed this, damn it, she's gonna die…well? Let go!"
"We made her a promise." He says simply.
I glare at him and his perfect reasoning, and sit on the ground. I can't look at Botan. I've failed her, and there's nothing I can do.
I see her try to summon that yellow fire, but she fails. She's all out. She can barely move.
"Ugh…"
"You die today, Botan. All hope is lost. You will die just like Marias did, all those years ago. You'll be seeing her shortly."
She stretches out a hand, as if in defeat. Then…she smiles?
It must have been a trick of the light, for she says painfully, "Rhiharl, I do not think I am dead quite yet."
"You will be."
Tears form on her eyes. "Yes, you are right. I'll…just…" She stares at us and smiles.
Then she slumps to the floor, violet eyes staring. All life is extinguished from those violet eyes. No…she wouldn't…she can't be… I stare at the lifeless body, disbelieving.
My breath catches in my throat. Jin puts an arm around my shoulder. "It was better this way," he says softly, patting me. "She wasn't killed. She died."
Tears form on my face. I bury my head in my hands, and fight back angry sobs. As the thought of killing him to avenge her comes to my mind, I hear something. Someone is yelling something loudly.
I wipe my face quickly and look up.
Rhi is storming around, talking loudly to himself. He's tapping his head. More blood forms on his face, which kind of reminds me of the look of someone experiencing apoplexy. (Basically blood vessels in the head explode.) His face fur grows redder and redder. Then without warning…
Finally, the undefeated Rhiharl slumps the ground, his face a bloody mess.
Okay, am I the only one confused?
I hear a gasp. It's…
Wha?
I jump and walk hesitantly over to her. I thought she was dead!
Am I imagining stuff?
Botan gasps again, just as suddenly, opens her eyes, sits up, and puts a hand to her stomach wounds. Pulling her hand away, she realizes, along with Jin and I, that it has gone red and wet. She sits down, panting hard and new tears of pain forming.
I suddenly understand.
Genius… She astro-projected!Genkai told me about it! 'You can kill someone or make them insane through astro projection!'
I start to laugh. So simple…
I'm not imagining anything. Jin and I run to her side. Jin starts to heal her with his small gift, and I go the newly defeated Rhiharl. I find the key, and I chop it off the silver chain, trying not to look at or smell the blood seeping down his distorted face. As soon as I take off the key necklace, he vanishes. It figures. Sensu was hoping we wouldn't get it before he vanished. Typical.
I quickly wipe the key on my robe, and go back to Jin and Botan. Botan is white.
As I'm about to say something, Jin quickly says, "Katrina, she's in shock. It's natural. The cuts weren't too deep, fortunately. The shock is just showing up worse because she had severe mental strain as well. Once she comes out of shock, she will be mostly healed. We should wait for that. We can't just leave her here; someone will come along and kill her."
"Well, you're the boss, then. I got the key."
He nods in approval. We wait several minutes, and then the color slowly seeps back.
Botan, without bothering to open her eyes, says thickly, "I'm going to need more time to heal.'"
We don't say anything.
"I just want you to know that I am not running away."
"Botan, what?"
"I'm going to die. Leave me here, and let me."
"Oh, no you aren't. Nice try, though, you coward."
"It's the only way!" She says fiercely. "Dont' make me paddle you."
"You couldn't paddle a mosquito like this!" I say angrily. The wound must have addled her brains as well as her stomach.
"Go!"
"Botan, don't tempt me…" I mutter menacingly.
"DO IT!"
SLAM.
That is the third time I've hit her across the face in panther mode. Jin stares at me in abject horror.
"Why did you do that?"
I demorph. "I'm not gonna let her kill herself, Jin! As far as me and my mental state are concerned, she just died, and I won't let her do it again! I just knocked her out. That's all. I won't let her die. She just killed a major demon, so of course I'm not going to let her die!"
He shrugs. "I guess. Botan did have some amazing strength. That was some true genius at the end. And what did you say it was…astro projection? What's that?"
"Ask Genkai, she can explain a lot better than me. Now then, do you have any bandages?"
"Wha…? Oh yeah. I'll get em." He pulls out his small pack, which resided under his shirt, and a whole roll of ace bandages out of it. He straps them onto Botan's stomach, and when he's done, I lift her up into a piggyback. I give the small golden key to Jin, and he walks over to the stone door, with me following him.
When he sticks it in, the key turns in the lock and it creaks open. Jin and I shrug at each other, and walk down the passageway. I hear Botan stirring on my back.
"Where are we going, guys?"
"To the next challenger."
"I can help…"
"No Botan, you rest."
"Umph." She goes out again.
"That's right. Umph." I say sarcastically. Jin laughs.
"It wasn't supposed to be funny."
"I know."
I roll my eyes in reply, though he can't see it in the dark. Then he asks abruptly, "What will you do when we get to Sensu?"
"Let's worry about the second challenge first, okay?"
"But what will you do?"
I shrug. "I really don't know. Defeating Beauty was just luck, and I doubt I will have the same kind of luck with the King himself."
"That's strange."
"What?"
"Why you do not have confidence in yourself."
"I do."
"Then why do you always expect the worst of yourself?"
"Just trying to keep things in perspective."
He shakes his head. "You are more powerful than you think."
"Yeah? How'd you know that?"
"I can sense it, okay? You will do fine."
"Whatever. I'm not as powerful as you think I am, you know. I'm only as powerful as my dad was, if that. A half-human can't do as much a full demon."
"Do you resent that?"
"I don't know. But my human half is only a burden, that I know for sure. Why do you care?"
He keenly avoids the question. "But being part human and part demon gives you a link for both worlds. That is ideal for a spirit detective."
I glare at him. "Is that what this is about? Did the great Koenma put you up to this?"
He shrugs. "I was just saying that it would work out very well if you should choose that position."
"I don't want it! The glory, the responsibility, the un-normality, the anything! I'm not cut out for the job. That's it.I want to leave this all behind.Why does everyone keep asking me about it?"
"Well," says Jin carefully, "It's what your father wanted."
Silence. "What?"
"Day after day, year after year, he always said that he would love for his daughter to have such a prestigious job. He said you would make a fine detective. He said you loved puzzles, codes, anything to figure out."
"Yeah, well, he was wrong!" All right, I have my fingers crossed. I have always loved puzzles. "He didn't exactly stick around long enough to find out how I grew up!" I shake some of Botan's long hair out of my face.
"You know he's right."
"How dare you question me! I am no Spirit Detective and I never plan to be one."
"Okay." He tone suggests a smile.
We walk in silence. I can't get over what he said. I need to know something. "My dad…my treacherous dad…why would he have thought I would be better than Kurama? Kurama's the strong one."
"Because you are of the rare few who are Two. If you are Two, it is ideal that you help both sides. Kurama may look a Two, but he really just inhabits a human body. He's demon through and through. Look, can you just say you'll think about it?"
I glare again. "Fine, I'll think about it. I won't change my mind, though," I snap.
"Thanks."
"Whatever. This is so taking forever."
"No, no, here we are."
We are indeed to the next unlocked door. This time, he opens it.
As soon as we get in very far, the awful voice of Sensu speaks again. "The second challenger awaits your fight."
"All right, bring him on," says Jin. To me he whispers, "I wonder who it is."
"Not him. Her."
Before we can ask, 4 lights again flicker on in the same positions as last time.
Now, instead of sliding walls, the warrior is already there, clad all in bronze armor that gives blinding glints. She too has a key necklace.
Oh my god. I'm too stunned to say anything. I almost drop Botan on the stone floor.
"You," Jin whispers, obviously in total shock. "...oh my god..."
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A/N Who do you think it is? TELL ME IN REVIEWS! And god, do you like the length? Seven whole pages! And my record was 4! WOOHOO! And which fight scene did you like better – this one or the one in chapter 17?