The first thing Botan noticed while Yato lead her through the halls of the castle she had been taken to was how much scorn he attracted from the demons there. They spat at him, insulted him, attempted to trip him at every chance they got. All the same, Yato walked with a smug grin on his face the entire time. He never responded to any of the insults, never retaliated to anything. They leered at her too but didn't dare to get too close. Eventually, Yato reached a door and opened it.
"This will be your room, you will have 3 meals delivered each day and if you wish for more food ask me. My room connects to yours but you may lock the door if you wish. Don't leave your room without me or else my comrades will probably kill you and don't make too much noise in there, the walls are thin," Yato did not at all sound like he was talking to someone he had just kidnapped.
"Oh yeah because I'm so sure that you don't plan to just kill me yourself once you're done with whatever sick plans you have," Botan refused to step in the room just yet, staring defiantly at him.
"Where was this courage earlier? Perhaps if you had been this defiant when I battled your friends they could've saved you," Yato leaned against a wall as he spoke.
"I-" Botan found herself at a loss for words, she felt angry because she knew Yato was right. She had been caught off guard by being attacked while she was doing her job as usual that much was true, but when her friends arrived she had felt dread rather than hope. She had been little more than a sitting duck.
"You believed your friends to be in danger and so you felt scared for them, but in making yourself useless you caused them greater struggles. They will surely come after you now and possibly lose their lives. Pretty tragic if you ask me," Yato shrugged nonchalantly.
"Don't act as if you're the one with the moral high ground here, you were going to kill them!" Botan balled her hands into fists.
"Is that what you think? Your friends were never in danger of death, and neither are you so long as you follow my instructions. Don't you get it? I'm not the bad guy here. Give it a few decades and you'll be thanking me, be thanking all of us, for the actions we will take very soon," Yato turned to look at her, his tone was entirely genuine. He was under the complete impression that he was on the right side here. Botan should've expected as much, it was human nature after all. Almost no one actually believes they are evil, least as far as humans go. For demons, the capacity to know that you are evil and simply not care is far higher.
"You're insane, do you really think that any of your precious comrades believe the same as you? They seem to hate you anyway, they probably don't even want what you want," Botan refused to let herself be intimidated by this man. Even if he was an upper-class S rank demon.
"Oh I know they hate me. It's to be expected, I became a hero by slaughtering their kind. All at the orders of Enma. Do you know just how many lives I took? I thought I was a hero every time I would cut down a demon. Whenever I would enter the demon world I would ravage the lands of it, that is how I kept demons away from the human world you know. I caused such fear in their own world that they never dared to leave the safety of the territory of any of the kings. For years I was so dangerous that there was not a single demon that crossed over to the human world. So can you imagine how I felt when I found out that the real monsters were humans? Can you imagine how I felt when I found out that the reports of demon cruelty were falsified? The demons I killed were afraid of me and I believed it was a good thing, I thought I was a righteous hero. When I found out I immediately confronted Enma, but I was branded a traitor. I went to Koenma who I thought I could trust, but he refused to believe me," Yato seemed to grow in hatred with each word, Botan felt a chill in her bones at his words, "I fled to the demon world and spent years thinking about my life. I realized that the only way to atone for my actions would be to spread the pain that had been inflicted on demons back to those who inflicted it."
"You're… you're just like Sensui!" Botan yelled at him.
"Sensui? No, he was just insane. I should've known better than to hand him the keys to the spirit world vault, I thought seeing chapter black would make him see my side, but he began to hate humans instead. He hated the symptoms rather than the cause, though he did cause Koenma anguish and for that, I suppose I am grateful to him," Yato sighed as he leaned against the wall again. "Do you see now? All that I want is to make the past right. I have no animosity towards you or any of the other ferry girls, or any of the ogres, or any of your friends. I hold no hate towards any demons. I only hate Enma and Koenma, and I suppose I hated the SDF but they are all gone now so that doesn't matter."
Botan felt sick to her stomach at his words, "And what comes after? Once you complete your revenge?"
"I will allow the demons you have met in this castle to kill me, for that is what they are eagerly waiting for," Yato turned and began to walk towards his own room, "Oh but I'll let you go first, as I said, I don't intend to take lives just because I can."
Botan walked into her room and shut the door, locking it. She felt sick. How could someone so twisted exist? How horrible had Enma been to cause such hatred? She held her head in her hands. She had to escape, she couldn't allow any of her friends to come near this place. It was too dangerous, she could feel it even though she herself was not a combatant. Apart from herself, there was not a single person in this castle that was weaker than S-class. And the worst of it was the fact that there was a single presence she could feel in the castle that both chilled her to her bones and warmed her heart at the same time. It was so terrifyingly large but also so gentle and accepting, and such a thing scared her. Had Yato been telling the truth when he stated that one of the members of his group was actually on par with the demon kings?
She definitely couldn't let any of the boys get near this place now. They weren't strong enough to fight someone like that. She had to escape somehow, but how? Botan looked around her room. The walls were stone, there were no windows and there were only two doors in and out of the room, one of which would just lead to Yato's room. She knew that the castle itself was somewhere in the lower levels of the demon world, but didn't know exactly where or how to even reach the surface again. Heck, she had barely even seen any of the castle's interior. Yato had blindfolded her for most of their trip. She supposed she could go demand he gives her a tour. Someone as stuck in his convictions as he wouldn't lash out and kill her, she supposed she could take advantage of that fact.
Botan walked over to the door that would connect to Yato's room and checked the doorknob. Surprisingly enough it was unlocked. She opened the door and saw a room similar to hers, except he had a kitchen segment that she assumed they did not trust her with. It was a room complete with a bed, a couch, a dining, table and a connected bathroom, just like hers. Currently she saw Yato seated on the couch, a wet rag in his hand. He seemed to be cleaning his sword and the sight of it was breathtaking for a moment. It almost looked as if it were made out of sapphire. It was a beautiful sword- when it was not being used against her friends that is.
"It's made from a rare crystal only found in the demon world, they call it moonlit ice, because the unrefined form of it can only properly be seen when it reflects a full moon, it then goes through a long process of being refined until it reaches the appearance you see before you. It's also nearly unbreakable and never dulls," Yato wiped sweat off of his brow as he continued to clean the blade. It already looked immaculately clean, Botan couldn't help but wonder why he even continued.
"Just because it's beautiful doesn't mean I like the fact that it was used against my friends any better," Botan looked away to hide her expression of wonder. The sword was gorgeous but she couldn't let her guard down and forget where she was.
"Yes of course, I would not expect you to forgive me just because I have a pretty sword," Yato held the rag over a bucket and wrung it out, placing it down and holding his sword up to inspect it. When he decided that it looked good enough he sheathed his blade. "So what did you need?"
"I want you to show me around the castle," Botan was wondering if perhaps this was not a good idea considering how he had just kidnapped her, of course it would be predictable for her to try and escape, but she could not back down now.
"Why? There's not much worth seeing here for those of us not from the demon world," Yato placed his sheathed sword beside him and leaned back on his couch, "almost all of the others here hate us both, and rightfully so given what the spirit world has done to demons."
Botan felt the sick feeling from earlier return as his last words carried an emphasized hatefulness with them.
"So, why do you want to see the castle anyways? Surely you aren't planning to try and escape?" Yato glanced at her, "you'll die if you do, you'd be killed by any of the wandering demons down this deep. Assuming that you even make it out of the castle alive."
"Well of course you'd say that you're the one who kidnapped me!" Botan rolled her eyes at him.
"Are you deaf? I'm trying to keep you alive here, but if you refuse to listen then the other door to your room is unlocked. You'll see what I mean soon enough," Yato sighed in defeat and stood up, leaving his sword on the couch. It was as if he was taunting Botan with it, giving her the option to try and use it to attack him when both of them knew that she had nowhere near the strength to harm him. He walked over to a fridge of some sort and pulled out water, "if you go and get yourself killed then it isn't on me I suppose, so feel free."
Botan grit her teeth and walked back into her room, slamming the door shut. She hadn't achieved what she had wanted but she had found success elsewhere. He still had humanity in him somewhere, that much was evident by how he was able to talk so enthusiastically about his blade. Whenever the past doings of the spirit world were brought up it was as if he started being an entirely different person, but outside of that she found that he was not all that insane. She also assumed that he'd never really had anyone strongly debate him before, given the fact that he did not exactly hang around anyone from the spirit world. She could use that, perhaps if she could just place some seeds of doubt in his mind she could use that to get away before the boys found the place and got themselves killed trying to rescue her. She momentarily felt ashamed at her thoughts, was she really planning to manipulate someone like that? Quickly she decided that it wasn't really manipulation though, she would be upfront with it, she would challenge his arguments and try to make him doubt his own convictions.
Hiei sighed as he listened to the spirit detective and the oaf argue with Koenma.
"What do you mean we can't go after Botan? Are you saying we should just let that bastard have him?!" Yusuke was full-on shouting at this point, and Genkai looked like she was about to burst from annoyance.
"I'm saying that you can't go after her yet, first of all, we don't even know where she is, and secondly even if we did know where she's been taken, we lack the strength to retrieve her," Koenma looked like he was getting frustrated as well, "Trust me Yusuke, I want her back as much as you, but we can't afford to be reckless about this!"
"And what the fuck is up with the guy? He holds this grudge against you and Enma, what did you do?" Yusuke's anger did not lessen despite Koenma's answer.
"I made the mistake of not believing him when he found out of my father's corrupt ways. I would imagine that is why he hates me, though I never expected it would lead to this. He shouldn't even be alive anymore given how long ago he lived," Koenma sighed and leaned forward, placing his elbows on his desk, "All that you can do for now is to get to training. I promise you that we will do everything in our power to locate Botan, and once we do I will let you know."
That did little to reassure Yusuke, and now it was Kuwabara who spoke up.
"Didn't the shrimp's boss capture one of their gang? Can't we just get the location from him?" Hiei was a bit surprised at the fact that Kuwabara actually made some sense there, but as usual his thinking was still too simplistic. Hiei noticed Kurama preparing to speak and so he cut in.
"It will take time, he isn't weak enough that his mind can be easily invaded. Besides, as things stand the three of you combined would not be enough to defeat me, and the man we fought was a match for me, if his group is filled with people around his strength then us attacking now would be suicide. Especially if he wasn't bluffing when he stated that one of the members of his group was as strong as Yomi and Mukuro," Hiei looked between the three others as he said this and Genkai nodded in confirmation.
"You've all gotten weaker in the past few years asides from Hiei, you'll need time to train before we can even think about sending you lot to rescue Botan. If you go now, even if we knew where she was, all that would result from it would be your deaths," Genkai looked at Yusuke and Kuwabara especially as she said this, she knew that Kurama was on the same page as she was, and Hiei was as well.
Yusuke looked like he wanted to make some witty remark to her but he managed to storm out of the room before saying anything. Kuwabara held his head low in shame as Yukina went over to comfort him. Hiei turned to Kurama, "What's your excuse for having gotten weaker fox? I expected the detective and the oaf to get weaker, but not you."
"You misunderstand me Hiei, I don't crave power. Even in my days as Yoko I did not have a hunger for strength like you do, and that is even more true now that I am living as a human completely, but I do recognize that you are correct about your assessment of my strength. It may even be a stretch to classify me as S-class at this point," Kurama spoke.
"Hn, you three better be back to your former strengths at least by the time I return, I've got to go handle business in Makai and will continue to look for the ferry girl from my side," Hiei turned to leave before Kurama's words stopped him.
"That is very kind of you Hiei."
"Do not misunderstand me, I simply want a rematch with the swordsman, losing like that doesn't sit well with me," Hiei left after he said this and Kurama smiled to himself. He knew that Hiei would never admit it, but he had grown close to their group over time, and he was sure that Hiei wanted Botan back safely just like the rest of them. Kurama turned to Genkai.
"Don't bother asking redhead. I've already decided to oversee the training for you three, and I'll have the group that trained for the demon world tournament with you train here as well. You just have to trust that Botan will be fine in the meantime. She may not be a fighter but she isn't weak," Genkai turned to leave as well, "Training starts first thing in the morning."
"I'll let Yusuke know that for you," Kurama stated.
"Don't bother, he already knows I'm sure," Genkai left after saying those words and Kurama decided to take his leave as well, finding a room that he would stay in for the duration of the training.