I know it's a shorter chapter compared to the other two but I realized what would've originally become chapter 3 was shaping up to be very long so I decided to release this part now, I hope you all enjoy!
Botan laid awake in her bed that night. Well, she couldn't really tell if it was night as there were no clocks in her room and she had no windows, but she was tired so she assumed it was late at least. Despite being tired sleep would not take her, she was just teetering on the edge of sleep without ever falling into it. She hadn't left her room to map out the castle yet, despite Yato's taunting. The castle sounded much quieter now, however. She had been able to hear yelling and shouting through the walls earlier, the noises of what sounded like demons brawling as well, but now things had quieted down. Another reason for her to assume it was nighttime. She rolled out of bed, she had found that the wardrobe and dresser in the room had been stocked with clothes for her, normal stuff that she would wear if she was back in the spirit world. She assumed that she had been a target for some time, though she still wasn't sure why she wasn't just killed. If Yato was only one person and all the others wouldn't be so "kind" to her, wouldn't it have made more sense for someone else to go? She decided to worry about that later as she slipped on some slippers that had also been in the room. Now that it was quiet she felt much safer about exploring the castle.
Botan exited her room and shut the door quietly. She decided to write down every turn she made on a piece of paper, she could also use it to map out what she saw but didn't explore. She looked to both sides of her before going down a short hallway, as the other direction was a dead end. She was in a small offshoot of a long hallway, where she was there were only two rooms, her's and Yato's. She supposed it made sense for him to be isolated, he seemed to spend most of his time in his room anyway. She decided to take a left turn down the hallway that theirs led into, and she saw more rooms. She could hear demons talking in some of the rooms, but none of them seemed to notice her, or maybe they simply did not care about her regardless if they did notice her.
Botan shivered a bit and it was then that she realized the castle outside of her room was rather cold. She saw steps going up and steps going down and decided to take the steps down. She walked down a spiral staircase and when she reached the bottom she found herself in the entrance to a huge hall. There were chandeliers lining the ceiling that gave off light, and a very long and large table that looked to be able to seat over 100 people easily. She walked into the hall, it was completely empty, but given that it was right below her room it made sense that she had been able to hear people talking so clearly earlier. She was about 10 meters or so into the room when she heard a footstep behind her. Botan spun around, summoning her bat to her hands to see who it was, and she tensed up when she realized it wasn't Yato. As much as she didn't like the guy, at least she was mostly sure he wouldn't hurt her. What she was face to face with was a demon that had scaly purple skin with glowing orange eyes. The demon had teeth that were dripping with drool and a lizard-like face.
"A ferry girl? All the way out here? You must be Yato's little pet is that right?" The demon spoke, tongue flicking much like a snake's as he did.
"I'm no one's pet, I'm my own person," Botan gripped her bat tighter to stop her hands from shaking. She had to either talk her way out of this or find a way to distract him and escape. She looked around the room for anything she could use. She saw a cup on the table that seemed to still have liquid in it.
"You know, the rest of us would've preferred to just kill you, and any other ferry girl we could get our hands on. It was only Yato's insistence that got us to let him take you alive… and I don't see him around right now," The demon snarled a bit as Botan dived for the cup. The demon looked a bit surprised as she splashed the liquid in the demon's face. It snarled and wiped liquid out of its eyes, but Botan was gone when he could see again. She was running for the stairs as fast as she could. She had just reached the entrance to the stairs when she felt wind slam into her back, almost knocking her over. She turned around and the demon was right behind her, raising his clawed hand. "That was good alcohol you bitch!"
Time seemed to slow down as the demon brought down his hand towards her, it surely would've torn her clean in half had it struck her. Right before the hand reached Botan, she heard a blade being unsheathed. A moment later the hand was gone and all that remained was a stump where it had been, the hand now laying on the floor. Botan turned to look behind her and saw Yato standing on the step right behind her, one arm holding the sheath of his blade and the other still holding the blade pointed towards the demon.
"I thought I told you not to go anywhere without me," Yato looked down at her, he looked more annoyed than anything else.
"Yato you fucking bastard, are you saying your pet is worth taking my hand for?" The demon looked at Yato who looked back impassively.
"Stand down," Yato did not lower his blade, he spoke with a commanding tone. Yato and the demon stared at each other for a moment before the demon's posture relaxed. He leaned down and picked up his hand from the ground.
"Now I've gotta go get this reattached, thanks a lot," The demon snarled at Yato and let out a burst of bloodlust so thick that Botan couldn't breathe for a moment. Yato didn't seem to care though. His arm stayed where it was, extending over Botan's shoulder with the sword angled in front of her.
"Better hurry then, I hear we have a patrol party coming back soon and I'm sure they'd just love those pods," Yato smirked tauntingly at the demon who looked like he was actually going to attack Yato for a moment. The demon then spun around and began walking away.
"And you, what were you doing exploring on your own?" Yato looked back to Botan.
"It's your fault for letting me know my door was unlocked really, besides you also said then that I was free to do so," Botan turned around to face him fully.
"I was taunting you, I didn't think you'd actually do it!" Yato sounded exasperated.
"Well then maybe you shouldn't have taunted me, hmm?" Botan crossed her arms, looking annoyed. She was surprised when Yato actually laughed.
"Fine fine it's my fault, just don't do it again. You're lucky that I was able to get to you in time," Yato sheathed his blade, holding his scabbard now. He didn't have it tied to his waist so she assumed he must've really been in a rush. He was wearing a yukata and his hair was a mess, she realized that he had probably been asleep.
"How did you know I was in trouble anyways?" Botan started walking up the stairs back to her room and Yato followed.
"I felt his energy rising and when I checked your room and saw you were gone I realized what was happening. To be honest, I expected you to be dead by the time I arrived," Yato spoke as they reached the top of the stairs, walking down the hallway to where their rooms were.
"So then why did you bother to save me? I mean, it isn't as if it'd exactly be your fault if I got myself killed so you'd still be the good guy," Botan said the last part with a near sarcastic tone, but Yato didn't seem to mind.
"If I had let you die while knowing I could've saved you it would be just as bad as me killing you myself, and as I said I have no quarrel with the ferry girls," Yato entered his room and Botan found herself following him, wanting to continue the conversation.
"So you'll kidnap someone but you won't let anything bad happen to that person either? Kinda contradictory isn't it?" Botan questioned him, sitting on the couch.
"I suppose it is, but it's the plan I intend to take with you," Yato set his blade on the side of the couch she wasn't occupying and went into the kitchen, from the sounds of it he was making tea. As much as tea sounded good to Botan at the moment she wasn't about to ask her kidnapper for some.
"So why did they send you to capture me anyways? If everyone else wants me dead wouldn't it have made sense for them to send anyone else?" Botan turned to look at him as she spoke.
"I… am one of the stronger members of this group so that helps, I also work closely with our leader and she trusts me more than she trusts most here," Yato got two cups out of a cabinet and poured tea into each of them, bringing them over and setting a cup on the coffee table in front of the couch for Botan and placing the other cup on the other end of the table, sitting on the ground near it.
"Oh uh, thank you," Botan looked at the tea, usually if she was offered tea in a situation like this she wouldn't trust it, but given that Yato had just gone out of his way to save her life it wouldn't make sense for him to poison her, so she accepted the tea.
"No problem. So I don't suppose that you've learned your lesson about trying to explore the castle have you?" Yato looked at her with a face that told her he already knew what her answer would be.
"Mmm, no I just suppose you'll have to come with me next time," Botan almost made her usual catlike grin, but she caught herself. She was really getting too comfortable here.
"If that'll get you to stop trying to explore on your own then I can show you around tomorrow, though I still don't really think there's anything worth seeing in the castle, and knowing your way around the halls won't let you escape anyways," Yato sipped his tea, "Besides, after what just happened it'd probably be best if you just lay low for a bit, lizard face isn't going to be happy about getting cut."
"Not like laying low will help if he can just come to get me whenever he wants, all he has to do is wait for you to leave for a mission right?" Botan wasn't sure exactly what information she was probing for by saying that, but she decided to say it nonetheless.
"That is true, I suppose I'll just have to take you along with me on any missions I go on," Yato ran a hand through his hair, sighing, "It'll be a pain in the ass and I won't be able to do any more missions involving your friends this way, but I guess it can't be helped."
Botan felt triumphant as she heard that last part. She seemed to have successfully played to his humanity, though she would've preferred the outcome being his removal from missions entirely, she supposed that managing to take out one of the group's stronger members without even being able to hurt them was a bit of a stretch. Still, the fact that he would not be able to directly work against her friends with her there, likely because that would be risking her rescue, was still good news.
"What other missions do you even have anyways? You mentioned a patrol unit earlier?" Botan sipped the tea, she had to admit that it was very good tea.
"We are not the only group of demons down here. There are other groups that are more interested in personal power than the goals we have, and they tend to attack us. They see it as removing rivals, it seems that the demon world tournament has in a way motivated demons to make moves, now that they see a clear path to becoming king they all want to gather supporters to fight in the tournament as well. There are also those who don't care for the tournament and want to increase their control over specific areas," Yato spoke, finishing his tea rather quickly as he did.
"Sounds dangerous, I sure do hope nothing happens to me while you're taking me on one of these missions," Botan stated slyly.
"If you're thinking about putting yourself in harm's way in an attempt to get me injured I would recommend you abandon that idea, either I fail to protect you and you die or I do protect you but get injured and we both die," Yato stated gravely. He stood up and grabbed his sword, walking over to his bed, "I'm going to sleep now, feel free to take your time finishing your tea, also help yourself to any food in the fridge if you want."
Botan watched as he got into his bed and seemingly was out cold within a matter of moments. She finished her tea and set her cup down, standing up and walking over to him. She could do several things here, she could try to suffocate him, she could try to stab him, she could even try to set his whole room ablaze with the stove. But she found herself doing none of that. She knew that even if she managed to stab him with a knife he'd have time to kill her before he died. She knew that him withstanding some fire would be nothing and he would wake up before he died, same with suffocation. She knew that in all situations he could easily retaliate and kill her. She also knew that he wouldn't. He looked like an entirely different person when he slept. He held his sheathed sword close to him, almost like a child with a teddy bear. All the anger and smugness was gone from his face, and he looked so innocent. One would never guess how broken he was from seeing him like this, how much hate he held in his heart. She almost felt a bit bad for him. Botan turned and went to her own room, getting back in bed. She was sure that it was almost morning at this point, but it wasn't like she had anything to do anyway, she could sleep as late as she wanted.