Last Chapter: The girls threw a "surprise" birthday party for Shizuru, who showed them the unusual gift/plot device her brother gave her as a birthday present. Botan was called to Spirit World where Koenma announced that a demon was hiding in the living world, and the group set off to find it. Botan had a small interaction with Hiei as they set out that left her thinking about him.


Chapter 2: Half a Chance

"I don't get it."

Kurama pressed a hand to the ground, infusing his energy into the earth around the seed he had just planted.

"Hope," he said again, waiting until he saw a green sprout unfurling from the dirt before looking up over his shoulder at Kuwabara, who was standing behind him with his hands in his pockets.

"What's bad about hope though?" Kuwabara asked.

"Everything when it is abused," Kurama solemnly replied.

"Isn't Demon World all about despair?" Kuwabara asked.

"Largely, yes."

Kurama stood up and wiped his hands together, clearing them of the crumbly earth that had gathered on his palms.

"And hope beats despair, right?" Kuwabara asked.

"Not really, no," Kurama replied. "In some cases, hope causes despair. And despair breeds hope."

"I don't get it," Kuwabara said again.

"Hopefully you won't need to," Kurama assured him.

"But you said the Lure turns despair into hope. I don't get why that's a bad thing."

"It's bad because it's addictive. Something that can turn a person's despair into hope is generally considered dangerous to overdo, and is too often addictive. It's the reason why humans become addicted to narcotics, for example."

"So the Lure is a drug?"

"No."

Kurama hesitated, taking a moment to fully appreciate the lost expression on Kuwabara's face before qualifying his answer.

"Not in the traditional sense. But for the sake of generalisation, yes, the Lure is a drug. In small doses, it may cause euphoria and joy: but it has deadly side effects, and at best can ruin a person's state of mind, at worst, it can be deadly."

"Like a drug."

"Yes, Kuwabara, like a drug."

Kurama reached out to the plant that had grown before him, rubbing one of the large, thick leaves between his thumb and forefinger to check its texture.

"We must guard ourselves," he warned. "Yusuke and Hiei are likely safe: Lures know they lack the physical strength to tackle a demon, and so very rarely attempt to do so. They prefer human victims, physically weaker and more likely to surrender to one of their vices. As we inhabit human bodies, a Lure will likely try to lure us."

"Lure us how?" Kuwabara asked.

"However it has to," Kurama replied, grabbing the stem of the plant in one hand and the base of the large leaf in the other. "And that is why you and I must protect ourselves."

With a degree of effort, Kurama tore the leaf from the body of the plant, and then split it in two, up the length of its stem.

"I apologise in advance, Kuwabara," he said gently. "The leaves of the Deploro Plant are offensive in both flavour and texture."

Kuwabara kept his hands in his pockets as he peered down at the half of the leaf Kurama was offering him.

"You expect me to eat that?" he asked warily. "I wouldn't even eat a lettuce leaf that big."

"Eating this will protect you from the effects of the Lure," Kurama insisted.

"Well okay, I guess…"

Kuwabara accepted Kurama's offer and, after spending a long moment inspecting the leaf, took a bite out of it. Kurama, knowing the situation far better than Kuwabara, quickly ate down the entire leaf. By the time he had swallowed the last bitter mouthful of coarse, straw-like greenery, Kuwabara's face was contorted and he was still trying to consume his first bite.

"You will process it more easily if you finish it quickly," Kurama advised him.

Kuwabara groaned, but sped up chewing and finally swallowed. He then continued eating the leaf – albeit still at a pace Kurama would never recommend – before moving his eyes to Kurama as he chewed his way through his last mouthful.

"How is this gonna protect me, exactly?" he asked sceptically.

"It won't protect you from the Lure," Kurama replied.

Kuwabara paused, his cheeks bulging and his eyes thinned.

"Like, not physically protect me, right?" he asked, before slowly swallowing down the contents of his mouth.

"It won't protect you at all," Kurama answered.

"You said it would!" Kuwabara wailed.

"I said it would protect you from the effects of the Lure," Kurama corrected him. "The Lure will still be perfectly capable of ensnaring you and using its abilities against you to the fullest extent of its power."

"Then what exactly am I protected from? That was the most horrible thing I've ever put in my mouth! Including that time I woke up and Urameshi had put his–"

"The Deploro leaf will protect you from suffering any lasting effects if you are attacked."

"Yukina could have healed any wounds I get, and her healing magic feels nice, eating that leaf was worse than fighting a demon that cheats!"

"Healing magic will be unable to heal the wounds a Lure leaves you with."

"Really?"

"There is precious little in any of the three worlds that could have any chance of healing the type of wound a Lure can give you. In this case, prevention is not only far preferable to cure, it is also, in many cases, the only possibility. As I told you already, a Lure can kill. And not in the conventional sense. Imagine suffering a wound so great that you lose all sense of yourself."

"Right… And it does that by turning despair into hope?"

Kurama sighed softly.

"It is significantly more complex than that, Kuwabara," he said as patiently as he could. "But we do not have the luxury of time to better understand this. We must find the Lure as quickly as we can and dispose of it."

"I thought we were meant to be returning it to Demon World?"

Kurama clenched his jaws and suppressed the concern that had been growing in the back of his mind – that the Lure might have already taken his mother or his step-brother – before looking Kuwabara directly in the eye.

"Spirit World cannot control this," he said sternly. "We must destroy it. For the good of all three worlds."

"O-okay Kurama," Kuwabara muttered nervously. "If you say so, buddy."

Kurama nodded and turned on his heel, feeling a little of the tension easing from his shoulders when Kuwabara immediately followed him in a sprint across open land.


The word "lair" had conjured up images of dragons living deep inside rocky caves when Hiei had said it to her, but, hovering in the air, Botan found herself looking down at something else that could probably also be defined as a lair: suspended between two trees by the entrance to a small woodland was what appeared to be a spider's web. It was an unnaturally large and dense spider's web, like an extremely oversized cobweb, but it did contain a dark patch in the centre that could easily be some sort of creature, laid in wait deep within its self-made lair. Botan was holding her communication mirror in one hand, but she had not bothered opening it, her eyes locked onto the web below her, a small voice inside her head goading her to not call the others, to go on alone, to capture the Lure and to prove to Hiei that she was not as useless as he had made her feel back in Spirit World.

It was not so much that she especially cared what he thought of her, more just that she wanted to prove that she did actually do more with her time rather than just spy on people, as he had accused her. It was, after all, mere unfortunate coincidence that Hiei had happened upon her when she had just so happened to be watching one of her friends from a concealed location. The fact that he had managed to sneak up on her in that exact position several times said far more about his character that it did about hers, after all: he was the one creeping up and startling a lady.

Before her mind had fully accepted that determination and stubbornness outweighed fear and common sense in her current predicament, Botan found herself pushing down on her oar, lowering herself down towards the apparent lair the gang were all searching for. As she drew closer, she felt the air become slightly colder and slightly damper: which was odd, because usually flying upwards had that effect. She could not sense any demon energy – or any other kind of presence – but the sticky, dewy, webbing stretched between the trees was not anything born of the human realm, and she was positive that she had found the Lure.

At ground level, an odd sense of dread crept over her, and Botan shivered involuntarily. She slid from her oar and banished it, pausing a few feet away from the webbing as she weighed up her options for approaching. Before she could come to any clear conclusion however, the shadow within the depths of the web began to move, stretching out towards a small opening in the ball of webbing. Just as Kurama had said back in Koenma's office, the creature that emerged from the web appeared to be little more than an ordinary human girl, dressed in clothing typical for her size and apparent age, and with unexceptional facial features, eye colour or hair colour: stood in a crowd of human children, it would have been impossible to distinguish her from any other average child. In fact, she appeared so average, it was likely she would be the last child anyone would suspect of being anything other than human.

"I don't suppose there's any point in me trying to pretend that I'm just a human child," she said, in a voice that was as unremarkable as the rest of her was. "After all, you saw me crawl out of my lair and, as you arrived here flying on an oar, you are clearly not human yourself."

Botan straightened her back, stretching to her fullest height to appear defiant: but, with her hand partially up her large sleeve, she flipped open her communication mirror in readiness.

"I never considered ferry girls," the little girl said, looking up at the sky with a wry smile. "I never considered Spirit World at all. I thought all I'd have to contend with here were humans."

"Well, you thought wrong," Botan snootily replied.

"You know, we have no reason to quarrel, you and I," the girl responded, meeting Botan's eyes. "We are both the lowest ranking of our species, mere servants in our own worlds."

"I'm not a servant!" Botan argued.

"Oh no? So you don't spend all your time collecting human souls for the benefit of someone who lives a life in greater luxury than you?"

Botan faltered slightly, but retained her grip on her communicator.

"That's what I thought," the girl said, nodding her head in a slow and controlled way most human children her size would not instinctively do. "And, other than ferrying the souls of the dead, what real impact do you have on the lives of the humans in this world?"

"None," Botan replied.

"Exactly."

"What?"

"Neither of us hold a lofty rank in our own worlds, and neither of us really do anything that impacts any of the humans of this world."

Botan paused, her eyes slowly narrowing as she considered the Lure's last remark.

"You shouldn't be here," she warned it.

"Why?" it asked. "Because Spirit World told you demons shouldn't come to the human world? Because Demon World are under ruling to stop demons from migrating from their world?"

"Yes and yes," Botan replied. "And also you could hurt someone!"

The little girl held out her arms at her sides.

"Do I look like I could hurt someone?" she asked.

"Well, no, but I'm sure that illusion is all a part of your trickery!" Botan defiantly answered.

The little girl shook her head, again in a slow and calculated way no child that age would normally do.

"You could cut me down where I stand right now," she confessed. "And I would be powerless to stop you."

"How do I know you're not hiding something in your disgusting little lair back there?" Botan retaliated.

"You don't. But I promise you, I'm not. I have nothing. I can do nothing. Most humans in this world could cut me down where I stand right now."

"Then why come here and build your lair?"

"Because I have a better chance of survival in a world of humans than I do in a world of demons."

"Well you can't stay here!"

"Well I won't leave."

"Well you'll have to!"

"Well you'll have to make me."

Botan pouted before taking a step forward, only to find herself falling over and landing facedown. As she tried to push herself up, she became aware of something clawing and tight around her feet. Peering back over her shoulder, she saw that the webbing from the Lure's lair had stretched out and wound around her feet without her noticing. She quickly looked down at her hands on the ground, and yelped when she saw the webbing growing over her hands and forearms. With a little effort, she was able to wrestle herself free, barely managing to snatch up her communication mirror before it was swallowed entirely by webbing. She tore the webbing from her feet and stumbled away from the Lure before pressing the call button on her communication mirror, not even noticing who she was attempting to call.

"Botan, what is it?" Koenma's voice answered her.

"Sir, I've found the Lure!" she replied, summoning her oar and rising up off the ground an instant before the webbing reached her again.

"You've what?" Koenma responded.

"I've found the Lure!" Botan replied. "Tell the others to come to my coordinates!"

"Botan, don't be ridiculous."

Botan halted, midair, and, for the first time since recovering her communicator, looked directly at it, finding Koenma's face staring back at her, looking bored and detached.

"What?" she said faintly.

"You can't have found the Lure," Koenma flatly replied. "We are talking about a creature who is a master of disguise, capable of evading Spirit World's finest for the last several days."

"But Sir, it's attacking me right now!" Botan frantically replied.

"Botan, I need to keep this line clear, for real emergencies!"

"This is a real emergency! Look!"

Botan turned her communicator towards the child standing below her.

"Botan, that's just a little girl," Koenma said. "I hope you aren't troubling little children in the human world!"

Botan turned the communicator back towards herself.

"Didn't you see its lair?" she asked.

"Botan, please!" Koenma snapped. "Get off the phone and stop wasting my time!"

Botan gasped when her boss terminated the call, leaving her looking at her own faint reflection in the blackened screen. She only hesitated briefly before pressing a button to call Kuwabara, who was sure to be able to sense something as creepy and sinister as a demon posing as a human child, and so come to assist her.

"Hey Botan," Kuwabara greeted her after a short wait.

"Kuwabara!" Botan yelped. "I've found the Lure!"

"Huh?" he echoed. "You found it?"

"That can't be right," Botan heard Kurama say in the background.

"It is right, Kurama!" Botan yelled.

"Gees, calm down, Botan!" Kuwabara said. "Where are you, we'll come find you."

"We don't have time for that, we have to find the Lure," Kurama's voice replied.

"I have found the Lure!" Botan yelled. "That's what I'm trying to tell you!"

Kuwabara looked at something off camera for what seemed like a long time to Botan before he moved his attention back to her.

"Um, Botan, I know you're probably scared and stuff, but we can't come make you feel better right now," he said. "Maybe you should just go see my sister or Keiko until we catch the Lure and it's safe for you to be out here."

Botan thought she could literally feel her anger expanding and boiling up inside her chest. At a loss for words and out of sheer desperation, she terminated the call without another word, and instead called Yusuke.

"Yo Botan, what's up?" Yusuke answered her.

"I have found the Lure, Yusuke," she sternly replied. "Come and find me, and help me catch it!"

"Pfft, yeah, sure, Botan," Yusuke scoffed. "Me and Hiei know where it is, and we're heading in the opposite direction from where you are right now!"

Botan opened her mouth to argue with him, but found herself as a loss for words. Yusuke and Hiei were likely to be the best suited to finding a rogue demon in hiding in the human world, and yet they were apparently moving away from where she was. And, when she had shown Koenma the Lure, he had dismissed it as nothing more than a regular human child.

Botan slowly closed her communication mirror, ignoring Yusuke's complaint about her hanging up on him, which was cut short regardless as the mirror clicked shut, terminating the call. She then lowered herself to the ground, dismounted her oar and banished it with a wave of her hand.

"Is this part of your ability?" she asked the child ahead of her. "Are you using some sort of power to divert the others?"

"The others pose a real threat to me," the Lure replied.

"And you think I don't?" Botan asked, throwing the creature a warning glare.

"Not especially, no," it replied. "What sort of ability or power does a ferry girl have, anyway? I mean, beyond some very crude, basic healing magic…"

"Crude?" Botan yelped. "Basic?"

"If you were worth my time, I would have taken you into my lair already. But you are not enough of a threat that I need to retreat, nor are you a complex enough soul that it's worth my effort to tackle you."

Botan summoned her trusty metal bat.

"I'll show you a threat, you cheeky little menace!" she cried, before charging towards the little girl.

Botan swung her bat at the girl's head, with the girl barely catching it in both hands before it collided with the side of her face.

"You've got some nerve coming here and speaking to me like that, Missy!" Botan yelled, wrenching her bat from the Lure's hands.

Botan feigned another swing at the other side of the Lure's head, and as the girl put up her hands to defend her head, Botan altered her direction, rammed the end of her bat into the little girl's gut. With an "oof" of pain and surprise, the Lure doubled over and stumbled backwards. Botan quickly continued her assault, managing to strike the Lure three times with her bat before it fell over and scrambled out of her reach. It leapt at the small opening in its lair, but Botan thundered after it, launching herself into the air. She landed on top of the Lure, effectively pinning it down under the weight of her body.

"Let go of that!" she snapped, grabbing the tiny hand clutching onto the webbed lair.

The Lure growled and squawked beneath her, but apparently what Koenma had said about its physical strength was true, as Botan had little difficultly prying open the little girl fingers and pushing the arm down to the ground.

"Not so smart-mouthed now, are you?" Botan scolded as she pushed the Lure's arms under her knees.

The Lure grumbled into the ground but made no effort to fight Botan off: it was not often that Koenma did not underestimate the strength or power of a foe, and so she was pleasantly surprised that she was able to keep her captive in place with just her own body weight.

"You are under arrest, Missy!" Botan announced as she rummaged around in one of her sleeves. "I am taking you to Spirit World, where you will be tried for sneaking into the human world, building a sticky, disgusting web and for trying to trick humans!"

Botan uncovered a set of handcuffs and, again, with little effort, twisted the girl's arms around her back and cuffed her wrists together. She made to move her weight off of the Lure, but hesitated, her eyes resting on the handcuffs she had just applied.

"You might as well show me your true form now," she ordered. "Disguising yourself as a human – a human child no less – is also a crime!"

"This is my true form," the Lure replied, its voice muffled by the ground.

Botan narrowed her eyes sceptically. She could not recall anyone mentioning that the Lure was able to or could take any form other than that of a human child, but she was still wary that it may yet morph into another shape that would allow it to slip out of its restraints.

"Do you have anything to say for youself?" she asked.

"No," it replied, turning its head a little and peering up at her from the corner of one eye. "Except… You're a lot braver than I expected a mere ferry girl to be."

"Well silly you for underestimating what a ferry girl is capable of!" Botan retorted, folding her arms defiantly.

"I'm aware of ferry girls," the Lure continued. "But I've never heard of them fighting back before. Maybe you're a little different from other ferry girls."

The Lure had spoken with no particular tone of implication, and so Botan was unsure if it was trying to flatter her in order to catch her off-guard or if it genuinely was surprised by her bravery in tackling it head-on.

"Maybe I am," Botan replied, her words only really sinking in after she had voiced them.

Maybe she was different. Maybe, after all the time she had spent as assistant to the Spirit Detective, she had picked up a thing or two about battling, and maybe she was just a little more capable and a little braver than her counterparts in Spirit World. Trying not to let that idea build up her confidence too much – lest she make a mistake and get caught out by her captive managing to evade her – she slowly got to her feet, grabbing the Lure's little arms and pulling it up with her. Once she was fully upright, the little girl standing in front of her, Botan steered her captive away from its lair, aiming it towards the open field beyond. The countryside before them was sprawling and flat, and, as it was still a clear day, visibility was good: which made it all the starker for Botan when she found herself facing a lone figure, standing only a few feet away, watching her with slightly widened eyes.

"Hiei," she said through an exhale, as a vocalisation of thought more than an actual greeting.

Blood red eyes remained fixed on her for a moment longer after she had spoken, before lowering to the child she was clutching.

"What have you done?" he asked in a low, husky voice, his eyes lingering on the child a moment longer before meeting hers once more.

"I caught the Lure," Botan replied.

"You shouldn't have touched it," he answered, his voice still soft and low, in a way she had never heard it before.

"Somebody had to catch it," she said with a shrug. "I did call for help–"

"They shouldn't have let you come out here."

Botan frowned.

"But it's fine, I've caught it now and–"

"You didn't understand what it was capable of. Koenma shouldn't have sent you out here like this."

"Koenma didn't specifically ask me to fight the Lure, but I managed to–"

"You're lucky we found you as quickly as we did."

Botan opened her mouth to ask Hiei what he meant, but as soon as the question entered her mind, she noticed Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama had gathered around her too.

"Botan, you're a real fighter," Kuwabara commented.

He was breathless and sweating, and it was clear he had hurried to get to her.

"The Lure is undetectable until it starts to attack," Kurama said, as though sensing her confusion. "It then has a spike in energy that is easily detectable."

"Oh, so that's why Hiei said we should let it attack someone before looking for it," Yusuke commented.

"Why did you fight it on your own?" Hiei asked.

Botan frowned. He was staring at her unwaveringly, in a way she never saw him do. It was rare for him to look directly at anyone, and if he did, it was usually only fleetingly, and yet he was looking directly into her eyes, almost unblinkingly.

"None of you answered my call for help!" Botan pointed out.

"It doesn't look like you needed help," Yusuke said with a smirk. "Nice work, Botan."

Botan turned to him with a glare, but quickly relaxed when she saw that he appeared to be genuine with his compliment.

"It was no bother," she said casually. "This Lure really isn't very strong at all."

"You could have been seriously hurt," Hiei said, his voice unchanged from its unusually low tone. "You shouldn't have approached it alone."

"This thing couldn't hurt me!" Botan replied dismissively. "It couldn't hurt a fly!"

"You're bleeding."

Botan paused, caught off-guard by Hiei's response. He started to move towards her, his eyes lifting from hers. On instinct, she moved a hand to where his attention appeared to have shifted to, touching fingers to her left temple, gasping when she felt it sticky to the touch. She withdrew her hand and looked down at the redness on her fingertips, rubbing her thumb over it before moving her eyes back to Hiei, who was standing almost directly in front of her, separated from her only by the body of the little girl she was still holding onto, his eyes again fixed onto hers intently.

"I-I'm fine," she said awkwardly. "It's just a small scratch, I didn't even feel it happen."

"You shouldn't have fought it alone," he insisted, his tone still unchanged.

"Hiei, we should focus on bringing her back," Kurama said, touching a hand to Hiei's shoulder.

Hiei gruffly shrugged off his friend's hand and turned away, his cloak sweeping out at his side. He moved away from the group but Botan did not get the chance to question him further or wonder about his odd manner any longer, as Yusuke took his place before her.

"So this is the little bastard, huh?" he asked.

His hands were in his pockets and he was doubled over to bring himself eye level with the Lure.

"You don't look so tough," he said. "But I guess that's your deal, huh?"

"Don't get too close to it, Urameshi," Kuwabara warned.

"I think we owe you an apology, Botan," Kurama offered.

"That's alright," Botan replied. "It felt quite good to win one on my own for once!"

"So what's your plan for this little bitch?" Yusuke asked, straightening up before her.

"We have to take it in to Spirit World," Botan replied. "It can wait in a holding cell until the SDF can discuss it with the Border Patrol, and decide if it should be returned to Demon World or if it should serve a sentence in Spirit World prison."

"Sounds like you've got this all under control, Botan," Yusuke replied. "Doesn't seem like Koenma needed to bother us with this one…"

He moved away, kicking a stone and looking disinterested.

"I'll help you return it to Spirit World," Kurama offered Botan.

Botan kept her eyes on Yusuke long enough to see him approach Hiei and slap him on the shoulder. Hiei rounded on him with an enraged look that seemed disproportionate to the situation even for Hiei's usually abrupt nature.

"Thanks Kurama," she said, slowly turning her attention back to the fox demon at her side.

"It's the least I can do," he said with a humble nod of his head. "And I apologise for not taking you more seriously when you called us to alert us that you had found the Lure."

"It's alright," Botan replied. "It was no bother."

Botan let Kurama take the Lure from her and she summoned her oar, taking one last look over at Hiei, who was growling something she could not quite make out at Yusuke, who was shrugging and appearing to downplay whatever Hiei was saying. Behind Hiei, Kuwabara was watching on with an amused grin, and Botan found their behaviour far more interesting than anything she had just experienced.

Perhaps Hiei's earlier accusation about her spying on others too much was true after all, she thought to herself.

"Let's go," she said, shaking off the thought and inviting Kurama to join her on her oar.

Kurama threw the Lure over one shoulder and sat down beside her and Botan took off for Spirit World: but she could not help but wonder why Hiei had been behaving so oddly, and why he had spoken in that uncharacteristic tone.


Next Chapter: Botan is delighted with her victory, and whilst most of those around her commend her for her bravery, Hiei can't seem to be happy for her. When she asks Yusuke about Hiei's response, she's surprised by the answer she receives, and finds herself doing something she didn't think she had before: she starts actively thinking about Hiei, and she begins to think she understands why he is reacting so negatively to her recent battle. Chapter 3: Open Your Heart