Last Chapter: Botan visited Mukuro's strangely human-like "palace", and Demon World looked soooo pretty. She wore a shape-shifting dress that she was sure Hiei was looking up and just when she noticed that his hand felt like it was injured, he asked her to wake up.


Chapter 7: Wake Up

Botan gasped in what she thought was a deep breath, but no air reached her lungs. She tried again, and thought that she had inhaled water, but did not feel any inside her. She blinked, her eyes suddenly out of focus.

"Wake up!"

She winced and tried to breathe and tried to focus her eyes.

"Botan, wake up!"

Her eyes started to clear a little, and she could just about make out a face in front of her own.

"Botan, can you hear me now?"

She blinked twice more and finally realised she was looking at Kurama.

"Botan?" he asked.

"…Kurama…?" she vaguely responded. "I don't-I don't understand… Where am I?"

"The Lure caught you, Botan," Kurama answered. "It's been feeding off of you, but it's alright now, we've almost got you free."

"No…" Botan said, shaking her head. "No, that's not… I defeated the Lure!"

"No, Botan," Kurama replied. "You were ambushed by the Lure. We came to rescue you. We've almost got you free."

Botan wanted to ask more questions, but her mind instead latched onto the fact that Kurama had told her twice that she was "almost free".

"What do you mean almost–"

Botan stopped short, her eyes growing wide and her every sense returning to her with an alarming slap. She screamed and began to struggle, but Kurama gripped her arms to hold her in place.

"You must remain still," he said in a soft and soothing voice that did little to soothe Botan's frayed nerves.

Her eyes remained fixed on her legs, her every instinct screaming at her to fight. Kuwabara was crouched over the lower half of her body and he had conjured what appeared to be a miniature version of his Spirit Sword. He was cutting the illuminated blade of energy through a thick white gauze that was wrapped around her.

"The Lure caught you in its web," Kurama explained. "We've been cutting you out for some time. You became unresponsive twice, the first time for a considerable length of time. We were worried we'd lost you entirely."

Botan moved her eyes to Kurama's hands on her arms. His palms were red raw, and there were short, hairline lacerations all across the backs of his hands. She lifted her eyes to his face and noticed then that he had a hairline cut across his nose and part of one cheek, and another over both his lips.

"You're hurt," she commented.

"I was trying to pry you free," he explained with a gentle smile. "The webbing is infused with energy that repels any outside forces."

Botan looked down at Kuwabara, who was still concentrating on his task of cutting her free. His hands were not reddened like Kurama's, but he did have the same cuts over his hands and face that Kurama had.

"How do you feel?"

Botan moved her eyes back to Kurama.

"I'm confused," she admitted.

"That's to be expected," he replied. "The Lure injected you with a venom that caused you to have lucid hallucinations."

"Lucid… Hallucinations?"

"Yes."

"But… I don't understand. How did the Lure get free?"

"It came here from Demon World."

"Yes, and I fought it, defeated it, and took it to prison in Spirit World – you came with me, Kurama! We flew together on my oar, with the Lure, to Spirit World!"

Kurama looked thoughtful for a moment before answering.

"It's rather strange that particular chain of events would form part of your hallucination, however I am afraid to inform you that what you have just described did not actually happen," he said, with the sort of meandering diplomacy he saved for truly hopeless situations. "My first encounter with the Lure was after it had already snared you. Kuwabara and I came here as quickly as we could, but we were too late to stop it taking you. The Lure resisted us until you were completely immersed in your hallucination. It then fled and we began cutting you free."

Botan looked about herself again. The sky was white and grey. The landscape was bleak. The air was cold. It was getting dark.

"Where's Hiei?" she asked.

Kuwabara hesitated very briefly in his task, but a quick glance from Kurama set him back to work cutting the webbing.

"He and Yusuke had other matters to attend to," Kurama told Botan.

"Like what?" Botan asked.

"Yusuke was protecting Keiko and Yukina and Hiei responded to a report from the Border Patrol that a human was in distress in Brazil. He had to investigate, it sounded as though the person had been a victim of the Lure."

"Brazil?"

"It's a country, Botan."

"Country?"

"It's on the other side of the world."

Botan lowered her eyes to Kuwabara. He had freed her knees and was halfway down her shins. He had acquired a few fresh scratches since she had last looked directly at him, and, taking a moment to watch him work, she saw what was the cause: occasionally strands of the web were flying loose as he cut through them, and when they whipped against him, they cut his skin with a small purple spark of demonic energy on impact.

"Where is the Lure?"

Kuwabara stopped short and looked up at Botan.

"Don't stop, Kuwabara," Kurama urged him.

Kuwabara looked less than convinced, but eventually succumbed to Kurama's stern glare and returned to his task.

"It fled," Kurama said, turning back to Botan once he was sure Kuwabara's attention would not stray again.

"Where."

"Gees, Botan!" Kuwabara groaned.

"That's something we will worry about," Kurama said, using that calm and reassuring tone of voice again. "All that you should worry about for now is getting back home and getting some rest."

"Home?" Botan echoed.

"To Spirit World."

"No."

Kurama tilted his head slightly in question.

"Spirit World isn't really my home any more."

Kuwabara grumbled "darn it" under his breath, but Kurama ignored him.

"Botan, I understand this must be all very confusing for you," he said patiently. "But you have just awoken from a vivid, sustained, hallucination. You have been living inside your own imagination. But you're back now."

"Back where?"

"Reality. Welcome back to reality, Botan."

Kurama was smiling but nothing he was saying was doing anything to reassure Botan.

"I was in Demon World," she said.

"That was part of your hallucination," Kurama replied.

"With Hiei," Botan added.

"Also a part of your hallucination."

Botan really wished Kurama would stop using the word "hallucination".

"Got it!" Kuwabara cried triumphantly.

"Don't touch it," Kurama warned.

Kuwabara stood up and stepped back and Kurama pulled the last of the webbing away from Botan's feet. When he touched it, purple light sparked and flared around his hands, and Botan could literally see it searing into his skin.

"Come on Botan, let's go," he said, throwing aside the webbing and holding out a hand towards her.

Botan reached her hand towards his, pausing an inch short of her goal. With her palm hovering over his she could feel the heat emanating from his wounded skin. She could feel his pain. It was exactly the same feeling she had felt when she had held Hiei's hand just minutes earlier.

"You're hurt," she said, looking up at Kurama.

"Yes, but don't worry about that," he gently replied.

"Let me heal that for you," she offered, touching her hand against his and channelling her energy into her palm.

"You shouldn't be doing this right now."

Botan sharply met Kurama's eyes. His words sounded familiar and even his tone of voice sounded familiar. It was that same tone she had heard Hiei speaking in, that low, soft, but intense tone.

"Was it you all along?" she asked him.

"Come on," he said, closing his hand around hers and pulling her to her feet.

Botan tumbled awkwardly and the world around her blurred. She felt like she was falling, sounds blotting in her ears until she could no longer define any words being spoken. She blinked and tried to focus, but found herself feeling like she was drowning again, despite there being no water in her throat or lungs. She struggled, starting to feel as though she was sinking underwater, the moment only ending when she started to breathe more easily, her hearing and sight slowly returning: and her sense of balance took a moment longer to stabilise, whereupon she found herself being held in Kuwabara's arms, and he was running.

Botan blinked blearily and looked up, past Kuwabara's face, the pink hue overhead telling her he had brought her to Spirit World. She shook her head and tried to tell him this was wrong, he was taking her away from Hiei, away from Demon World, away from her new job, but her voice came out as a croak, and before she could make it any clearer, he had lain her down onto a sofa in the common room of the ferry girls' living quarters.

"Oh, Botan!"

Botan screwed up her face as Ayame dropped to her knees at her side.

"Are you alright?" Ayame asked.

"I'm-I'm fine," Botan replied.

Ayame looked less than convinced and so Botan moved her head, looking around the room. A ferry girl was healing the wounds on Kurama's hands, Kuwabara was dismissing another ferry girl who was trying to heal his cuts, telling her insistently that his "beautiful flower Yukina" would heal his wounds. Koenma came to her side, at which point Ayame moved out of his way. In his toddler form, he had to lift his chin to look Botan in the eye.

"Botan, thank goodness you're alright!" he gushed.

"I'm not alright," she flatly replied. "Kurama took me away from our meeting."

Koenma frowned.

"The meeting we were having in Demon World," Botan added.

Koenma shook his head.

"Remember?" Botan pressed. "King Enma was meeting with Mukuro at her palace. You and I rode there together on a white horse."

The ferry girl attempting to heal Kuwabara snorted in amusement, concealing laughter behind her sleeve: but a stern glare from Ayame sobered her quickly.

"Botan, I've never ridden anywhere on a white horse in my entire life," Koenma calmly told Botan. "Least of all with you, to Demon World, to attend a meeting between my father and Mukuro."

"No, but we were having a meeting," Botan argued. "We were all having a meeting because of the Lure."

There was a short silence in the room, during which the ferry girl healing Kurama's hands leaned in closer to him and asked him what a lure was.

"Botan, the meeting, the horse, my father, all of us going to Mukuro?" Koenma said slowly. "None of that was real."

Botan scowled at him.

"That was a hallucination," Koenma continued, still talking slowly. "Brought on by the venom the Lure injected you with."

"No!" she protested, sitting up abruptly.

"Botan, you should be taking it easy in your condition," Ayame advised.

"I don't have a condition!" Botan snapped back. "You have a condition! Yusuke has a name for it! You have the handle of your oar stuck up your–"

"Botan, please, calm yourself!" Koenma urged.

Botan glared at him before turning her glare to the two other ferry girls, who were giggling behind their sleeves.

"Are the two of you done here?" Ayame asked them coldly.

They nodded.

"Then I suggest you leave," Ayame firmly responded.

They hustled out of the room without hesitation and Ayame sat down into an arm chair near Botan's feet.

"Leave us, I will watch over her," Ayame said to Kuwabara and Kurama.

"You two should go," Koenma agreed. "The Lure is still out there somewhere, and as long as it is, it remains a clear and present danger."

"Agreed," Kurama replied.

He nodded at Kuwabara and they left the room, leaving Botan alone with Koenma and Ayame.

"Sir, I will watch over Botan," Ayame said to Koenma.

"Alright Ayame," he agreed. "Please take good care of her–"

"I want to speak to Hiei."

Botan turned around to sit on the sofa correctly. She clasped her hands together and rested them in her lap, a position she expected to bring her a sense of calm, but instead caused her a stabbing pain in her thighs. She immediately opened apart her hands and stared down at her thighs, noticing then that she had a bloody circle in the thickest part of both of her legs. Just as she was about to ask where she had acquired the wounds, she noticed she had identical wounds in each of her biceps.

"The Lure was feeding on you, Botan," Koenma explained, apparently understanding her unspoken question from her confused reaction. "The wounds will heal, but you must get some rest."

Botan turned to him, searching his eyes for any sign that he was joking with her somehow. When she found none, she turned to Ayame, sitting so primly in the armchair at her feet.

"I want to speak to Hiei," she concluded, turning back to Koenma.

Koenma gave her a critical look, but when she remained determined, he nodded and produced his own communication mirror. He flipped it open and passed it to her. She accepted it, though she remained wary: she was still sure somebody had tricked her somehow that she had ended up where she was. She pressed a button to call for Yusuke, as Hiei did not have his own communication mirror, but Yusuke was usually a reliable way to track down the fire demon.

"Botan!" Yusuke greeted her. "Hey, are you okay?"

Botan studied his image carefully. He was in Keiko's house, and in the background, Yukina was serving what looked like a gourmet meal as Keiko watched on.

"Don't eat the gravy, it's terrible," Botan told Yusuke.

Yukina and Keiko both turned towards the mirror curiously.

"What the hell are you talking about, Botan?" Yusuke asked. "The gravy is like… Gravy! It's even better than I can make!"

"No, it's terrible," Botan replied. "Yukina is not learning well, Keiko is finding it really tiring."

"What?" Keiko said in the background.

"Yukina is doing really well, Botan," Yusuke said. "Why would you think she isn't?"

"I've tasted her gravy," Botan replied. "It's not good."

"Well, if you say so," Yusuke said, suddenly gaining a sly smirk. "I thought it tasted pretty damn good myself."

He glanced over his shoulder, returning with an even wilder look on his face.

"Not as good as Keiko's though," he said.

Keiko gasped behind him.

"I can't get enough of Keiko's gravy," Yusuke said. "I guess you could say nothing quenches my thirst like a long drink of Keiko's gravy."

"Yusuke, behave yourself!" Keiko cried.

"Your gravy is very nice, Keiko," Yukina commented, oblivious to the tone the conversation had taken.

"See Botan?" Yusuke said, his smirk turning into a grin. "Even Yukina can't get enough of it."

"Yusuke Urameshi!" Keiko shouted.

"I had a whole mess of Keiko's gravy last night," Yusuke said, leaning closer to the communicator. "Got it all over my face."

Koenma snatched the communicator from Botan's hand.

"Yusuke, just put Hiei on!" Koenma snapped at him.

"Hiei's not here," Yusuke replied. "He left after Mukuro called him. A human was found in someplace called Brazil. They think the guy was a victim of the Lure."

Botan's heart fell upon hearing Yusuke repeat the same story Kurama had told her. The feeling she had been having, the feeling of excitement about something positive ahead, the rush she had gotten when she had gone to look for Hiei, the high she had felt when she had gone to Demon World with King Enma's procession had all gone. She felt flat, numb, detached. The room around her was one she was very familiar with, but it looked smaller and strangely duller in colour than she remembered it.

"Thanks Yusuke," Koenma said, before closing his communication mirror. "Hiei's not available, Botan."

Koenma gave Botan a strange look, one that made something sting in her chest, something that made her feel struck with the reality of her situation, her location and those around her.

"Why did you want to speak to Hiei?"

Botan slowly shook her head.

"I don't know-no reason," she said, touching a hand to her head.

Her skin felt damp and slightly slimy to the touch, and the further thought occurred to her that she had no idea how she looked. She had woken up to find Kuwabara cutting her out of the Lure's web, and touching the web had burned Kurama's hands raw, and the snapping strands of web had cut both Kurama and Kuwabara.

"Can I have a mirror please?" she asked.

Koenma held out his communication mirror towards her and she shook her head. Ayame moved over to stand in front of her, producing a hand mirror from one of her sleeves. She held it up in front of Botan's face, and, other than looking a little tired and her hair looking a little dishevelled, Botan thought that she did not look much out of the ordinary.

She felt that she ought to have looked much more unusual, as she felt completely alien.

"You should get some rest, Botan," Koenma insisted.

Botan let her eyes linger on her own reflection for a few seconds longer before nodding her agreement. Nothing made sense and maybe if she fell asleep she would wake up feeling renewed. Maybe she would wake up and find that everything that was currently happening to her had just been a dream. Maybe she would wake up and be back on the roof of the patrol vehicle with Hiei.

"Keep watch of her, Ayame," Koenma said to Ayame.

"Of course, Sir," Ayame replied, bowing smoothly to him as he took his leave.

Ayame watched Koenma leave the room before turning her attention back to Botan.

"Are you alright here, or would you prefer to rest in your own room?" she asked.

Remembering that there had been two other ferry girls in the room only moments earlier, Botan came to her decision quite quickly and with absolute certain.

"I'll go to my own room."

Botan stood up to leave, feeling a little woozy again as she reached her feet.

"I can manage," she lied, when Ayame moved closer to her.

"I'll come with you," Ayame replied.

"That won't be necessary," Botan replied, as politely as she could manage. "I'm perfectly capable of walking myself to my own bed!"

Botan started off, finding herself quite unsteady on her feet, but continuing on regardless, with dogged determination. She staggered out of the common room, grabbing at the doorframe as she passed through it.

"I'm fine, Ayame," she said when she heard the older ferry girl following her out of the room.

Botan continued on for ten steps down the corridor, before pausing, finding herself sweating and breathless already. She peered back over her shoulder, and found Ayame standing close behind her.

"I said I'm fine, Ayame!" Botan snapped at her.

"Yes, you did," Ayame flatly replied. "But I'm just going to walk behind. Just in case you need me."

"I don't need you…" Botan grumbled, turning away and shuffling and stumbling along the corridor.

She finally reached the door to her own room, falling against it and slumping into it to slide it open. She rolled herself over the edge of the door and staggered forwards until she fell, diagonally and face-down, onto her bed. She heard the door to her room slide closed, and she sighed, closing her eyes. She then heard Ayame sitting down into the wooden chair at the desk by the door. Botan groaned, but lacked the energy to move herself or complain, and so she just relaxed into her bed, and let herself fall asleep.


"Botan."

Botan opened her eyes and inhaled deeply. She had been deep in a dreamless sleep, but the sound of a familiar voice speaking her name brought her sharply back to reality. She lay still for a moment, looking up at the ceiling of her bedroom.

"Botan, are you awake?"

Botan slowly sat up, clutching her bedsheets to her chest.

"I made some tea," Ayame said from the corner of the room. "I think a nice strong cup of tea, a shower, a change of clothes, and getting back to your regular duties will do you the world of good."

Botan watched Ayame pour steaming hot tea into a small cup. Everything she had said was so typically Ayame – tow the line, do your duty, do it correctly and efficiently – but Botan was suspicious. After all, the voice that had roused her from her sleep was not Ayame's.

"There you are."

Botan took the cup from Ayame, but kept her eyes fixed on the pale, sullen face looking down at her. Botan sipped at the tea, feeling neither surprised nor delighted that it had been brewed to perfection. Ayame's kimono was crisp and smooth, she wore her black hair in a low bun, held in place by three pins, all evenly spaced and thread through by the same length.

"Finish it," Ayame urged.

Botan did as she asked before handing the cup back to her and sweeping aside her bedsheets. She took a step forward, but Ayame did not move.

"Are you going to watch me shower too?" Botan asked her incredulously.

"I'll be waiting outside your door," Ayame replied.

Botan turned away before rolling her eyes. The last thing she needed was Ayame watching over her every move. She tried to suppress the thought, instead focusing on having a nice hot shower. As she removed her clothes, she could not help but notice that the circular wounds she had seen on her arms and legs the day before had almost healed entirely, with nothing more than faint pink imprints remaining. It was not really surprising, as she knew that she could heal such wounds herself if she got a restful enough sleep, and the sleep she had been enjoying had certainly been restful: even if it had ended a little too abruptly.

The shower she took was not as enjoyable as she had hoped, and so she simply went through the motions, dressing in a fresh pink kimono and tying her hair up into her signature high ponytail (while it was still wet, but knowing it would quickly dry as she flew around on her oar). She stepped out of her room and found Ayame diligently standing there waiting for her.

"Here is your schedule for today," Ayame greeted her.

Botan grunted and accepted the offer of a piece of paper, stuffing it up one sleeve.

"We'll head out together," Ayame said as they started down the corridor together. "Here is a replacement communication mirror for you, you can call me if you feel you can't complete your work."

"Replacement communication mirror?" Botan echoed.

"Your previous one was destroyed by the Lure," Ayame replied. "Kuwabara tried to recover it for you, but it had been too badly damaged by the Lure's web."

Botan kept walking, but her attention remained focused onto the communication mirror in her hand. She clutched it tightly, remembering how she had clutched her old communication mirror tightly when she had approached the Lure. She remembered flipping it open, preparing to call for help if she needed it.

Then she remembered calling Koenma, Kuwabara and Yusuke, and all of them (with Kurama and Hiei in the background) had denied the legitimacy of her call.

Botan sighed and stuffed the new communicator up her sleeve. She and Ayame exited the temple side by side, looking up the long path to the temple gate. The view reminded Botan of how Hiei had been waiting for her at the gate after she had defeated the Lure and taken it to Spirit World prison. She almost turned to Ayame to ask which cell the Lure was being held in, but stopped herself just before doing so as she remembered that Kurama had told her the Lure had fled, and that she had hallucinated bringing it to Spirit World.

So then she must have also hallucinated Hiei waiting at the gate for her, telling her she was reckless to have fought the Lure alone. She had thought it odd that he cared so much to wait in Spirit World just to tell her she was reckless – sounding mostly like he was in fact worried about her.

Worried about her because he had feelings for her, just like Kurama had told her.

That had been a hallucination too. It had to have been, because it followed her defeat of the Lure. Everything from her defeat of the Lure onwards must have been a hallucination. Yukina making terrible gravy, Keiko seeming to have a crush on Kurama, Shiori being so glad to see her, Koenma promoting her to a new role, her being allowed to attend a meeting between King Enma and Mukuro, all had been hallucinations.

Everything she had experienced regarding Hiei, from the moment she had encountered him at the temple gate in Spirit World, had been a hallucination too. Or maybe even before that too. He had appeared after she overpowered the Lure, and he had seemed surprised. That must have been false too, because Hiei had apparently gone to the other side of the human world when that happened. That memory, of him standing there, looking at her so intensely, talking to her in that low, hypnotic tone that drew her in, was fake.

His feelings for her were fake.

Every interaction she had shared with Hiei since she had met the Lure had been fake. All hallucinations.

It suddenly struck Botan as incredibly odd that the main focus of her supposed hallucinations had been leaving Spirit World to start a new job and potentially embarking on a romantic relationship with Hiei.

Why Hiei?

"Botan."

Botan shivered.

"Are you ready?" Ayame asked at her side.

Botan moved her eyes to her side, looking at Ayame from the corner of her eye. Her fellow ferry girl had summoned her oar, and was looking at her expectantly. Botan held up a hand, her oar appearing into it, and, wordlessly, she sat down, and took to the air alongside Ayame: even though the voice that spoken her name was not Ayame's.

Together, the two ferry girls flew up into the sky and through a portal to the living world. Once there, Ayame took out her own task list and told Botan where she was going, how far away it was, how close she would be if Botan found herself struggling and had to call on her for support. Botan barely heard her, but nodded occasionally to give the illusion that she was listening. She even took out her own task list and pretended to look it over when Ayame told her not to worry about her tasks for the day. Botan then bowed her head as Ayame turned away, and waited until her shimmering black form was out of sight before turning in the opposite direction and flying swiftly away.

Botan's first assignment was to collect a soul in Gobo, which was south and west of where she had arrived. For a few miles she flew south, before travelling a short way west before slipping down through the clouds. Below and ahead of her, she could see a picturesque public park. A young couple were walking their dog, a small group of teenage boys were playing soccer in the open grassy part of the park, and, over the curve of a winding footpath, a little girl was playing with a ball.

Botan aimed herself towards the park, landing on the grass and moving over to a low stone bench. She sat down on the very end of the bench, her hands gripping the cold stone edge of the bench either side of her legs. She did not sit there long before the little girl's red ball rolled past her feet, slowing to a halt by the edge of the path. From the corner of her eye, Botan saw the little girl moving towards her, her arms outstretched in the direction of her ball.

It was wrong. Inherently, Botan knew that. But she had to do it. And it was not that there was anything wrong with her, she just needed to know.

The little girl hoisted herself up, sitting onto the opposite end of the bench from Botan.

It just made no sense that Hiei should have featured so prominently in her hallucination. She understood why she had hallucinated having a new career – that was something she secretly, desperately wanted – but it made no sense why she would have seen so many, so vivid, so intense hallucinations of Hiei.

"Botan."

It the voice that had awoken her that morning. The voice she had heard say her name at the temple gates in Spirit World. The voice that was calling her to it. And Botan had not gone because she was being called, or because she was somehow under the thrall of the Lure, she just needed to ask the question, that was all.

"I knew you'd be back," the Lure said, swinging her tiny legs, which were too short for her feet to reach the ground when she was sitting on the bench. "Everyone comes back. Every time. Always wanting more."

"I didn't come back for you to take advantage of me again," Botan said quietly. "I just came back because I have to know: why Hiei?"

From the corner of her eye, Botan saw the Lure grin, her chin dipping and the top half of her face falling under the shade of her hair.

"That's all," Botan added.

"That's never all," the Lure replied. "That's never all, and it's never enough. I knew you'd be back, I just didn't expect you to come back so quickly. You must really, really like being my prey."


Next Chapter: Botan insists she only sought out the Lure to ask it why Hiei had been one of the main focuses of her hallucination, but when the Lure explains what its power really is, what it really does to its victims, Botan is left with more questions and no answer to her original one. Just when Botan feels overwhelmed, someone else shows up and Botan starts to think she may never find the answer. Chapter 8: There You Are