Last Chapter: Botan went back to the park where she had encountered the Lure and found herself seeing flashes of her friends in disjointed scenes of unreality. Hiei appeared and took her away, where they very nearly kissed, but ended in a hug instead.


Chapter 12: Every Night

Botan opened her eyes, and for a moment she thought she was still on the mountainside, overlooking the rice fields. She frowned as her eyes came into focus, and she realised she was laid on her back, looking up a ceiling. The ceiling of her bedroom, so be more precise.

"You're awake."

Botan sat up and twisted around to look at her window behind her. The window was wide open – and she remembered then that she had left it open when she left Spirit World that morning – and Hiei was crouched in the window-frame.

"Hiei," she whispered. "What are you doing here?"

She looked about herself with a frown.

"What am I doing here?" she asked. "And how did I get here?"

"You fell asleep," Hiei flatly replied. "I carried you back here."

Botan looked about herself. Her room was dark, it was dark outside, and probably every other ferry girl was asleep (or working the night shift). But the thought of all the other windows on her row being dark reminded her of the one window that usually remained illuminated, regardless of the hour.

"Did Ayame see you take me back here?" she asked.

"What's an Ayame?"

Botan smiled in spite of herself at Hiei's so typical answer.

"I'll just hope she didn't," she concluded. "You probably shouldn't be here though."

"Where?" Hiei asked.

"Here," Botan said.

"In Spirit World?" he asked. "Or in your bedroom?"

Botan swallowed hard and tried to laugh off the heat growing in her face.

"Just… Either," she replied. "Probably you shouldn't be in Spirit World, and you definitely shouldn't be in my, um, my bedroom."

"Koenma asked me to check on you."

Botan remembered then that Hiei had previously arrived at the class room to speak to her, apparently on instruction of Koenma, and perhaps it was true that Koenma has asked him to continue monitoring her progress.

"Why you?" she asked softly.

Hiei narrowed his eyes at her and she realised her question may have sounded rude.

"I mean, I would have expected Koenma to ask Ayame to watch me," she explained. "Not you."

"I know what a Lure can do," Hiei replied.

"I suppose," Botan agreed. "And I suppose I was just surprised that you actually physically came to see me. Usually when you want to check on me or to tell me something, you just do it… Telepathically…"

"I do that too."

The thought occurred to Botan that it almost sounded as though Hiei was constantly watching her, and occasionally appearing when he saw fit. She did not want to tell him it seemed that way, as saying it out loud sounded silly, but after her conversation with Keiko, where her friend had pointed out that Hiei did have a habit of invading her thoughts, she could not help but conclude that he must, literally, be watching her constantly.

"Hiei?" she asked.

He grunted, which she took to mean he wanted her to continue.

"Am I going to be okay?"

He grunted again, and she wished she had not asked the question.

"I've been… Seeing things," she said. "Strange things. Things that don't make sense. I thought it was just an after-effect of being taken by the Lure, but… Sometimes I'm not so sure. Sometimes… I think I'm losing my mind."

Botan added her last remark as a whisper: it was a thought she had been terrified to voice, lest that make it somehow truer, but she really needed to know either way.

"You'd tell me if I was losing my mind, right Hiei?" she asked.

"You're the same idiot you always were," he replied.

Botan sighed in relief.

"So… The things I've been seeing…?" she asked.

"The Lure injected you with a venom that made you hallucinate," he replied. "You were released from the Lure's lair, but you still have the venom in you."

"I do?" Botan asked. "Does that mean I'm still hallucinating?"

"Sometimes," Hiei replied.

"When will it stop?"

"In time."

"And until then… You're going to watch over me?"

"Yes."

"…Do you promise?"

"Yes."

Botan nodded.

"Okay," she said. "Then… I think I'm going to be okay."

Hiei nodded and leapt from her window. She got up and moved over to close it behind him, only realising as she reached it that there was nowhere for Hiei to leap to but the ground or the roof, and both were several hundred feet away from her window. She leaned out of the window and peered down but found that it was too dark for her to see the ground. She looked up at the sky, but it was impossibly black. Blacker than she had ever seen it.

Botan leaned back into her room and closed her window, closing the curtains over it. She still felt that something was not quite right, like she had forgotten something or missed something important, but she was tired, and found that, soon after she had gotten back into her bed, she fell asleep once more.


Botan was surprised when she reported for duty in the morning that she was handed a normal length of task list, and nothing was said about the fact that she had abandoned her duties the day before. She had not wanted to face any sort of reprimand for abandoning her duties and, equally, she had agonised over the thought of having a long day ahead of her, but it seemed that everything had returned to normal. She set out to her first destination, and before she knew it, her day was over.

The day seemed to end very quickly, but she was simply pleased that it did. She avoided going to visit friends or spending time in the social area of the ferry girls' quarters, instead going to her bed early and turning out the light: but not before she opened her window.

It was not that she expected Hiei to return, but she quite liked the idea that he might arrive in her room again that night, and so she prepared for it accordingly.

She must have managed to drift off to sleep, because the first time she heard Hiei's voice, it woke her from a dreamless sleep, and when she rose to her knees and shuffled around on her bed, she found him crouched in her windowframe exactly as he had been the night before.

"Hello Hiei," she greeted him, smiling appreciatively.

"I didn't see you today," he replied.

Botan frowned and tilted her head. She was in her pyjamas and had her hair in buns on either side of her head, and that was something she had expected him to comment on or react to, so when he seemed not to notice her physical appearance but instead launched into another topic, she was confused.

"A human died passing over to Demon World accidentally," he explained. "I waited for you, but it was another ferry girl who came."

"Oh, I see!" Botan said, nodding her head. "Oh, that's too bad."

She paused for a moment to wallow in the fact that he had admitted waiting for her, and even seemed irritated that she had not been the ferry girl to show up, before continuing.

"Today was just a normal day for me," she said. "I haven't had any strange visions, or anything strange happen to me. I think I might be better. I think now everything is alright."

"You're not going to go out looking for a Lure?" Hiei asked.

Botan shook her head.

"I only went back to the Lure to…"

Her words drifted off as she remembered why she had sought out the Lure, and how little success she had enjoyed when she had tried to address the issue with Hiei. She had wanted to know why the Lure had shown her Hiei, but she was starting to understand why without anyone answering her. She supposed the answer was inside of her all along, as the vision had been her own. The truth was that she had feelings for Hiei that she had been suppressing, ignoring.

Just like how she had sexual desires that she pushed down into the deepest parts of her subconscious and ignored, in order that she could continue to function as a ferry girl, who had little to no social life.

"Thank you for checking up on me," she said instead.

"If you have any questions about the Lure," he began.

"I can ask you?" she tried.

"I was going to say you can ask Kurama."

"Oh."

"I should go."

"Oh."

Botan slouched in disappointment – Hiei visiting her in her bedroom was not exactly turning out to be the fantasy she had hoped it would be.

"I'll be back tomorrow," Hiei said.

"Oh, okay," Botan replied, nodding her head.

There was a short pause, during which Botan wished she had left the light on in her room, as it was too dark for her to scrutinise the look on Hiei's face.

"If you feel like you need to go back to the Lure, at any time," he said. "Any time at all, call me."

"I can't call you," Botan pointed out. "You refuse to take a communication mirror!"

"You don't need a communication mirror to reach me, Botan."

Botan froze upon hearing the way he said her name. It was not often that he did speak her name, but it had sounded as though he had said it softer than usual, as though he wanted to reach her personally with what he had said.

"I suppose not, Hiei," she said, smiling sweetly at him.

He nodded and leapt from the window. Botan took a moment to remember the thought she had had the previous night, before scurrying to get to her window, but apparently arriving too late again, as when she looked out, Hiei was nowhere to be seen. She could not see the ground, it was too dark, and the sky overhead was so black, it was even obscuring the peaks of the towers of the temple. Leaning a little further out the window, Botan thought she could see something moving.

She had never noticed the giant crossed swords hanging on the temple wall before.

Above the ferry girls' quarters, slightly to one side of Botan's window specifically, two large swords were mounted on the exterior temple wall, crossed over each other. Botan could not tell if the swords themselves were black or if they just looked that way because it was so dark outside.

They were definitely new though.


After another routine day of duties that passed quickly – so quickly it was almost as though the day had not even happened at all – Botan again went straight to her room to ready herself for another visit from Hiei – but as soon as she entered her room, she found him already crouched in her window.

"Hiei!" she gasped.

She could not even remember having left her window open that day, and yet it was open wide, the curtains sucked outside.

"Yusuke is hosting some sort of party in the human world," Hiei said, sounding as though he was talking about something incredibly mundane. "I assume you will be going."

"When is it?" Botan asked, brightening and suddenly finding a second wind energising her.

"Now," Hiei replied.

"I've done all my work, I can go!" she said brightly, throwing open her wardrobe door. "I just need to find something to wear…"

She scanned through her outfits, but as she looked through them, a shadow fell over her, as though her light source were an overhead one rather than her window at her side, and as though someone was slowly moving a plate over the light to block it out. She slowly straightened back from her clothes, a small shiver passing down her spine: which was brought about by a combination of a sickening feeling in her stomach and the sudden cold that came with the darkness. She gripped her fingers into the edge of her wardrobe door, at first scared to move it, instinctively already knowing that what lay behind it was something she did not want to see.

"I thought this had stopped," she said quietly. "I thought everything was alright now."

"No," Hiei answered her, his voice containing a raw edge to it that did little to ease her mounting nerves.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"You're hallucinating," he answered her. "None of this is real."

Botan swallowed hard and slowly closed her wardrobe door. Her room was considerably darker, and from the corner of her eye, she could see that Hiei was no longer crouching in her windowframe, rather he was standing at her side. He was also no longer wearing his cloak. His hair looked askew, as though it was drying after being soaked wet.

"Hiei?" she said softly.

"Concentrate," he answered. "Just focus, and you can come out of this."

Botan slowly turned her head towards him. He was already looking directly at her, and his eyes looked strangely bright in the dimmer light, and because, for some reason, he had black paint around his eyes.

"Hiei?" she said, taking a step closer to him. "Are you okay?"

"Don't think about that," he answered.

Botan's eyes moved from Hiei's to his shoulder. His vest was torn there, a flap of fabric hanging down for no apparent reason.

"Is-is that what you're wearing to the party?" she asked.

"Party?" he repeated. "When have you ever known me go to a party, woman?"

Botan gingerly lifted the torn section of fabric and lifted it back into place, pressing it against him. As soon as her fingers pushed against him however, she felt a jolt of shock pass through them.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"No, stop that!" he snapped, grabbing her hand as her healing magic flared, brightening the room.

"I was trying to heal you!" she protested. "Don't you want me to heal you?"

"No!" he growled back.

"You are so stubborn!" she argued.

"As are you, you bloody-minded fool," Hiei snarled.

"Come on, Hiei!" Botan said, before sighing in frustration. "You can't very well go to Yusuke's party looking like that!"

"No."

Hiei closed his hand, forcibly forming Botan's hand into a fist inside of his. She frowned as she realised then how rough his skin felt against hers.

"What happened to your hand?" she asked.

"The same thing that will happen to your soul if you don't listen to me, woman!" he roughly replied.

"I am listening to you!" Botan protested.

"Good," he said, sounding almost sinister. "Listen carefully and do exactly as I say."

"I'm not your slave, Hiei," she flatly replied.

"I never said that you were."

His top lip twitched and he almost appeared to roll his eyes.

"It's not a sexual thing!" he snapped suddenly, tightening his hold on her hand to the point that it was almost painful. "Stop making light of this!"

"I never said it was!" Botan wailed.

"You, woman, listen," he said.

"I am listening, Hiei!" Botan snapped.

"Wake up!"

Hiei shouted each of the words into her face, saying them slowly and carefully. As he finished the last syllable, she suddenly felt herself falling backwards, her hand falling out of his. Her surroundings blurred, and the way she fell felt as though she was falling through water: and as though to confirm that suspicion, when she tried to breathe in, Botan felt as though she was sucking water into her lungs.

Botan fought and writhed around, gasping for air, and blinking her eyes desperately as she tried to focus. After considerable effort, she landed on solid ground, one hip hitting the ground first. She collapsed and rolled over onto her back, opening her eyes to find herself looking up at a black sky. A black, black sky. She took in a deep breath, finally managing to get some air into her body. The taste of the air told her she was in the human world. She tried to sit up, only realising then that she was swathed in something scratchy and white. She let out a short, sharp scream, before wriggling around again, whining as she heard squelching sounds and felt something slimy against her skin. She fought and fought until the material encasing her began creaking and ripping apart.

Once her arms were free, Botan sat up and began tearing open the material over her legs, making quick work of her task and immediately standing up and staggering away from the thing that had trapped her. She turned around to look at it, realising then that it was the same material she had woken up to find Kuwabara and Kurama freeing her from when the Lure had captured her.

Botan looked about herself. She was back in the park she had found the Lure in, the park where Kurama had killed the Lure.

The park where she thought Kurama had killed the Lure.

Botan slowly moved her eyes beyond the torn webbing she had escaped from, to the stone bench she had sat on alongside the little girl the Lure appeared as. She continued moving her eyes to the trees behind it, scanning up them, where she found the torn remains of a lair. Hanging upside-down from a tree branch – legs bent over the branch to supper its weight – was the Lure. The Lure. The Lure who had caught her, the Lure she had found again in the park. It looked almost the same as it usually did, and might have almost looked cute, hanging upside-down in its little girl body, shoulder-length black hair hanging down from its upside-down head, but there was something slightly off about its appearance.

Its eyes looked bigger, rounder, than usual. And they were staring directly at Botan.

"What are you doing, Botan?" the little girl asked, her voice as sweet and innocent as ever.

Botan slowly slid back a step, moving into a patch of even colder air. She slid back another step, the air becoming positively frigid, at which point Shizuru phased into sight in front of her, unusually bright and colourful against the surroundings of the park, darkened by the black sky overhead.

"This is gonna be a movie nobody will ever want to watch," Shizuru said.

She was holding the empty case of the video she had shown Botan a few nights ago – "The Evil Eye" – and the image on the cover was the one Botan remembered, of the lone figure on a motorbike.

"Shizuru?" Botan said, reaching out a hand towards her.

Shizuru gasped and dropped the video case, turning to look directly at Botan.

"Did you just say my name, sweetie?" she asked.

"Shizuru, can you hear me?" Botan asked.

Shizuru suddenly looked incredibly disappointed, lowering her head slightly before fading into a mist that disappeared into the air entirely. Once she was gone, Botan was left looking at what was beyond her: the Lure.

"What are you doing, Botan?" the Lure asked again.

"Getting away from you!" Botan replied defiantly.

"I don't think that's what you want to do," the Lure replied.

"It is!"

"Then go."

"I'm going!"

Botan held out her hand, and there was a dull, stunted spark, but otherwise nothing happened. She looked at her hand, expecting her oar to have apparated there, despite already knowing her hand was empty.

"Not that way," the Lure said.

"Okay," Botan said, nodding her head. "I see how it is."

"Do you?" the Lure asked. "Let me guess what your next move is: look for someone to come rescue you?"

"I'm perfectly capable of rescuing myself!" Botan argued.

"You're thinking about someone else rescuing you. Hiei, Yusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara, Shizuru… Maybe even Ayame."

"You leave my friends out of this!"

"I'll make a deal with you, Botan."

Botan narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"Let me ask you a question," the Lure said, grinning in a way that looked unnaturally wide for a human mouth. "Answer it honestly and find your way out of here."

"This better not be a trick," Botan warned quietly.

"No tricks," the Lure replied, holding out her small hands to as though to show she was not holding any weapons. "Just one question. One choice. And then it's all over."

"Fine. Go ahead."

"Answering honestly – you must answer me honestly – would you rather Ayame came here and found you, covered in goo, a stumbling, stammering mess who wilfully succumbed to an addiction, or would you rather go to that party at Yusuke's house and… Dance with Hiei?"

Botan's face dropped.

"That's not a fair question," she whispered.

"I never said it would be," the Lure whispered back. "Will you answer, or should I take your initial response as all the answer I need?"

"The question was not fair!" Botan complained. "One of those things is my worst nightmare, the other is my…"

"Secret desire?"

"I…"

"Secret desire, that resides deep, deep down, in the deepest, darkest part of your subconscious, where you've been harbouring it, denying it, ignoring it and yet… Allowing it to grow and consume you?"

Botan swallowed hard.

"What happens now?" she asked quietly.

"Whatever that thing is telling you, it's not true, Botan."

"Hiei."

Botan spun around and found Hiei standing behind her, dressed in his usual clothes, his cloak covering most of his body, only his booted feet visible beneath it.

"You're hallucinating," he said. "This is just an after-effect of your encounter with the Lure. Concentrate, it will pass."

"I…I can't," she said, shaking her head. "I don't know what's real any more!"

"Yes, you do," Hiei replied.

"No, I don't!" Botan wailed.

"Here."

Hiei took a hold of her hand, and she instantly felt more at ease upon the familiar sensation of his warm skin against hers.

"Does this feel real?" he asked.

She nodded.

"How about this?"

Botan gasped as he pulled her to him and she stumbled awkwardly, colliding with him. She put her arms around him and turned her head toward him, feeling his hair on her lips the same way she had before.

"This is real," she agreed.

"Then don't think about anything else," he said. "Just come with me."

"Okay."

Hiei drew back from her, took her hand, and she was shortly running at his side, once more running as fast and hard as she possibly could. They ran for what felt like a lot longer than they had before, and although it was painful on her legs and she could hardly breathe, Botan managed to keep up, and when they stopped, she was not nearly as exhausted as she had been the last time he had made her run alongside him. She smiled at him as they stood together, but her smile faded when she looked in the direction he was looking, towards the destination he had brought her to.

They were standing outside the Kuwabaras' house, all the lights were on, and the muffled sound of music being played loudly within the house could be heard even from their position at the end of the garden path.

"This isn't real," Botan said quietly. "Because this was what I wanted."

"Are you sure about that?" Hiei asked her.

She looked down at him questioningly, but he nodded towards the house. Still holding hands, they continued down the garden path. Hiei opened the front door of the house and Botan winced as Kuwabara's rendition of his favourite Megallica song reached the falsetto bridge.

"This is what you wanted?" Hiei asked her. "To listen to that fool wail and scream in what he thinks is a romantic gesture?"

"Okay, I don't think even my own imagination would add that detail," Botan agreed.

They continued into the house and Hiei's hand slid from hers: though she did not mind, as Keiko caught her as she joined the group in the living room.

"I never know what I enjoy watching more," Keiko said into her ear. "Kuwabara enjoying himself too much or Yukina trying to guess how she's supposed to act when he does this."

Botan looked over at Yukina, who was smiling at Kuwabara in a gesture that was forced, her eyebrows twisted in a look that was a blend of confusion and strained patience. She was sitting on a wooden chair that had been moved into the centre of the room to allow Kuwabara to dance and sing around her – something that usually ended up happening at any gatherings the group had – and the remainder of the group were sitting around the walls in pairs. Keiko and Yusuke were standing together, Hiei had moved over to talk to Kurama, and Atsuko and Shizuru were sitting in the back corner of the room. Shizuru smiled at her father as he poured her a drink, before continuing around the room with the bottle, offering the others a top-up to their drinks.

Something seemed slightly amiss.

Botan moved over to the window at the back of the room, that looked out to the back garden. Atsuko and Shizuru were laughing over their drinks, both red-faced and merry, and seemed not to even notice Botan when she stopped near them to look out the window.

Outside, the sky was black.

Botan had never seen the sky in the human world so black, so plain. No hints of starlight or moonlight, no outline of clouds visible, just solid black. It was almost like the entire world was under the shadow of something large and monstrous.

"Do you need a light?" Botan heard Yusuke ask behind her.

"Yeah, this damn one is broken."

The quivering edge in Shizuru's voice when she spoke her reply made Botan turn her head. The room behind her was black too, everything, everywhere was black: except for Yusuke and Shizuru. Shizuru had an unlit cigarette in her mouth and she was battling with a lighter, her hands shaking so much, it seemed that, even if it did work, she would not be able to operate it.

"Here, let me," Yusuke said to her softly.

"I don't know what's wrong with this thing," Shizuru said awkwardly, trying to fake a smile. "I think the damn thing is jammed."

Yusuke flicked his thumb over the lighter and a flame sprung out of it. Shizuru choked out a bitter laugh, before leaning towards him to let him light her cigarette.

"Hey, I know you can handle this," Yusuke said, closing her lighter and spinning it over his fingers before offering it back to her. "But are you okay?"

"I'm fine, kid," Shizuru replied, taking back the lighter and working it back into her jeans pocket, a task that took far longer than it ought to have as her hands were still shaking.

She took a long draw on her cigarette before removing it and rolling back her head, closing her eyes and holding her breath for a long time. She was still shaking, but she managed to hold her breath, before slowly sighing out smoke and lowering her head, her eyes opening and moving to Yusuke.

"Thanks, Yusuke," she said.

"No problem," he replied.

"It's uh…" she began, a strange look appearing on her face along with a lop-sided, wry smile. "It's not true what they say. It's not easier the second time around. Watching it. Not knowing how to stop it."

Yusuke nodded.

"I thought it would be easier," she said with a sigh. "But in a way… It's almost more difficult."

She took another long draw on her cigarette.

"Which is weird, right?" she said. "But I think it's because I know how much it hurts when it gets bad. And… I'm scared."

"You're scared?" Yusuke asked, smiling warmly. "Didn't think I'd ever hear you admit to that."

"I'm scared of feeling that way again," she replied.

"We all are," Yusuke replied.

Shizuru gave him a strange look, but when he started to look confused, she turned from him, hiding her face behind her hair.

"Shizuru, are you okay?" Botan asked her.

Shizuru did not respond, remaining turned away, furiously smoking her cigarette with trembling hands. Botan turned to ask Yusuke what exactly they had been talking about, but when she turned to where he had been standing, she found herself looking at a red-faced Atsuko.

"Botan, sweetie!" Atsuko greeted her, giving her the typical clumsy, slightly too firm hug she always did when greeting her.

"Atsuko, how are you?" Botan asked her.

"Never better, Botan," Atsuko said, sitting back down and pulling Botan down beside her onto the sofa. "Now you tell me what my boy has really been up to lately – and don't cover for him, be honest!"

"Oh, well, I haven't seen much of Yusuke lately, Atsuko!" Botan replied.

"You're covering for him!"

Atsuko put her hand on top of Botan's head and rubbed her hair far too roughly, which Botan bore as best she could.

"Aw, you're a good girl though, Botan," Atsuko said.

"Thank you…?" Botan responded.

Botan looked about the room, at one point catching Hiei's eye – and she was sure that, for a brief moment, he gave her a small smile – before noticing Shizuru was sitting in a chair on the other side of Atsuko. Botan leaned forwards, craning her neck to see past Atsuko, intent on asking Shizuru if she was alright: but then, presumably just as an antic in her state of intoxication, Atsuko put her hands over Botan's ears, the move proving strangely effective, as it drowned out all sounds entirely.

For a moment Botan remained where she was, leaning forwards, trapped in silence by Atsuko's hands over her ears. She moved her eyes to the others to see if she could reason why Atsuko had decided to cover her ears, and she saw Kuwabara emphatically hold up two fingers and mouth out the word "two" several times. He was almost looking at her when he did it, but not quite, and she wondered if he had been gesturing to Atsuko. Were they planning some sort of weird surprise for her?

Botan froze as she began to hear violins playing, despite still feeling Atsuko's hands over her ears. It was all she could hear, and she reasoned someone must have put the song on: Kuwabara disliked the song but had purchased a copy of it and would occasionally play it at gatherings. It was Botan's favourite song. No-one else in the group really cared for it, but Botan had been drawn to it since the first time she had heard it.

As the singer began, Botan listened carefully to the words he was singing. She loved the music, but she also loved the lyrics. The words had always felt as though they reminded her of something. Or someone. The words sounded like something she could imagine someone saying.

Botan slowly moved her eyes to Hiei. She had loved that song for years, and only in that moment did it occur to her why: the lyrics were how she wanted Hiei to feel about her. It was a song about a man who was in love but knew not how to express his feelings in words and was hesitant to take action because he was unsure of the concept of traditional romance. It was the way she had always imagined Hiei would feel if he ever fell in love. It was how she had hoped he might feel about her, how he might eventually express his feelings to her: and that was the real reason why she loved it so much.

Hiei moved across the room towards her, leaning down to look her in the eye, bringing his face very close to hers. He gave her a curious look, and she understood why: she had tears in her eyes.

"I just love this song so much," she said softly.

"I know," she heard his voice say, the sound muffled by Atsuko's hands, but reaching her regardless.

Botan smiled. Maybe strange visions about the Lure were going to haunt her for a little longer, but she finally felt that they would pass, and, looking at Hiei, she remembered what he had said about the living world being the place they could be free to be together. Finally, it seemed like she might be able to have what she had always, deep down, wanted.


Next Chapter: Botan and Hiei begin dating (in secret), and it soon becomes like nothing else matters. Botan becomes unaware of anyone or anything else around her. Everything seems perfect, but there is just one small thing Botan can't seem to figure out. Chapter 12: I See You