Last Chapter: Shizuru was drawn back out by the realisation that the Lure had taken another victim, and again she set out with her camera to film the action as Hiei took on the Lure to try to bring Botan back to reality. During his moments of physical, mental and emotional weakness, Hiei betrayed some signs that he has feelings for Botan that run just as deeply as those she's discovered she has for him: but the Lure seems to have a tighter hold on Botan this time around, and freeing her has proved more difficult.


Chapter 28: Every Piece of me

The sun had slipped behind the hills and taken with it what little heat there had been to have on a winter's day. Shizuru was regretting not taking a coat, and the lack of anything happening in front of her was proving to be even more irritating as she got increasingly physically uncomfortable. Yusuke and Kuwabara had sat down on the grass, Keiko had fallen asleep in her car and Kurama was watching the park gates alone.

And so, when there was a sudden flare of purple light, followed by a sickening squeal from the Lure, Shizuru, Kuwabara and Yusuke were all brought back to attention in a panic. The boys shot to their feet and Shizuru reaffirmed her grip on the camera, peering over the top of it as the torn webbing fell away from Botan's hand – which she had apparently just fought out of the webbing completely by herself. Her fingers felt through the air for a moment, and as she reached out further, Shizuru saw a slimy grey and black striped appendage buried into her arm. Apparently unaffected by it, Botan's hand felt downwards until it found Hiei's.

"What are you doing?" Hiei asked her in a low voice.

There was a short pause before she answered him.

"I'm confused."

"I know," he said.

"You do?" she asked

"Yes."

"How do you know?"

"This."

Hiei held up their joined hands in front of her face as best he could whilst being gored in multiple places by the Lure.

"Do you see this?" he asked Botan.

Botan's eyes opened, but just like the last time they had, her pupils were impossibly large: however she did appear to be looking at their joined hands. The Lure hissed and leered over her, clearly displeased with this latest development.

"That would feel so good…" Botan whispered faintly. "Ng-mmm…"

Yusuke grinned and Kuwabara shuffled his feet awkwardly: that last noise Botan had made had sounded distinctly sexual in nature.

"I'm sorry…" she said softly. "What was the question?"

"She knows she's holding your hand and not your dick, right Hiei?" Yusuke called up to them.

Hiei growled in the back of his throat, his face tightening in clear irritation.

"Why were you in that park?" he asked Botan. "You went there for a reason."

"I followed the…" Botan began. "I saw the…"

She stopped, and for a moment even the Lure looked pleased, as though her connection to Hiei had been lost.

"I saw something in the sky," she said suddenly. "And I just came to see what it was."

"You got very close," Hiei replied.

"Close?" Botan echoed.

"You were right at the edge," he said, his voice softer. "I barely managed to pull you back."

Hiei pulled on her hand, using the physical connection to pull himself closer to her, despite it meaning he was pushing his wounds up against the hilt of the Lure's fingers.

"You have to act now," he said.

"Now…?" Botan asked.

"Now," Hiei said sternly.

There was another prolonged silence before the sound of creaking reached Shizuru's ears. There was a small flurry of purple energy and Botan managed to free her head and neck, stretching forwards towards Hiei. Hiei turned paler but did not move, not even when her nose bumped into his: though at that point, she stopped her advance. Shizuru bit her lip, unsure if she should smile or be horrified: Botan was still being held by the Lure, but weirdly it seemed like the Lure was bringing together two people who had been secretly harbouring feelings for each other, and part of her was fascinated to watch it unfold.

"What are you doing?" Hiei asked in a low, husky whisper.

"I was going to kiss you."

Yusuke snorted and Kuwabara made a noise of disbelief.

"Why?" Hiei asked.

"Because you asked me to," Botan replied.

"N-no I didn't," he said quietly.

"You said I had to act now. You're holding my hand. You pulled me closer."

"Hiei, what the hell are you doing to her?" Kuwabara wailed. "This is so… Weird!"

Hiei turned his head sharply towards Kuwabara, his eyes still closed but his bloodied, punctured Jagan Eye glaring down.

"Be useful or shut the hell up!" he shouted, his voice raw and hoarse.

He sounded as ragged as he looked, but Kuwabara still apparently knew better than to challenge him, as he took a step back, grumbling complaints, but keeping his head down. Hiei glared at him for a moment longer before turning back to Botan, pressing his nose to hers and almost imperceptibly tilting his chin as though he was about to go in for a kiss, the movement bringing his lips very close to hers.

"Why is this happening?" he asked quietly.

"I-I don't know," Botan answered him. "You started it though."

"No, you started it," he whispered back.

"No, you did!" she protested.

"…Did I?"

Hiei sounded as though he was asking himself that last question, which, to Shizuru, was just another indication of how emotionally charged he really was.

"This is about what you want, not what I want," he recovered, steadying his tone.

"What is?" Botan asked.

"What?" he echoed.

"What you just said," she said. "What did you mean?"

"I meant this is only happening because you want it to," he explained. "You're the one trying to kiss me, not the other way around. We are clear about that."

"Are we?"

"Yes?"

"You-you don't sound so sure. Are you sure?"

He clearly was anything but sure. Shizuru wondered how conscious Botan was during her conversations with Hiei, how much of them she was actively participating in, how much of them she would remember when she was free. Shizuru then smiled to herself and lowered her eyes back to watch the action through the lens of the camera: it would matter little whether or not Botan remembered anything, because the camera would show the truth when it was all over: and in that moment, she finally appreciated exactly why Kurama had wanted her to film everything.

"I'm not like the others," Hiei whispered as quietly as he could. "Not in this way – not in the way you're thinking. You don't understand that. You are a servant of King Enma and I am a demon."

"I know that," Botan whispered back.

"I don't think you do," he whispered. "Not really."

"You don't know what I think!"

"I do."

"No you don't!"

"Where exactly do you think we are right now, woman?"

Shizuru gasped as the Lure somehow managed to lift the elbow of Hiei's arm that was holding Botan's hand into its pointed mouth, biting down onto him with its triangular teeth. He moaned and slumped, his head falling onto the webbing at Botan's shoulder and his hand sliding out of hers.

"You cheating son of a bitch!" Yusuke shouted at the Lure.

"Let it go," Shizuru said with a sigh.

"Isn't there anything else we can do?" Kuwabara asked. "At all?"

"I don't think so, baby bro," Shizuru said. "Just, I guess, support Hiei."

Shizuru lowered the camera from her shoulder, waving away Yusuke when he offered to take it from her. She swapped out for a new cassette, as she had been nearing the end of the one she had been using, at which point Yusuke noticed the shape of the cassettes she was using.

"What the hell is that?" he asked.

Shizuru moved her eyes pointedly to her brother and Yusuke turned to him expectantly.

"It's Russian," Kuwabara answered him.

"It looks alien, Kuwabara," Yusuke flatly replied. "What sort of player can you even watch that on?"

"A regular one!" Kuwabara complained. "You just need an adaptor!"

Yusuke gave him a critical look, and as they set about bickering – something they were clearly glad to do to distract themselves from Hiei and Botan – Shizuru finished swapping out the tape and hoisted the camera back up, wincing as it settled back into the red grooves on her shoulder and arms. She was shortly glad that she had changed the cassette when she did, as Botan began to stir again.

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

"No," Hiei answered her.

The sound of their voices silenced Yusuke and Kuwabara.

"What's happening?" Botan asked.

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

"Hiei?" she said softly.

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

"Hiei? Are you okay?"

"Don't think about that."

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

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

Yusuke and Kuwabara exchanged confused looks at Shizuru's side, but Shizuru kept her attention on Botan, as one of her hands burst out of the cocoon containing her: and so she was ready for the scream the Lure released. Botan's hand reached out directly to Hiei's shoulder, to the point where the Lure had all five fingers of one hand stabbed through him. She plucked at the torn fabric of his shirt around the wound before touching the top of the wound itself.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

It was growing darker in the park, and so the flare of white healing magic from Botan's hand appeared almost brilliant in its glow.

"No, stop that!" Hiei said, grabbing her hand and pushing it from his wound.

"I was trying to heal you!" Botan 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."

"Come on, Hiei! 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, the light of her energy fading into nothing as he did so.

"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. "Listen carefully and do exactly as I say."

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

"I never said that you were."

"Was it this sexual last time too?" Yusuke asked Kuwabara. "Because now I kinda wish I'd just locked Keiko and Yukina in the house and come out here to watch the show…"

Hiei's top lip flickered before he shouted at Yusuke, without taking his eye off of Botan.

"It's not a sexual thing!" he snapped. "Stop making light of this!"

"I never said it was!" Botan wailed.

"You, woman, listen," Hiei said.

"I am listening, Hiei!" Botan snapped.

"Wake up!"

Botan pulled her hand from Hiei's and let it fall to her side, where it was enveloped back into the webbing.

"What the hell just happened?" Yusuke asked, sounding far more confused than irate, despite his words suggesting he was angry.

"I dunno," Kuwabara replied. "Last time she used her healing magic and he told her to wake up, the Lure backed off and we got her down."

"She doesn't want to wake up."

Yusuke and Kuwabara both turned to look at Shizuru, but she kept her head forward.

"She chose to go back to the Lure," she continued.

"Why?" Yusuke asked.

"Because it's taken over her," Shizuru replied.

Shizuru lifted the camera off her shoulder and passed it to her brother.

"Take over for a bit," she told him.

"Oh, okay, sis," he said, accepting the camera.

Shizuru moved away from the scene, turning her back on Botan and Hiei and retrieving a packet of cigarettes from her pocket. Her eyes were blurring, but she stubbornly swallowed back her misery and bit a cigarette between her teeth, sliding it out of the pack and stuffing the pack back into her pocket. She then retrieved her lighter, but whilst she had gained control of the emotion showing in her eyes, it had taken over her hands, which were shaking, increasingly so as she tried to steady them to light her cigarette.

"Do you need a light?"

Shizuru turned her head to see Yusuke was at her side.

"Yeah, this damn one is broken," she said, pretending to be irritated with the lighter.

Yusuke nodded.

"Here, let me," he offered, holding his hands out towards hers.

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

She pretended to laugh in amusement when he easily flicked his thumb over the lighter and a flame sprung out of it. She leaned over to him and let him light her cigarette, already knowing if she took the lighter from him she would never be able to light it again herself.

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

"I'm fine, kid," she replied, taking back the lighter and working it back into her jeans pocket, her shaking hands making her aim slip several times.

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. The burning in her lungs, the compression of the smoke, was dizzying: but holding it there felt good. It was something terrible, but she had full control of it, and right then, feeling in control of anything made her feel just a little better. She finally sighed out the smoke and lowered her head, opening her eyes and turning them to Yusuke.

"Thanks, Yusuke," she said, when she saw the still sympathetic look he was giving her.

"No problem," he replied.

"It's uh…" she began, trying to 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, though Shizuru was sure he was only doing so to appear sympathetic: after all, he had no idea what she was talking about.

"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 continued, in spite of herself. "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.

Upon hearing his response and seeing the way he was looking at her, Shizuru realised she was wasting her time talking as she was. He thought she was just upset that Botan had fallen victim to the Lure for a second time. He thought she was just someone who lacked the resolve to tough out emotionally charged situations like the one they were in. He had no idea how it haunted her, how it ate at her very soul, to watch the evil of addiction take hold of someone she loved. She turned away from him and took another shaky, lengthy draw on her cigarette.

"I've got an idea," Yusuke said suddenly. "Kuwabara, do you have your CD player on you?"

"Always, Urameshi," Kuwabara replied.

"Pass it to Shizuru, I'll be back in a minute."

Shizuru turned to ask him what he meant but was met with her own hair slapping her in the face as Yusuke took off at top speed, sending a backdraft of air slapping into her. Still holding the camera, her brother fished his precious portable CD player out of his pocket with one hand, holding it out towards her. Shizuru put her cigarette in her mouth and took the CD player from him in both hands: one hand to take the device itself, the other to catch his foam headphones. As she stepped back, Yusuke rejoined her, holding up a CD case that Shizuru recognised from Keiko's car.

"Let's try it," he said with a shrug. "I'm pretty sure she likes this sentimental bullshit better than anything that ugly bastard is showing her."

Shizuru smiled and helped him remove Kuwabara's CD and load in the one from the car. Yusuke then moved over, the Lure watching him intently the entire time.

"You don't have any free fingers, so forget about it, you bug-eyed son of a bitch," Yusuke warned it as he grabbed at the webbing of its lair, wincing against the burn he got from making contact with it.

He climbed up as close to Botan as he could get before pushing the headphones into the webbing around Botan's head and sliding them into place over her ears. He turned his head and Kuwabara held up two fingers.

"Two," he said. "Two."

Yusuke nodded and selected the second track on the CD. Shizuru could not hear it from where she stood, but she had no need to: she had seen that CD countless times before and seen the way Botan's face lit up when she saw it, and how she would always demand the second track be played. It was her favourite song – and Yusuke was right, it was sentimental bullshit – and she listened to it so often, Keiko and Shizuru often joked that it was like Botan's personal theme song. Shizuru smiled and swallowed back her emotions again as she saw Botan smile, the music apparently reaching her. Her smile widened and then her lips parted, a soft sigh escaping her before she spoke.

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

"I know," Hiei replied.

Shizuru tilted her head at his response. He was probably close enough – and with the added benefit of his heightened demon senses – that he could hear the music playing, but she was surprised that he actually knew it was something Botan liked. But then again, it had been clear to her after they had freed Botan from the Lure the first time around that Hiei had feelings for Botan, so maybe he did know that was her favourite song.

Maybe he had a romantic soul: he was a complex little gremlin of a man, Shizuru thought to herself as she finished her cigarette and pressed it into the grass with her toes, but she felt everyone would see another side of him before the battle against the Lure was over.

"Urameshi…" Kuwabara said in a warning tone.

The Lure was glaring at Yusuke and it was growing a wide, sickly grin on its beakish mouth. Yusuke started to ask it what it was grinning about, but when it began to twist its fingers inside of Hiei's shoulder, Yusuke snatched back the headphones and leapt to the ground.

"Don't think this means you've won, you lousy bastard!" Yusuke cursed it as he started back towards Kuwabara and Shizuru.

Yusuke took his place between the Kuwabara siblings and glared back at their enemy.

"When that thing lets go," Kuwabara said. "I'm gonna destroy it."

"Get in line, Kuwabara!" Yusuke replied. "I meant what I said about what I'm gonna do to it!"

"Talk all you want boys," Shizuru said, moving over to take the camera back from her brother. "But I'm gonna be the one who wastes this bird-faced motherfucker."

Yusuke smiled and cast her a sideward glance.

"Watch me, kid," she told him as she moved the camera back onto her shoulder.

"Yeah," he said. "I might."

"You think I can't kick ass?" Shizuru challenged him.

"No," Yusuke replied. "I was just thinking it was kinda hot seeing you get all worked up about defending your girlfriend again."

Shizuru smiled, deciding to be amused by his lewdness, as it did actually serve as a welcome distraction from her sombre mood.

"Speaking of kinky stuff girls I'm not sleeping with are getting up to," Yusuke began.

"Please don't finish that sentence," Kuwabara asked meekly.

"How long has Botan been having kinky thoughts about Hiei?" Yusuke asked.

"Ew, Urameshi!" Kuwabara wailed.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Shizuru offered.

"You know Hiei never gets any," Yusuke said.

All three paused as they heard Hiei growling at them from his prone position.

"You don't," Yusuke said. "And we all know how, when he gets angry, he winds it up inside of himself, and then he just explodes? Well, he's never getting any, and now he's in there, watching Botan have kinky thoughts about him, winding it up inside of him…"

"Are you saying you think he's gonna explode?" Kuwabara asked.

Shizuru and Yusuke both snorted and chuckled as Kuwabara looked back and forth between them curiously and cluelessly.

"You think he's gonna lose control in there?" Kuwabara continued, obliviously. "And blow his top?"

"Blow his load more like!" Yusuke said through barely contained laughter.

The camera began to jiggle about on Shizuru's shoulder as she laughed along with Yusuke. The moment only ended when Shizuru noticed Hiei was pointing a finger at Botan's face: when the tip of his finger touched Botan's nose she sobered instantly and held up a hand to silence her brother and his friend. Yusuke opened his mouth but Shizuru quickly signalled for him to remain silent. All three watched on as Hiei appeared to take on an odd smile before sliding his hand along Botan's cheek until his thumb was resting on the tip of her nose. His smile was bordering on the goofy, and the incredulous look on Yusuke's face perfectly depicted how Shizuru felt witnessing it.

The moment was briefly shattered as the Lure screamed, but it did little to spoil the atmosphere as Botan freed a hand, touching it to Hiei's hand against her face.

"This isn't supposed to happen," Hiei said, his voice so quiet, it was barely a whisper.

"But it can happen here, remember?" Botan whispered. "Just like you said: this is the place where we can be together."

Hiei made another growling sound, but this one was decidedly different from the growls of irritation he made. His body language – in spite of his predicament – only underlined that it was a sexual response. The growl rose up his chest and escaped his mouth as a feral purr that exposed his teeth. He then opened his mouth, tilted his head and moved in towards Botan as though going for a passionate kiss.

"For fuck's sake, Hiei!" Yusuke yelled. "Put your dick away and concentrate!"

Hiei paused in place, his mouth open directly over Botan's as though he was about to devour her.

"Put it away, Hiei!" Yusuke said. "Don't make me climb this tree and kick you in the nuts!"

Hiei growled, this time clearly in anger, leaning back from Botan and closing his mouth into a mouthful of clenched, bared teeth.

"Any time, Hiei!" Yusuke added.

"How did you put up with him all those years he was the "Spirit Detective"?" Hiei whispered to Botan.

"I heard that, Hiei!" Yusuke called up to him.

Yusuke shook his head.

"Unbelievable," he said. "I was only joking about him being that horny. Randy little bastard…"

Hiei grabbed at the webbing either side of Botan's face and pulled outwards, actually succeeding in tearing it open and freeing her head entirely.

"What are you doing, Hiei?" she asked.

"What do you think I'm doing?" he snapped back.

He began pulling at the webbing around her neck, tearing at it wherever he could.

"Let go!" he yelled, throwing a glare at the Lure.

"I can't let go!" Botan cried back.

Hiei stopped, looking at her in what was clearly a look of shock.

"Hiei!" Yusuke out. "Look out!"

Shizuru looked up as the Lure swiped at Hiei with one of its birdlike feet, its talons tearing through his pants and scouring three bloody lines into his thigh. He lost his grip on the webbing, and as he fought to right himself by pulling on the fingers the Lure had inserted into him, the Lure spat out more webbing, wrapping Botan back up again.

"Damn it…" Yusuke cursed. "You should have put your dick away when I told you to, Hiei!"

Yusuke paced a few steps before looking thoughtful.

"Although, it did seem to get Botan's attention," he concluded. "Hiei! I changed my mind! Get your dick back out!"

"Stop," Shizuru told him flatly.

"It was working!" Yusuke replied.

"Maybe, but the way you're telling it, it kinda sounds like you just wanna see it," Shizuru pointed out.

Yusuke shrugged.

"Well, with his attitude, it has to either be really big or really small."

"Urameshi!"

"Aren't you curious to see which it is?"

"Urameshi!"

Shizuru sighed.

"Yusuke," she said patiently. "Stop. Why would you even think about something like that?"

Yusuke shook his head.

"Don't try to tell me you don't notice other girls' tits," he said.

"Urameshi, what the heck?" Kuwabara cried.

"Don't tell me you don't know yours are bigger than Keiko's," Yusuke continued. "I know they don't really look it, but that's just because you're taller than her, you have a longer body, but you are definitely one or maybe even two cup sizes bigger than Keiko."

Kuwabara almost fainted when Yusuke illustrated his point by gesturing large, heavy breasts on his own body with his hands. Shizuru took a deep breath and slowly sighed the air back out.

"It's been a long day, kid," she said to him. "And we're all getting tired, but you have to stop."

"Aw, come on, Shizuru!" he responded.

"You have to stop now," Shizuru said firmly. "You have to stop talking about Hiei's dick and my tits."

Yusuke smirked and his eyes sparkled.

"Never thought I'd hear you say the words "tits"," he said with a grin.

"Just stop, okay?" Shizuru asked.

"You know uh… That was my first masturbatory fantasy. You, saying the word tits. Not in the way you just said, more in a sort of "look at my tits, and come have a–"

"Yusuke, give it a rest, okay?"

"Hey, nights in Demon World can be long and lonely. So, you know, this just gives me something else to think about on those, uh, long and lonely nights, if you know what I'm saying."

"Seriously, stop."

"Okay, I'll stop."

"Good."

Shizuru turned away from Yusuke to take a breath to steady herself.

"I mean, you've given me plenty of material to work with as it is," Yusuke added.

Shizuru turned her head, glaring at him over her shoulder.

"That's nice too," he added, turning to look at her. "You, from behind, looking back over your shoulder at me."

"Consider yourself lucky I'm saving my energy for eviscerating that bird-faced motherfucker," she warned him.

"So maybe some other time?"

Shizuru sighed, containing her impatience as best she could, turning away from him again to try to keep her focus. Just as she was considering punching him regardless, she stopped short at the sound of Hiei speaking Yusuke's name, his voice oddly haunting in the moment.

"Leave her alone," Hiei added.

Shizuru turned to Hiei, and, from the corner of her eye, she could see Yusuke already looking up at the fire demon, if a little sceptically.

"I mean it," Hiei added. "Leave her alone. And stop making light of this."

Yusuke appeared to accept it then as he took a step back. A silence followed, one that made Shizuru realise that, in the absence of any other auditory distractions, she could actually hear a faint squelching, pulsing sound, that she could only conclude was coming from the Lure's tendril she had seen embedded into Botan's arm. Presumably it was feeding her whatever poison it produced to keep the ferry girl in her trancelike state. Hearing the sickening sound, and as Hiei and Botan had both become still and silent, Shizuru refocused the camera onto the Lure's body, focusing the lens and then involuntarily recoiling in disgust when she noticed that its belly was becoming swollen, and was actually pulsing in rhythm with the disgusting sound she could hear.

"Are you okay, sis?" Kuwabara asked her.

Shizuru nodded, raising her head above the camera to look directly at the Lure, who met her eyes, its grin widening.

"Enjoy that meal while you can," she warned the demon. "Because it will be your last. I'm gonna slice you open from one end of your body to the other when I get my hands on you."

"I'd like see you try, Shizuru," the Lure purred back at her, mockingly.

"And I'm gonna take your head as a trophy," Shizuru added, through clenched teeth.

"You can't touch me," the Lure sneered. "None of you can. First, you'd have to catch me. None of you can trace me, so none of you can find me. Then, you'd have to pin me down, and none of you have the skills to reach me. And finally, you'd have to be strong enough to harm me when I am at my strongest. A mere human like you, Shizuru, can't touch me."

"I'll find a way," Shizuru said tightly.

She swallowed her frustration and gripped at the camera, the feeling of the cold hard metal pushing at her flesh helping her keep her concentration: as much as she wanted to tell the Lure that she had already mastered the first step if had just explained, she was keen to keep that secret to herself. Logically, she knew she ought to tell her brother, Yusuke and Kurama that she had been studying the Lure, studying how it felt when it first caught Botan, how it felt as it fed, how its energy signals subtly changed, and that, with what she knew, it would be impossible for the Lure to escape her senses once it did finally release Botan. But if she told the others, they would hold her back, and she wanted the satisfaction of killing the Lure herself.

She needed the satisfaction of killing the Lure herself.

For years, Shizuru had kept the secret of the pain her own mother's addiction had caused her, and for years she had told herself that she was at peace with her mother's death: but, seeing her best friend fall victim to the same monster, she realised she was anything but. Killing the Lure would not change anything that had happened to Botan, it would not bring Shizuru's mother back to life, but it would give her a sense of satisfaction, a feeling of control, a feeling of being able to stop the monster of addiction that she had never been able to find any other way.

It was maybe selfish, but it was the way it had to be. Shizuru was going to kill the Lure, and she was going to do it alone.


"Hey guys, we did a little midnight snack run."

Shizuru turned her head to see Keiko and Yukina approaching them. Yukina was carrying an overflowing brown paper bag in one hand, and her other tiny hand was somehow supporting two cardboard cup holders, each loaded with four cups. Keiko had a large rucksack on her back and her arms were wrapped around a ridiculously huge bundle of blankets.

"Yukina, baby, you're the best!" Kuwabara gushed, taking the drinks from her.

"Hot tea and freshly baked pastries for everyone," Yukina sweetly replied.

"Yukina and I managed to get some sleep, we thought this was the least we could do for all of you out here," Keiko added.

She pushed the blankets into Yusuke's arms and removed her rucksack, pulling out a three-quarter length fleece-lined winter coat that brought a smile to Shizuru's face.

"Sweety, you're the best," she said as Keiko took the camera from her and passed her the coat.

"Your dad was kinda curious about why I went to your house looking for coats at three o'clock in the morning, but he didn't seem to mind too much when I didn't really give him a decent excuse," Keiko said.

"That sounds just like my dad," Shizuru said with a sigh.

As she fastened up her coat, she felt a little guilty, and so said no more. A small part of her felt that it was just like her dad to think little of a tense situation. On the one hand, it was great that he trusted his son and daughter so much that he had not thought to ask Keiko where they might be at such an hour, but on the other hand, his laid-back, hands-off approach to people he cared about was a point of contention for her sometimes. She waved away Keiko's offer of a blanket, but accepted a cup of tea and a pastry.

"Gees, this thing really is heavy," Keiko grumbled as Shizuru tried to eat her pastry as quickly as possible.

"It makes super high-quality videos," Kuwabara said.

Seeing the disappointed look on her brother's face, Shizuru smiled at him softly.

"High quality video is the most important thing right now," she assured him, before stuffing the rest of her pastry into her mouth and taking the camera back from Keiko. "Take a blanket and get some rest, Kazuma. I'll wake you up if anything changes."

"I don't think I can sleep, sis," he replied sullenly. "I could take the camera so you can sleep if you want?"

Shizuru shook her head.

"If you can't sleep then you must know why I can't either," she said.

He nodded.

"The feeling the Lure gives me leaves like a bad taste in my mouth," he said.

"Are you saying the food we brought tastes bad?" Keiko asked him.

"No," he assured her. "It's not that…"

"I know what you mean," Shizuru said softly.

"I don't," Yusuke said with a shrug as he helped himself to another pastry.

"That was meant to be for Kurama, Yusuke!" Keiko snapped at him.

"I'm fine," Kurama said politely.

"He's fine," Yusuke repeated to Keiko. "And if he's not, he can just grow some beans or something, right Kurama?"

Kurama gave Yusuke a mildly irritated look, but shortly turned his gaze back out towards the park gates. It was just past four in the morning, and it had been some time since anyone had tried to enter the park, but soon the early morning runners and dog walkers would arrive, and Kurama and Keiko would have their work cut out for them keeping people at bay. Shizuru silently hoped they would recover Botan before that time, but she and Hiei had been silent for a long time, and she was doubtful that would be the case. Then, as though on cue, Hiei spoke.

"Can you hear me?" he asked.

He twitched and made a small, almost pitiful, noise of frustration.

"Can you hear me?" he asked again.

"I can hear you," Botan finally replied, her voice small and weak.

"What are you doing?" Hiei asked her.

"I just woke up," she said. "I was just… Looking."

"You were doing more than looking."

Something about Hiei's darker tone in his last statement made Shizuru's snack stick in her throat like a rock. It was almost as though Hiei was saying that the prolonged silence that had passed had been because Botan had been too far away, too far gone, fallen too deeply in for him to reach her.

"Why did you come here?" he asked.

"You took me here!" she replied.

He sighed.

"I see," he said, in a hard tone. "That's not good. You shouldn't have come here."

"You took me here, Hiei!" Botan argued back.

"Well, you shouldn't listen to me," Hiei told her firmly.

There was a short pause before Hiei spoke again.

"Did you hear what I just said?" he asked.

"You just told me to stop listening to you!" Botan argued. "Make up your mind, Hiei!"

"Listen to what I'm saying right now. But after that, don't listen to me."

"You're not making a lot of sense, Hiei."

"Stand up… Now move away from the edge… All the way away. Leave this place entirely. Don't come back."

"But I like it here–"

"Go. And don't come back. No matter what."

Shizuru shivered as Hiei and Botan sank back into the still, silent states they had been in most of the night. Something about their exchange, and the damp, cloying feeling in the air told her the silence was every bit as bad as she had feared: it was a time when Hiei was unable to reach Botan, and it seemed he was unable to reach her because she was falling too deeply into the world the Lure had trapped her into. Shizuru felt then that, if the Lure managed to take Botan even one more time, it may be the last, as it may drain her of her very soul, and bringing her around physically would not bring Botan back to reality.

Reaffirming her grip on the camera again, Shizuru reaffirmed her determination to capture and kill the Lure as soon as Botan was free.


Next Chapter: After some more tense waiting, Botan is finally freed of the Lure, and Shizuru sets out to chase it down. She has perfected tracking the Lure, but it has her beaten in speed and agility, and, despite her best efforts, she fails to catch it. However, her efforts do not go to waste, as Hiei notices she alone can track the Lure. He strikes a deal with her for finding and killing the Lure, but both are lying when they enter the deal, and, due to their inability to work together, the Lure successfully captures Botan for a third time. Chapter 29: Never Thought I Would