Last Chapter: Ayame joined Hiei and Shizuru, completing the DWB Show. Shizuru confronted Kurama, and learned that the Deploro leave was giving Botan dark hallucinations in order to weaken her connection to the Lure. The Lure caught Botan for a fourth time, and the gang rushed in to try to free her. During one of their little strategy meetings, Shizuru started to doubt that Ayame would be able to trap the Lure as she had promised she could.
Chapter 32: Something You Want
Although Hiei's approach to Botan and the Lure was no less graphic than it had been on previous occasions, he did manage to illicit a response from Botan a lot faster than usual, and Shizuru silently hoped that it was because he was taking a more thoughtful approach. Within minutes of hanging himself off the webbing around Botan and the Lure assaulting him, he spoke his first words to her.
"Back here again?" he asked her. "Yes, I knew you would come here. Your predictability at least makes this task easier for me. It's a very quaint choice of location to will your own demise. I might have guessed you'd have chosen something a little more… Colourful and feminine."
"Feminine?" Botan eventually responded.
"A field of flowers, perhaps," he said.
"I prefer it here," she answered him. "I can see the sky in the fields. That's prettier than a field of flowers."
"Curious," he responded. "I've never especially cared for the sky, though of course I don't spend as much time in it as you do."
"I suppose the sky isn't exactly a place you'd like to be. Didn't you fall from the sky when you were–"
"Yes, well, this isn't about my preferences."
"It's just so peaceful here.".
"Peaceful is one word for it. Another might be isolated. I never thought of you as the sort who enjoyed isolation."
"I live in a part of King Enma's temple that's very small, really quite cramped. I share a kitchen and a lounge with nine other ferry girls. I don't often get time to myself. I like to come here sometimes, to enjoy the view, enjoy the silence."
"Hn, it's funny how even I have made incorrect assumptions about you."
Shizuru made a small noise of annoyance. This, she thought to herself, would perhaps be a good time for one of Yusuke's interruptions, as Hiei was drifting off the mark again, openly admitting what he had confessed to her only moments earlier: that he accepted the torture from the Lure just to get a voyeuristic look into Botan's mind.
"I didn't think you even thought about me at all," Botan said. "It feels that way. Like most of the time you don't even notice whether I'm around or not."
"And you had to come to the Lure to change that?" Hiei asked.
"Yes, I did," she replied.
"Hn, then I suppose this is as much my fault."
"Does this mean you'll stop ignoring me?"
"I didn't think I ever was ignoring you."
"Well, you've got a funny way of showing it!"
"I understand."
Hiei's voice had become uncharacteristically soft.
"I have to go," he said. "Stay out of the water."
Shizuru gasped as Hiei let go of the webbing around Botan and took hold of the Lure's fingers, hauling himself back off of them and dropping to the ground.
"What are you doing, Hiei?" Yusuke asked him.
Hiei ignored him, walking past him to join Shizuru.
"You're right," he told her quietly.
"Really?" she asked, smiling in spite of herself.
"It will work better if I focus," he admitted. "I let go when the connection started to weaken. I will rest before I try again."
"Well, look at you, big guy!" Shizuru said, patting him on the shoulder despite the way he flinched and scowled at her with every slap of her hand. "Learning lessons and growing up: I'm proud of you."
"I'm doing it so that I don't pass out as soon as she is free," he coldly replied. "I'm doing it so that I am fit and you don't try to bypass me to fight the Lure alone."
Shizuru nodded but said no more. After his frank honesty, she felt it would be too terrible to tell him that his expectation was accurate: as soon as Botan was free, she absolutely would bypass Hiei and kill it alone. He shifted his attention then to Ayame, his expression hardening again, his glare looking positively unsettling thanks to the tracks of drying blood down the sides of his face.
"Make yourself useful, Boring," he said to her.
"Boring has been making herself useful, Dango," Shizuru answered, silently glad for the change of subject.
Hiei lunged forwards and swiped a hand at the ground around Ayame. The ferry girl was knelt on the grass, with two piles of rags in front of her and her pen in one hand. When Hiei straightened up again, one of the rags was hanging limply over his upturned hand.
"You call this useful?" he asked Shizuru, moving the rag closer to her.
"I've been making them," Ayame said, pointing at one of the piles, which appeared to have ink marks over them.
"With your "pen", I suppose," Hiei sneered, flinging the rag back at her.
Ayame caught the rag just before it slapped her in the face and carefully added it back to the pile of marked rags.
"We've got this, Dango," Shizuru said to Hiei.
"No, Worthy, I have this," he told her. "You are here merely to guide me. And Boring is here to clean up."
"Clean up?" Ayame echoed.
"Just be glad you are actually useful to me for once, Boring," Hiei viciously answered her. "Rather than just turning up instead of her."
"You might want to consider calling her something better than "Boring"," Shizuru whispered.
"I'll stop calling her "Boring" when she shows me that she's worth my effort to learn her name," Hiei replied in a loud whisper Ayame would clearly hear.
"I'd rather you didn't always call me Boring," Ayame said quietly.
"You are named for what you are," Hiei plainly replied. "You are named Boring because you are boring, and Worthy is named Worthy because she is worthy."
"Do you know why we named you "Dango"?" Shizuru asked him, before throwing a smile at Ayame.
"I don't even know what "dango" is," Hiei replied.
"It's a sweet dumpling, served on a stick," Shizuru explained.
"Oh I see," he sneered. "I suppose you both think it's amusing to see me humiliate myself. To see me skewered like a piece of human food."
"There's more to it than that, big guy. It's also because you're actually quite sweet."
Hiei glared at Shizuru.
"I thought it was because he's actually quite soft?" Ayame asked.
Hiei turned his glare on Ayame and Shizuru started to chuckle to herself. Ayame watched her for a moment before giggling a little herself behind one hand.
"Yes, laugh it up, you pair of hags!" Hiei spat angrily at them. "After I crush this spider, I don't ever want to see you again, Boring!"
"What about me?" Shizuru asked him.
"I can tolerate you," he answered, somehow making his words sound like an insult.
"Steady with the charm there, Dango. I don't think my poor knees can take it."
"I hate both of you," Hiei grumbled, before marching off.
Shizuru watched him scale up a tree and obscure himself into the foliage – where she imagined he was either sleeping or literally licking his wounds – and, once she was sure he was suitably far enough away and suitably distracted, she moved over to sit down beside Ayame, who was still knelt on the ground with her rags.
"Are you ready for this, Boring?" she asked.
"Of course," Ayame replied, nodding her head. "I'm almost finished my preparations."
"We should choose a site for it," Shizuru suggested.
Ayame paused and Shizuru was sure she could see the pen in the ferry girl's hand shaking. Ayame looked at her, where she appeared to notice that her eyes were on the pen, and she pulled it into herself, covering it with both hands, which shortly disappeared beneath her sleeves.
"Are you ready?" Shizuru asked her. "We have to break this cycle."
"I can do this," Ayame replied.
"Okay," Shizuru said.
She stood up and moved over to her brother, taking the camera from him to give him a rest – not so much because he was feeling the strain of standing with the camera, but more because she had noticed he was clearly keen to break away from filming so that he could sit with Yukina. The Lure still had that wild look plastered on its face, and its body was still steadily growing. Shizuru did not have to watch it for long however before Hiei appeared in front of her. The Lure's grin widened and Hiei once more launched himself at Botan's containment. As before, his hands were burned by the webbing and the Lure assaulted him with its blade-like fingers, but, just like his previous attempt, he was able to elicit a response from Botan relatively quickly, as within minutes of him settling into place, she spoke.
"I thought I might find you here," she said.
"Likewise," he answered her.
"You came here to look for me?" she asked.
"Yes."
Botan's face flickered, a small smile appearing on her pale lips.
"I had a nice day today," she said. "I spent the day with all my best friends: Shizuru, Yukina and Keiko."
Shizuru reaffirmed her hold of the camera upon hearing Botan say her name, and, despite the fact that Kuwabara had just settled down by her, Yukina shot up and moved over to join Shizuru on her right side. Keiko appeared a moment later on Shizuru's left side, and, to Shizuru's surprise, so did Ayame, looking up at Botan apprehensively. Hiei tilted his head slightly in Ayame's direction and appeared to frown, but he said nothing, and Botan continued.
"They're more than just my friends," she said. "They're more like my sisters. Shizuru is the big sister, the rebel, who I can have grown-up fun with. Keiko is like my twin. She's a little bit competitive, but she keeps me on my toes. And Yukina is like my little sister. My sweet, kind, caring little sister."
Shizuru swallowed past the tightness in her throat and squinted to keep her eyes from tearing up, but Yukina and Keiko made considerably less effort to hide their emotions, as Keiko covered her mouth with one, slightly shaky, hand and Yukina clutched onto Shizuru's coat at her side. Hiei moved his head a little again and Shizuru looked over at Ayame, finding her still standing on Keiko's other side, but with her head downturned suddenly. Above them, Hiei let out what almost sounded like an irritated sigh.
"I'm sure you have friends in Spirit World too," he said, in an almost begrudging tone.
"No, not really," Botan answered. "No-one I would trust like my sisters."
"I see," Hiei said.
"We're just like you and the boys," Botan added.
"I doubt that."
"It's true. Shizuru is like Yusuke. She's the strongest of us–"
"What makes you think Yusuke is stronger than me?"
"–and she's the one that gets me into trouble all the time. Keiko is like Kuwabara. She's the weakest of us and feels left out sometimes when the rest of us can see and sense things that she can't. And Yukina is like Kurama. She's so wise, and so calm, but she carries with her a painful past."
"And I suppose that means you think you and I are alike?"
"Hmm?"
"You just likened all your friends to all of mine. The only ones left are you and me."
"Oh… Yes, I see what you mean."
"In what ways are you and I alike?"
Hiei and Botan fell silent, and although the moment was short, it felt painfully long under the circumstances.
"You're both stubborn," Shizuru called up to them, hoping that somehow either of them would hear her.
"You're both repressed," Keiko added.
Shizuru glanced at her and they exchanged smiles.
"And you both get so angry over silly little things," Yukina added.
Shizuru and Keiko turned wide eyes to the little ice maiden, who stared back at them plainly.
"I'm not wrong," she said quietly.
Shizuru and Keiko pulled faces of semi-agreement and turned their attention back to Hiei and Botan.
"Stubborn, repressed and angry," Hiei repeated, through gritted teeth.
"What?" Botan echoed.
"Those are things you and I have in common," he said in a tone that bordered on sarcastic. "Apparently."
"I'm not stubborn!" Botan complained. "And I'm not an angry person, I'm a happy person!"
"You are stubborn," Hiei replied. "And you can be angry."
"Well I'm definitely not the other thing! What was it?"
"Repressed."
"Right. I'm not repressed."
"Have you and I ever had sex?"
Yusuke groaned.
"We've never had sex, right?" Hiei continued, seemingly oblivious to Yusuke's interjections. "Don't you wonder why that is?"
"Why what is?" Botan asked.
"That we've never had sex," he replied.
"That's what I thought you said…"
"You probably don't understand why. It might have even happened in your dreams."
"Have you been reading my mind when I'm asleep?"
"I don't need to. I know enough of the limitations of the Lure to know why. You're a virgin."
"What?"
"Am I wrong?"
"It's none of your business, Mister!"
"If you weren't, we would have had sex by now."
"Why are you assuming I would just have sex with you?"
"Because you've been fantasising about seeing me naked, idiot! You've been wishing for me to steal my way into Spirit World and snatch you out of the shower and have my way with you! If you weren't a virgin, that would have actually happened! You wouldn't have just imagined it, it would have happened. I would have shown up, and–"
"Damnit, Hiei, not this again!" Yusuke groaned.
"Shut the hell up and let me do this!" Hiei roared over his shoulder at Yusuke.
Yusuke opened his mouth to answer but Kurama put a hand on his arm, drawing his attention towards him. The fox demon shook his head and Yusuke took a step back. Kurama then looked over at Shizuru and gave a single nod of his head. She returned the gesture, as an acknowledgement of his welcome sensible judgement in the situation.
"I don't understand," Botan said.
"The Lure relies on accuracy to make your illusions binding and desirable to you," Hiei explained to her. "The only limitations your illusions have are those of your own reality. The Lure cannot make you experience something you don't understand. You would know it was fake. You've never had sex in any of your illusions because you are a virgin. Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you now?"
"I think so."
"Good."
"But you could have been more polite about it."
"The point is, you are repressed."
"Well so are you!"
"Yes, but in a different way. You desire sex because it's forbidden for you. It's something sacred in your world. It's not sex, it's "love-making", and it only happens when and where love exists. The rules in my world are a little different."
"Is this about oral sex?"
Shizuru looked over at Keiko, who looked back at her, appearing to be torn between amusement and horror. They both turned to Yukina and found her leaning forwards as though fascinated by the conversation.
"You're much more of a pervert than I ever thought you were," Hiei eventually answered Botan.
"I've always been curious about oral sex though," Botan mused.
There was a short, awkward pause in the group before Hiei broke the silence.
"Giving or receiving?" he asked in a low voice, probably hoping that nobody on the ground would hear him.
"I-I never thought about receiving it before…" Botan whispered.
"So… You fantasise solely about giving it?" Hiei asked.
"Damnit Hiei, stop trying to get Botan to suck you off and get her out of there already!" Yusuke erupted.
Hiei grunted in annoyance.
"Try to stay focused, Hiei," Kurama added.
Hiei sighed.
"Never mind," he said to Botan. "My point was…"
"Did you forget?" Botan asked him.
"I'm trying to concentrate, and you're putting ideas into my head, woman," he groaned.
He paused, and, in the silence, Shizuru wondered if he had lost his connection to Botan: but, just as it seemed as though that may be the case, Botan wriggled a little inside her cocoon, as though trying to walk forwards despite her restraint.
"My point was that the Lure will never let you experience sex in an illusion because you have no point of reference from reality that it can base it's falsehood upon," Hiei said, apparently continuing his conversation with Botan. "And the fact you don't know what sex feels like is what makes you repressed: you want it – clearly quite badly – but you've never had it, because your world has taught you it's only possible when love is involved. In my world, there is a similar thing. And that's what makes me repressed."
"You're a virgin too?" Botan asked.
"No!" Hiei quickly replied.
"It's okay if you are…"
"Sex isn't frowned upon or difficult to come across in Demon World."
"Then I don't understand."
"It's not sex I can't have, it's kissing."
"Kissing?"
"In Demon World, a kiss is something that can only happen where love exists. Just like how you have never experienced sex, I have never experienced a kiss."
Shizuru heard Kuwabara ask Kurama if what Hiei had said was true, and, much to her chagrin, when Kurama confirmed that it was, Kuwabara turned to Yukina and they exchanged the sort of looks she never wanted to see on the face of her friend – or more especially her younger brother.
"Really?" Botan asked.
"Yes," Hiei confirmed.
"Why are you telling me this?" she asked.
"Because if you really want sex as much as you seem to, you need to understand that the only way you will ever experience it is in the real world. Away from the Lure. It's something you want so badly, but it's one of the few things the Lure can never give you."
"But… You can?"
"I didn't say that."
"I thought you were offering to–"
"No."
"Oh."
"Just… Think about what I've said."
Hiei's body appeared to relax a little, which was a telling sign that his conversations with Botan were becoming more demanding on him than enduring the Lure's attacks. He then slid himself back down off the Lure's fingers, landing a lot less graciously than he had the last time he had freed himself, and stumbled a little way away before pretending that he had meant to sit where he eventually landed. He sat there for a little while, breathing heavily, before hauling himself to his feet. At first, Shizuru thought that he was going to go back to confront the Lure again, but after a moment's hesitation, he turned his back on the Lure and moved away with purpose. Seeing that he was aiming himself towards Ayame, Shizuru hurried after him.
"What happened the last time you did this?" he asked.
Ayame looked up at him with fearful eyes from her position knelt on the ground, her pen in one hand and one of her rags in the other.
"I asked you a question, you miserable mouse!" Hiei snapped at her.
"Take it easy, big guy," Shizuru said to him as she caught up to him.
"I-I don't understand the question," Ayame said in a small, meek voice.
"The last time you did this," Hiei said, his voice dripping with sarcasm and barely restrained patience. "What happened?"
He scooped up one of her used rags and threw it at her face. She cowered down away from it as though she expected it to hurt when it weakly landed on her shoulder.
"What difference does it make?" Shizuru interjected. "Obviously she knows what she's doing. Let her worry about what she's doing, you just concentrate on what you're doing. And try not to get yourself killed while you're at it. We'd rather you stayed a dango and didn't end up a stain on the ground."
"The only stain around here is her," Hiei spat back, pointing a bloodied finger at Ayame. "Boring, you have done this before. Tell me how many times you have done this and tell me you are capable of doing it quickly."
Ayame gulped audibly.
"Oh shit Boring, you've never done this before?" Shizuru asked, the question leaving her lips before she could stop herself from voicing it.
"I read about it in the book!" Ayame wailed. "It was all in the book! I did exactly what it said in the book! I've seen others doing it, I've just never actually done it myself!"
"We're fucked," Hiei growled.
"No, we're not fucked," Shizuru disagreed. "Boring, you can do this. I believe in you. And I know you will do it–"
"And do it quickly," Hiei cut in.
"And do it quickly," Shizuru repeated. "Because I trust you. Okay?"
Ayame quivered all over.
"That's a lot of pressure," she squeaked.
"You've dealt with demons before," Shizuru said, intending to gradually build up to the fact that Ayame ought to be capable of laying a simple trap for a demon if she had faced them down in combat before.
Ayame slowly shook her head and Shizuru felt a downward tugging sensation in her chest, as though her heart was literally sinking.
"This is why she is boring," Hiei said to her. "This is why she will never be anything more than a miserable, pathetic, dismal, underwhelming excuse for…"
Hiei turned his head sharply, looking back at Botan's face, pale and responsive and yet somehow pretty and serene inside of the webbed trap she was contained in. Shizuru looked back at Botan too, and for a moment, they held their position. The way the colour had now left Botan's lips, making them the same colour as the skin on her paled face, reminded Shizuru a little too keenly of how her mother had looked the day she had come home and found her unresponsive.
"Boring cares about her just as much as you and I do," she said, turning to Hiei.
"Care?" Hiei hissed, shifting his eyes back to Shizuru. "Care is a human word. It's empty. It doesn't describe anything. This isn't about caring. This is about…"
His top lip twitched and his eyes flashed, but he apparently still lacked the conviction to say the actual word, as he eventually gave up and stomped off to hide in a tree again. Shizuru sighed and turned to Ayame, who was clutching the rag Hiei had thrown at her, her entire body still cowered over fearfully.
"This is about someone who can't deal with any emotion that doesn't land neatly on the spectrum from irked to unholy rage," Shizuru explained to her.
Ayame relaxed a little as Shizuru smiled at her.
"Stupid four-letter words that are supposed to encompass everything so neatly," Hiei grumbled as he started up a nearby tree, the climb taking him longer in his now weakened state. "It doesn't work like that. It isn't neat. It's messy. It's big. Much bigger than one stupid little word."
Shizuru turned to Ayame again and they both smiled before saying the same word in unison.
"Love."
Shizuru moved over to sit beside Ayame, looking down at her rags for a moment.
"I can do this," Ayame said.
Shizuru looked her in the eye.
"I think I can do this," the ferry girl qualified quietly. "But just in case I can't, should we ask Kurama for more Deploro leaves? Or maybe he has a plant that can ensnare the Lure?"
Shizuru shook her head, glancing over at the others before leaning closer to Ayame.
"We need to keep this plan between just the three of us," she said quietly.
"Maybe Yusuke or Kuwabara could help us though," Ayame tried.
Shizuru shook her head.
"My brother needs to stay with Botan, to cut her free, and I don't know if we can trust Yusuke," she said.
"You don't trust Yusuke?" Ayame asked incredulously. "Isn't he one of your friends?"
"Yes, but I don't trust him not to mess this up for us," Shizuru replied.
"Then could we ask Kurama about using a plant?"
"I don't know if we can trust Kurama, either. He's not exactly pulled through for us so far. If I'm being honest, I don't trust anyone right now. Except you, sweetie. You and Dango."
Ayame smiled and went back to scribbling on her rags. Shizuru looked over her handiwork, noting that the pen and the rags were literally the only tools the ferry girl visibly had about her person, and the rags were small – barely bigger than an average facecloth – and the Lure was enormous, probably as tall as an elephant and twice as wide after a good feed. Ayame's rags alone would not be able to physically restrain the Lure in any state. She looked over at Hiei, sitting on a tree branch swiping at the bloodiest of his wounds with a rag that looked worryingly like one of Ayame's. She rolled her eyes and contained a sigh: maybe the only person she could actually rely on was herself. The Lure had already shown an interest in confronting her, maybe if she challenged it directly and alone, it would come out and fight her. Maybe she ought to just proceed to hunt it on her own.
"Will you be ready to set your trap soon?" she asked Ayame.
"Almost there," Ayame said.
She sounded confident, and Shizuru decided to accept that as assurance enough. She stood up and, as she saw Hiei start to move, she moved over to join the others, taking the camera from her brother to let him have a break from filming. As she positioned the weight on her shoulder, she saw Hiei launching himself at the Lure again.
"Hey, isn't it a bit soon for you to be going back in there, Dango?" she called up to him.
"Shut up and let me do this, Worthy," he called back, continuing back into his prone position.
Like his earlier two attempts, he was able to get Botan talking quite quickly once again.
"I thought you might have gone home," he said.
"I'll go home later," Botan answered.
"Because… You needed to be here to watch Unworthy make a fool of himself in front of Yukina?" Hiei asked.
"Unworthy?" Botan repeated.
"You need to be here to watch Yusuke eat like an animal?"
"Did you just call Kuwabara "Unworthy"?"
"Why didn't you go home? What's the point of this? This is just eating human food in the human world. You can do that any time. Why now?"
"I'm spending time with my friends, Hiei!"
Shizuru wondered what exactly it was that Hiei could see. She took a little solace from the fact that Botan was imagining herself somewhere pleasant and that she seemed comfortable. After what Kurama had told her about the side effects of the Deploro leaf, Shizuru had been worried that every second Botan was under the Lure's thrall she was living in a literal hellscape.
"You did this already," Hiei said. "You ate human food and then watched these idiots playing with their karaoke machine."
There was a short pause before Hiei spoke again.
"That's a terrible idea," he said. "Why are you letting him say that?"
"He always wants to get out the karaoke machine," Botan replied. "But Keiko doesn't have a karaoke machine."
"I don't think that matters," Hiei groaned.
Yusuke turned to Kurama and Kuwabara.
"What is this?" he asked them quietly. "How is this helping?"
"Hiei is trying to make a connection to Botan," Kurama explained. "Trying to find something to focus her onto, to break the connection the Lure has to her mind, and to bring her back around."
"And karaoke is how he's gonna do it?" Yusuke asked, his face twisting sceptically.
"It's too embarrassing!" Botan said suddenly.
"Did she hear what I said?" Yusuke asked. "Is karaoke really the secret to getting Botan free?"
"Yes it is," Hiei said.
Whilst it was obvious to Shizuru that Hiei had been answering Botan, in the conversation they were sharing in their own little world, Yusuke apparently thought Hiei was answering his question.
"Really?" Yusuke asked, looking far too pleased with himself. "Hey Kuwabara, you've still got that CD, right?"
"Right here, Urameshi!" Kuwabara replied, pulling a CD from the inside pocket of his coat.
Keiko frowned and shook her head in disbelief, but nobody else seemed surprised that Kuwabara was carrying music on his person.
"Put it on," Yusuke said, as Kuwabara produced his CD player from his other pocket. "Track two, wasn't it?"
"Oh yeah, right!" Kuwabara said.
Shizuru wanted to tell them to stop. They had already tried playing Botan's favourite song to her while she was under the Lure's control, and it had not worked then, and was even less likely to work this time around: but she decided against stopping them. Their enthusiasm was a welcome influx of positivity in an otherwise very negative situation.
"No," Hiei said quietly. "No. Not this. Anything but this."
"I don't want to sing!" Botan answered him. "It's so embarrassing!"
"Is-is that what it is now?" Hiei asked, sounding strangely unsure of himself. "Is that what it will take? Humiliation? Allowing myself to be gored in ten places by this beak-faced bastard isn't enough for you?"
"Come on, Hiei!" Yusuke called over, as the tinny sound of music playing at full volume from a set of foam headphones filled the air. "We all know you know the words just as well as Botan does!"
"You know this song?" Botan asked.
"How could I not?" Hiei replied. "You ask for it to be played every time we all get together and it's always in your head. You're obsessed with it!"
"It is lovely," Botan said.
"This is what you want," Hiei said.
"Yeah, this is what she wants, Hiei," Yusuke said. "Now quit stalling and start singing."
Yusuke looked far too pleased, he was only setting himself up for disappointment, Shizuru thought to herself.
"You understand this is not something I would ever really do," Hiei said in a low voice.
Shizuru paused.
"But you are really doing it," Yusuke said.
"You're not really going to…?" Botan asked.
"I don't make the rules around here, you do," Hiei growled back.
Shizuru muttered out a small curse and readjusted the camera on her shoulder. She was torn between disbelief and fascination at what appeared to be happening, and once more found herself thankful that she did have the camera, because, if what appeared to be happening did unfold, Botan would never believe it unless she saw the recorded evidence afterwards. When the tinny voice bleeding out of the headphones began to sing, Hiei grumbled and mumbled in rhythm with it, and any doubt Shizuru had been holding onto vanished: apparently, he genuinely did intend to sing Botan's favourite song to her.
"Come on Hiei, we all know you know every single damn word!" Yusuke shouted up at him.
Hiei muttered his way through the second line of the song and Shizuru started to feel terrible. Hiei did not suffer any form of humiliation lightly, his current predicament had to be pure torture. His current predicament was also, however amusing it might be to witness, a worrying reminder of just how desperate he was to make that connection he needed to make to draw Botan out of her trance.
"I was meant to tread the water, but now I've gotten in too deep."
"Yeah, Hiei!" Yusuke cheered. "Give it to her–"
He fell silent when Shizuru slapped him over the back of his head. He turned to her, but the glare she gave him must have been even more menacing than she had intended, because he backed off without further comment.
"I can't believe this is actually happening," Keiko whispered, as Hiei continued singing to Botan.
"I can't believe Hiei knows the lyrics," Kuwabara commented. "He always said he hated music, especially human music."
"This is probably a bad sign," Kurama said softly, voicing the concern Shizuru had been too afraid to. "This is a desperate move by Hiei. Botan must be slipping out of his reach."
Hiei slowly lifted up a hand, his palm upturned, in front of Botan, and shortly his voice, the music playing and every other sound was momentarily drowned out by the satisfying shriek of the Lure as one of Botan's hands broke out of the webbing and touched Hiei's waiting hand. Hiei stopped singing instantly and grabbed a tight hold of Botan's hand, pulling at her as he had done the last time she had been taken by the Lure, and just as had happened that time, the webbing behind her cocoon partially tore loose, Botan's body swinging a little where it was suspended.
"What happened?" she asked, as the motion slowed. "We were having dinner, and you were singing–"
"Don't think about that," Hiei interrupted her. "You need to focus on this."
"Focus on what?" she asked.
"This."
Hiei held up his hand, still holding hers, in the air between them.
"I don't understand," Botan said. "We were having dinner. We were all having a nice time, why are we here now?"
"I'm trying to make a connection, and you're not helping," Hiei replied, his impatience and irritation clear in his tone.
"Make a connection?" Botan repeated. "You were making a lovely connection back at the party when you started singing–"
"Forget about that, I'm trying to break the connection!"
"You just said you were trying to make a connection."
"I am!"
"Then why did you just say you're trying to break a connection?"
Hiei groaned and tightened his hold of her hand.
"I'm trying to break the connection between you and the bird, and I am trying to make a connection between you and me," he said.
"Me and the bird?" Botan repeated. "Are you talking about Puu? Does that mean you're talking about Yusuke?"
"No! Focus!"
"It's a little hard to when you were just singing."
"I did that to get your attention. And it worked, didn't it?"
"Did it?"
"…Maybe not."
Yusuke stepped forwards, looking up at Hiei thoughtfully.
"Maybe you should finish the song, Hiei," he suggested. "Maybe that's what you need to do. Maybe dance for her too."
Hiei turned his head slightly towards Yusuke and growled through an irritated sneer at him.
"See, this is funny for me, Hiei," Yusuke continued. "Because not too long ago, some little asshole told me I was pathetic for going shopping to get head."
"Yusuke!" Keiko yelped.
"But now you're up there asking Botan to give head to you and then you start singing to her," Yusuke continued. "Wanna tell me how that's less pathetic than going shopping or watching some dumb movie with a girl?"
Hiei fell silent and shifted his head fully towards Botan again. When he did speak again, he sounded strangely pleased with himself, despite Yusuke's taunting.
"When it's Yusuke's birthday, and we all gather in the human world, do you ever wonder why we sleep in two separate houses?"
"What?" Botan echoed.
"You go to Keiko's house with Shizuru and Yukina, and I stay with Yusuke, Kurama and Unworthy Kuwabara at Yusuke's mother's apartment. Don't you find that odd, when any other time, we would all just sleep at one house?" Hiei asked.
Yusuke frowned, clearly unsure what to make of Hiei's latest approach.
"It's because after you leave," Hiei continued. "After all the women leave – Yusuke spikes Kuwabara's orange juice with alcohol, he spikes Kurama's water with fruit of the past life, and, as soon as the two of them are insensible enough, all four of us sneak into your room while you sleep."
"Fuck you, Hiei!" Yusuke shouted.
Kuwabara leapt at him and grabbed him back when he tried to jump at Hiei's back.
"That son of a bitch is ratting us out, Kuwabara!" Yusuke argued.
"Kurama would never normally go along with it, but Yoko will," Hiei continued. "And Kuwabara pretends that he comes along to make sure we don't rummage through Yukina's underwear, but the truth is, he's just as curious as the rest of us."
"Why are you telling me this?" Botan asked.
"Revenge," Hiei purred. "It's only fair they should be humiliated as badly as I have been."
Yusuke turned to Kurama expectantly.
"You did ask for this, Yusuke," the fox demon plainly told him.
"I don't believe you," Botan said. "I don't believe any of this."
"You own a pair of black lacey panties," Hiei replied. "You always take them with you, but you never actually wear them."
He then turned his head slightly in Yusuke's direction again.
"Shall I mention Keiko's bra size or are we done being lousy bastards?" he called down to Yusuke.
Yusuke glared back at him but said nothing.
"I can't believe you boys all do that to us!" Keiko shouted over at them. "You disgust me – all of you! I expect Yusuke to try stupid things like that, but I expected better from the rest of you!"
"They're boys, Keiko," Shizuru said to her. "It's what they do."
"Us girls never do anything disgusting like that!" Keiko haughtily replied.
"Who are you talking to?" Botan asked.
"Never mind," Hiei said, turning back to her.
"I just don't understand why you felt you needed to make up a story about doing fun things with the boys," she said. "It feels like you're just trying to compete with all the drinking games I play with the girls on Yusuke's birthday."
Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama all purposefully turned to Keiko, Shizuru and Yukina.
"What-what sort of drinking games?" Hiei asked quietly.
"Like the name game," Botan replied.
"I thought you meant something interesting."
"Where we name body parts."
"What?"
"On you boys."
"What?"
Keiko swallowed hard and forced an awkward smile.
"What was that you were just saying to us, Keiko?" Yusuke asked her.
"It's different when we do it!" she argued pitifully.
"How?" he asked.
"We don't take trophies," Yukina said.
Keiko tuned deathly pale and then painfully red.
"Trophies?" Kuwabara said meekly.
"Like you don't steal out underwear or anything else you find in our drawers!" Shizuru shot back.
"Yeah!" Keiko agreed, regaining some of her confidence.
"I wouldn't have minded if you'd stolen something of mine so much," Yukina said in that unsettlingly calm voice she used sometimes. "But what you stole last time isn't something I keep for myself, it's something Kazuma likes."
Yusuke, Kurama and Kuwabara looked at each other for only a brief moment before then going out of their way to avoid looking at each other.
"It's not what you think," Yukina said when she caught Shizuru looking down at her.
"Just stop, sweetie," Shizuru answered. "Please."
Yukina looked as though she failed to understand why she should stop, but thankfully she said no more.
"I named yours," Botan said to Hiei. "But when I think of the three names I used, it feels silly now. Now that I'm sober, and you're standing right in front of me, and I'm looking at the parts of your body I named…"
"But…" he said slowly. "You're looking me in the eye…"
"Yes, it's so silly," she said. "I named them Winky, Blinky and Soul Stealer."
"You named my eyes?"
"Yes. Because you have the Jagan Eye, and it's evil."
"My eyes?"
"Yes. Why, what did you think I meant?"
"You said you named three parts of my body, I just assumed…"
Hiei and Botan fell silent again, and Yusuke started pulling faces, clearly desperate to comment. Kurama solemnly shook his head at him, and so he turned to Kuwabara.
"Oh, yeah, me too, Urameshi," Kuwabara quietly told him.
"Even Kuwabara thought it!" Yusuke said, pointing at Keiko, who shrugged and shook her head.
"We all thought it too. What's your point?"
Yusuke froze, mouth pursed and eyes like saucers, staring unblinkingly at the voice that had answered him.
"We all know Botan has a weird relationship with male body parts," Yukina continued, her comment somehow making Yusuke's eyes even larger.
He slowly moved his eyes to Keiko who shrugged again, and then to Shizuru, who smiled tightly.
"Oh, you have no idea," she told him.
Yusuke pointed at Yukina, his eyes still enormous and unblinking. Shizuru and Keiko nodded, and Yusuke turned his eyes to Kuwabara.
"What?" Kuwabara asked him.
"I weirdly have a new respect for you, man," Yusuke quietly admitted.
Kuwabara gave him a questioning look, as though his reaction to Yukina's frankness was entirely unwarranted, but both of them switched their focus when Hiei spoke again.
"Never mind," he said quietly.
"Keiko named Yusuke's thighs Crushy and Squeezy, but I think that's because he squishes her face during fellatio."
"Huh?"
Yusuke's head snapped around to look over at Keiko.
"Don't pretend you don't tell your friends about what it's like when we're intimate!" Keiko snapped at him.
"Not like that he doesn't," Kuwabara said in a low voice.
"I'm pretty sure he does, Kuwabara!" Keiko argued. "Stop being a "bro" and defending him! You know better than anyone how big a pervert he is!"
Kuwabara glanced back and forth between Yusuke and Keiko.
"You two deserve each other," he concluded.
"Kuwabara!" Keiko yelled indignantly. "Really? Well, you know what? You and Yukina deserve each other!"
"Yes, but for us, that's a positive statement," Yukina said, giving Keiko a hard look.
Keiko took a step back, her face falling.
"Don't piss her off," Shizuru warned her quietly.
Keiko nodded hurriedly, the haunted look in her eye telling Shizuru that she was apparently mentally reliving the last time she had accidentally incurred Yukina's wrath.
"I think," Botan said.
"Is that where your obsession with legs comes from?" Hiei asked.
"No, my interest is more to do with sexual intercourse. Strong thighs are better for thrusting."
Hiei dropped Botan's hand so suddenly, Keiko gasped at Shizuru's side.
"I can't do this," Hiei said.
"Oh shit," Shizuru muttered under her breath.
Next Chapter: Shizuru and Ayame conclude that Hiei will only be able to break Botan away from the Lure if he tells her he loves her, but he seems incapable of saying the actual words. Shizuru realises she has to step in and reach out to Botan, and when Ayame tells her Botan is concerned about being judged for going back to the Lure, Shizuru – with Hiei's help – speaks to Botan to tell her about her own experiences with her mother's addiction. She makes a connection with Botan, but just when it seems like she might be about to break Botan out, the Lure attacks Shizuru. Chapter 33: Nothing Can Stop me
