Last Chapter: Shizuru went out to try to reach Botan, and although it was enough to make Botan (literally) fight the Lure, it was not enough to wake her up and break her free.


Chapter 34: You Hold the Key

Shizuru finished her cigarette and dropped it down, crushing it into the grass with her heel. She was sitting on the ground, her right arm resting on her bent knees, and her left arm hanging at her side.

"You should really try to keep your wrist elevated, to help keep the swelling down."

She turned her head to the figure in the process of sitting down beside her, glaring at him harshly. He put on one of those small smiles he did when he was in an awkward situation and then tried to charm his way out of it.

"You know, if looks could kill…" he said softly.

"I'm still pissed at you," Shizuru flatly answered him.

"It was an honest mistake, I promise you," Kurama replied, his smile fading to give way to a more serious expression.

"I didn't think you made mistakes."

"Likewise."

Shizuru's eyes widened and she straightened her back indignantly.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she snarled.

"I think it would be wise for you to accept help right now," Kurama calmly answered her.

"Wise, huh?" she said. "Like it was wise for you to give more drugs to someone already under the influence?"

"I do still believe it was for the best."

"You're an arrogant son of a bitch. Just admit you were wrong, asshole."

"Worthy?"

Shizuru turned her head to see Ayame kneeling down at her other side.

"Let me help you," the ferry girl said gently. "Please?"

"Absolutely no way, Boring," Shizuru insisted, shrugging her shoulder in an attempt to pull her arm away from Ayame. "You need to be at one hundred percent."

"As do you," Ayame replied.

"No, I can still fight. I lost an arm, but I gained a weapon."

Shizuru reached down her good hand and picked up the broken off part of the Lure's finger. She turned to smile at Ayame, but the ferry girl was staring at the ragged, jagged, torn off talon with a look of abject horror.

"I still have my dominant hand," Shizuru pointed out.

"You aren't seriously going to use that as a weapon?" Ayame asked her, pointing a quivering finger at the Lure's finger in Shizuru's good hand.

"Why not?" Shizuru responded. "It hurts like a bastard. I'm gonna stab this thing into one of its eyes."

Shizuru glared up at the Lure as she spoke her last words, but it merely looked back at her with that same, wide-eyed, wide-mouthed, fixed expression it almost always wore on its hideous face.

"I don't think you should even be touching it," Ayame said.

Shizuru turned to Ayame and saw her give a shudder. Out of sympathy for her, Shizuru placed the Lure's finger on the ground again, out of the ferry girl's line of sight. She then looked over at Hiei, still hanging in the air in front of Botan, suspended there by the Lure's remaining nine fingers, all of which were stabbed right through him.

"It hurts like a bastard," she said again. "I don't know how he does it."

"I think it's like he said," Ayame said, turning to look over at Hiei too. "It isn't neat. It's messy. And it's much bigger than the size of the word that describes it."

Shziuru snorted in wry amusement.

"Yeah, I think you're right, Ayame," she said. "And that's part of the problem. I think the only way Botan's coming out of there this time is when Hiei gets his shit together and actually says the word."

"He doesn't like the word," Ayame reminded her.

"I noticed," Shizuru replied, nodding her head.

"Demons are much more complicated than I ever thought they were," Ayame mused. "I don't know how Botan does it. Dealing with spirits, humans and demons…"

"I think she does it by not differentiating based on which category the soul in question falls into."

"Gees, Shizuru, you're starting to sound like Kurama!"

"Don't do that. I'm still mad at him."

"Yes, me too."

Ayame held Shizuru's gaze for a moment before her eyes drifted to one side. She paled a little and then made a feeble excuse, before hurriedly moving away. Shizuru sighed and turned around, finding that Kurama was still sitting beside her.

"Not gonna change my mind, fox boy," she told him.

"I wasn't going to try to," he replied. "I do have a tincture you should really consider drinking–"

Kurama stopped short when Shizuru gave him a hard glare.

"Perhaps it would be best if I kept my plant-based solutions to myself for the next little while," he corrected himself with another of his small smiles.

Shizuru arched her eyebrows and he let out a small, nervous laugh.

"Or perhaps it would be best if I inserted my plant-based solutions somewhere nobody would be able to readily see them?" he tried.

"I like it when we're on the same page," Shizuru said, turning her attention back to Hiei.

"He will survive this," Kurama told her. "And so will she. They will both need some time to recover their wounds, but recover they will. We just have to believe in them."

"I do believe in them."

"And not do anything rash."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"We are all tense at this time, and there is always the temptation to act upon fraught emotions–"

"I'm a big girl, Kurama. I don't need a kid like you to tell me what I should and shouldn't do."

"You do realise I'm considerably older than you?"

"Yeah. Sometimes it's hard to remember though."

"Because I am in the body of someone younger?"

"No, because when you revert back to your true, "considerably older" form, you go on panty raids with three incredibly juvenile boys."

Kurama smiled and nodded.

"That's fair," he concluded.

Shizuru turned to look at him, though his eyes were on Hiei.

"Look, Kurama, I appreciate what you're trying to do here," she said. "But you're wasting your time."

"Killing the Lure with your own hand won't change anything," he said, keeping his eyes on Hiei.

"I know that," she agreed. "But I need a win, and killing that fucker feels like it would be a really, really satisfying win. Can you "appreciate" that?"

"Yes. And if I promised not to stand in your way, would you accept this tincture?"

"Does your tincture cause drowsiness?"

"Probably, yes."

"Then it's a hard no from me."

"Understood."

Kurama stood up.

"Just so we're clear: I'm also not okay with you trying to find some other way to sneak that drink into my hand," Shizuru told him.

"I hadn't even considered that idea," Kurama answered her.

He looked genuine, but, in Shizuru's experience, Kurama was an excellent dissembler, and so she could not be sure if he was telling the truth or not. She turned her attention instead to Ayame, who appeared to just be pacing about doing nothing in particular. After a few more movements, she noticed Shizuru looking at her and stopped. Shizuru nodded her head at the ground by her side, and the ferry girl hurried back over, sitting down by her side once more.

"Are you ready?" Shizuru asked her. "You've… Done everything you need to do?"

Ayame nodded, but the terrified look on her face was not exactly inspiring to behold. And, looking at Ayame's fearful face, for the first time since the Lure had first appeared, Shizuru realised that there was a very real chance she would die fighting it, possibly within the next few hours.

"Okay," she said softly. "Thanks, sweetie. You've been great."

Ayame smiled.

"You'll take good care of Botan after this right?" Shizuru asked her. "You'll help her get back on her feet, right?"

"Of course!" Ayame insisted.

Shizuru nodded and turned back to look up at Hiei again. From the corner of her eye, she could see Ayame studying her carefully, as though seeing through to her true meaning. The ferry girl held up one finger and opened her mouth, but hesitated to speak, and, before she could find the words she sought, Botan spoke above them, and her attention promptly shifted there.

"Hiei?" Botan said faintly.

"I'm here," Hiei answered her.

His voice sounded thick and clogged, like it had before, as though his throat was filled with blood: which was very likely, as he was bleeding in so many places, his clothing was a patchwork of wet and dry splodges of blood and even his hair was limp and matted with blood.

"Does it hurt?" Botan asked him.

He grunted, but otherwise did not answer her.

"Does it hurt, Hiei?" she asked again. "It-it must hurt."

"There's nothing I can do about it," he replied.

"Does it hurt?" she tried again.

"I can't defend myself, of course it hurts."

"Then-then why are you doing it?"

"Idiot. You shouldn't even need to ask that question."

His last statement had sounded strangely sad, as though he was growing tired of trying to show and tell her how much he cared. Hearing him speak that way and seeing the state he was in physically, Shizuru was now certain he would not try to pursue the Lure when he finally broke Botan free. She would have what she wanted: she would be alone to face it down.

"You want me to say it," he said. "But I can't. Because it's not enough."

"Not enough?" Botan repeated.

"No," he confirmed. "How can it be? I hear it being said and I see how it's used. And it's not enough. It never was, but it definitely isn't now. And never will be again."

"I'm so confused."

"I won't say it, because it feels cheap. It's not enough. But I understand now that you need to know it. So just listen to me now. I don't think those words say enough for how it is. But you need to know that I do love you."

Shizuru's jaw dropped, and Ayame and Keiko both muttered their disbelief that Hiei had actually, finally, said the words Botan needed to hear. The Lure screamed, but nobody around it cared, as they all watched with rapt attention as Botan's uninjured hand slowly stretched out the webbing and broke free, reaching up until her palm was resting on one side of Hiei's face. Despite his poor condition, Hiei hauled himself closer to her, impaling himself further still onto the Lure's fingers. The sound of his skin ripping and blood spurting out was all the harder for Shizuru to hear, as the last time she had heard it so clearly had been when the Lure had been attacking her, and the sound brought back the memory of the incredible pain. Somehow, after deepening his wounds, Hiei managed to raise a hand to touch it to Botan's at the side of his face.

And then something truly incredibly happened.

Botan's head leaned forwards, the webbing around her head and her neck stretching and tearing, until she was able to press her lips against Hiei's. Even Hiei appeared to be shocked, as he froze momentarily, before sealing his lips against hers and leaning into her. They held the position for only a few seconds before Botan drew back, and Hiei visibly twitched as though irritated that the moment had ended as prematurely as it had. He opened his mouth and made to move in on her again, but stopped suddenly, as he was thrown into shadow.

"Bastard…" Yusuke said under his breath as the Lure leered over Hiei, a length of saliva dripping from between its jagged teeth and landing on his shoulder.

"I'm scared, Hiei!" Botan cried out suddenly, her voice surprisingly loud and clear. "I don't know what to do!"

"You need to wake up," Hiei answered her.

"I don't understand what you mean!" she wailed.

"Please Botan, just wake up."

Botan coughed and lurched in her cocoon, a small amount of that disgusting grey slime slipping down one corner of her mouth. Hiei tightened his hold of her hand against his face and spoke again, as clearly as he could manage.

"You need to wake up," he said. "Just wake up."

"I want to–"

Botan's voice cut off and she coughed out a mouthful of the grey slime, which slipped down over her chin and down the webbing covering her chest. Her hand fell from Hiei's face, and the Lure let out a strange noise before whipping back its fingers. Hiei fell to the ground, landing hard on his side, and he remained there, his eyes closed, his Jagan still bloodied and open. Botan fell shortly after him, but Yusuke and Kuwabara caught her before she hit the ground.

Shizuru grabbed up the broken Lure's finger and turned to Ayame, finding the ferry girl was already on her oar, aiming for the entrance to the Lure's lair as it started its retreat. She swept around past Shizuru, who leapt on at her side, and, in one smooth movement, Ayame arced them around and flew them into the lair in close pursuit. As it always did, the Lure was moving ahead of them in a straight line, and Shizuru could only hope that it would get caught in Ayame's trap. She had not seen Ayame set the trap, and was not sure exactly where it was, but the time for doubt was past.

When they eventually broke out the other side of the Lure's lair, they were deep in the woodlands, and, for the first time ever, Shizuru could actually see the Lure ahead of them as it fled. She was not sure if it was because Ayame could fly faster than she could run, or that the Lure was slowed by the trees, but it was clearly visible ahead of them, and, after a short while, they appeared to be gaining on it. The ground sloped away sharply at first, until it finally levelled out again, and, ahead of them, Shizuru could see the edge of the treeline, and the grounds of Genkai's temple beyond. Just before reaching the end of the trees, the Lure suddenly stopped and spun around, the movement so jarring, Ayame panicked and pulled up on her oar to try to stop before colliding with it. Her actions made Shizuru slip down onto the blade of the oar. She grabbed at the handle to hold on, looking up at Ayame as she secured herself.

But her security was short-lived.

Ayame yelped as the Lure swatted her from her oar.

Shizuru fell to the ground hard, rolling over herself and wincing as first Ayame's oar and then the broken part of the Lure's finger she had taken with her landed on her. Once the initial shock had passed, she hauled herself up onto one hip, finding that they were in a small clearing. She was at one end, and the Lure was at the other, grinning over at her. She looked about herself desperately, eventually locating Ayame, collapsed in a pile of black silk, with a vicious tear in one of her hips from where the Lure's finger had scoured into her.

"We all know Hiei isn't coming with you this time," the Lure said. "Kuwabara and Kurama are too busy tending to Botan and Yusuke and Yukina are trying to figure out if Hiei's still alive or not. It's just you and me now, Shizuru."

"Good," Shizuru replied, grabbing up the Lure's finger in her good hand and stabbing the tip of it into the ground, using it as a crutch to haul herself up to her feet.

"I'm all about giving someone what they want," the Lure continued. "And since you seem determined to die by my hand, how about I grant that wish for you, right here, right now."

"Keep talking," Shizuru replied. "While you still can. You're the one going down today, not me."

"I find it cute that you think some pathetic seals, written on disgusting old rags, can stop me when you've already seen that even an ice maiden's barrier was child's play for me."

Shizuru gulped as she looked around the trees around the clearing. One of Ayame's rags was hanging from every tree, but they seemed as redundant as they had when they had been lying on the ground around Ayame earlier. She looked over at Ayame, who had picked herself up onto all fours. She glanced at the Lure, and, with fear in her eyes, crawled off hurriedly into the undergrowth, quickly disappearing from sight.

"Fuck," Shizuru sighed under her breath.

She turned back to the Lure, watching as its already unrealistically wide grin widened further still.

"Any last requests?" it asked.

Shizuru's eyes moved to its hand – it had purposefully chosen to raise its left hand, the one that still had all five fingers intact – watching as it slowly drew it back. When it stopped, she could discern that it was poised at the perfect angle to swipe around at her at about waist-height. And, she thought sickeningly, a blow at such close range from a fully fed Lure would probably easily dissect her body in two.

"We got Botan back," she said, moving her eyes to look the Lure in the eye. "And that's all I care about."

"Yes, you got her back physically," the Lure replied. "But that's all you got. I ate her soul."

"Liar," Shizuru growled, tightening her hold of the Lure's finger.

"She's an empty husk. You got her back because I let her go, and I let her go because she had nothing else to give me. I ate it all."

"You monster!"

Shizuru turned her head sharply, finding Ayame had crawled out between two trees a short way away from her. She was gripping one of her rags in both hands, pressing it against the ground. The Lure started to laugh at her, but the sound faded as Ayame started to cry out at a volume Shizuru never would have thought the meek ferry girl capable of. Her hands flared a brilliant blue-white, which spread into the rag in her hands. The light shot out in thin beams either side of her, and, as Shizuru and the Lure watched, the beams of light shot into rags in the adjacent trees, illuminating them until they in turn shot out beams of light to the next rag along. In a matter of seconds, every one of the rags were glowing and humming with energy, all connected by thin, rigid bars of light.

Shizuru turned to the Lure expectantly, but it started to laugh again.

"How ridiculous," it scoffed. "I already told you that wouldn't stop me."

A length of webbing shot out of the Lure's back end, stretching straight up in the air, and, for one horrifying moment, Shizuru was sure it would attach the webbing onto a taller treetop and leap out of the circle of seals Ayame was powering with her energy. But, just when it seemed that may be the case, Ayame somehow started crying out even louder still, the glow around her hands spreading to engulf her arms and illuminate her eyes. Multiple thin beams of light shot out from every seal, criss-crossing over the top of them, burning through the Lure's webbing without hesitation. A short, sizzling length of webbing wilted to the ground by the Lure's feet, and both it and Shizuru looked down at it in amazement, before looking over at Ayame.

"Damn, girl!" Shizuru muttered, seeing Ayame almost entirely engulfed in white spirit energy.

She could never have imagined the ferry girl was capable of such tremendous energy, and, seeing the Lure looking panicked as the beams of light continued knitting their way around the trees, rapidly creating a net around them, containing Ayame, Shizuru and the Lure into the small clearing, Shizuru suddenly felt a rush of optimism rising in her chest. She allowed herself a crooked, cocksure grin as she focused her own spirit energy into her one good hand, focusing it to that one point until her hand was glowing.

"Any preference which eye I stab this into, or can I just choose myself?" she called over to the Lure.

It glared back at her but said nothing. Taking inspiration from Ayame, Shizuru let out a cry and started to run towards the Lure. As she closed in on it, her determination rose, every bit of frustration and helplessness she had felt watching the Lure torture Hiei, close off Botan, and every memory she had of how her mother had slipped away from her flared within her, her energy flaring with it. She leapt into the air and raised the finger above her head, her energy shooting down the length of it as she poured everything she had into it. Using the momentum of her fall, she drove the tip of the Lure's finger into one of its eyes, the painful sound of its screams only spurring her on. She cried out again and pushed every last ounce of energy she had left into her weapon, driving it into the Lure's eye until about half of it was embedded there, before turning her back on the Lure, and, reaching her good arm back over her shoulder, wrapped it around the base of the Lure's finger and then threw herself at the ground.

For one, long, awful moment, Shizuru remained hanging in the air, clinging onto the Lure's finger, facing the ground, but unmoving.

Then, with a sickening tearing, splattering sound, she fell hard to the ground, the Lure's finger falling from her hands. She looked back over her shoulder, finding something flying at her. She yelped and rolled over, wincing as a large chunk of the Lure's innards landed on the ground with a splat of blood and viscera. The Lure itself collapsed, its eyeball still attached to the end of its finger, on the ground a short way away from its body. A string of flesh and slime hung between its gouged-out eye and its body, but Shizuru still sat up and watched it for a long moment, to be sure that it was definitely dead. Her attention only shifted as the illuminated net around them began receding rapidly backwards. She then looked over at Ayame, watching her as the glow of her energy faded, the beams of light all drawing back into her until they had all faded entirely. Ayame them dropped her head. One of her rags fell from a nearby tree and landed in the puddle of blood near the Lure's eyeball, where it rapidly turned red.

"I don't think we can call you Boring any more, Boring," Shizuru said.

"I don't think I can move," Ayame faintly replied.

Shizuru rolled onto her knees, and crawled, using her one good arm, tucking her other arm up to her chest to protect her still limp wrist. She stopped beside Ayame, thumping her back against one of the trees and panting as weariness overtook her. Ayame fell against the next tree along, slumping against it and looking over at Shizuru.

"You have blood all over one side of you," she said. "Is it yours, or…?"

"It's not mine," Shizuru said, shaking her head as much as she could manage. "It didn't get a hit on me. Thanks to you."

"What you did there… That was… Incredible."

"I think the same about what you did."

"You looked like a hero."

Shizuru nodded.

"You looked so strong and fearless," Ayame continued. "And… I think I'm in love with you."

Shizuru looked over at her and laughed a little, but Ayame shook her head.

"I am," she insisted.

Shizuru nodded slowly.

"I don't think I can move either," she admitted.

They sat panting for a moment, their surroundings – despite the carnage – seeming oddly peaceful. The moment only ended when the sound of something crashing through the trees reached them. Kurama burst into the clearing, skidding to a halt, his eyes wide as he looked over at the fallen Lure. He then turned sharply to Shizuru and Ayame.

"Is Hiei alive?" Shizuru asked him.

"Yes," he replied. "Yukina has closed his wounds."

"What about Botan?" she asked.

"She's stable," he said. "Kuwabara cut her free and has taken her to spirit world. Yusuke is taking Hiei to Mukuro to finish his healing, and Keiko is tending to Yukina – she gave everything she had to heal her brother."

"Good," Shizuru said with a sigh. "Can you do me a favour?"

"Anything," he replied.

"Can you take Ayame here back to spirit world?"

"What?" Ayame echoed.

Shizuru looked over at her.

"Go rest up," she told her. "Come find me when you've recovered. We'll figure out what to do next then. But you need to rest up after what you just did."

"As do you!" Ayame protested.

"Kurama, take her home," Shizuru told Kurama.

Kurama nodded and started towards Ayame, but, as he leaned over her, he stopped, his eyes on something between the trees. He slowly straightened up, a strange look on his face. Ayame turned her head and looked startled, and so Shizuru shuffled herself around a little, looking back into the trees: and the sight that greeted her brought both a smile to her face and tears to her eyes.

Keiko was walking towards them, a tense, tight smile on her face, and beside her, Hiei was walking slowly, propped up at his other side by Yukina, who was clutching onto him with both arms, glaring up at him with a unique blend of irritation and concern on her face.

"Oh, wow, what happened here?" Keiko asked as she stepped into the clearing.

"It was incredible," Ayame replied.

"It really was," Shizuru said, smiling at Ayame.

She winked at Ayame, but then promptly regretted it when the ferry girl bit her lip and gave her a coy – if also still a little exhausted – look.

"Hiei insisted on coming here when he felt your energy spiking," Yukina told Shizuru as she aided her brother into the clearing.

"I could have walked here myself," Hiei grumbled.

"You should be resting!" Yukina snapped back.

"Yukina insisted on coming with Hiei, to make sure he didn't over-exert himself," Keiko said, turning her tight, awkward smile to Shizuru. "And she insisted I come too. It was a… Long, interesting, walk down here…"

Shizuru smiled at her and she rolled her eyes.

"You did well, Worthy," Hiei concluded.

"I couldn't have done it without Boring," Shizuru told him.

Hiei looked back over his shoulder at Ayame, giving her a hard look, before turning his attention back to the gooey remains of the Lure. Ayame's face fell, but Shizuru waved to ger her attention.

"We all noticed what Hiei did earlier," she told the ferry girl. "When Botan was talking about all her best girlfriends, and she didn't mention you, so Hiei told her he knows she's got good friends in spirit world. He could see you were upset Botan never mentioned you and he wanted to help you out."

"Idiot, that never happened," Hiei grumbled.

"I'm pretty sure it did, Hiei," Keiko said.

Shizuru arched her eyebrows and Keiko edged closer to her.

"I only feel brave enough to argue with him because he's so weak right now," she explained.

Shizuru nodded her understanding.

"Hey, is my brother okay?" she asked Keiko.

"Yeah, he seemed okay," Keiko replied.

Shizuru nodded, but she knew at some point in the near future, she would need to talk to her brother and better explain what he had heard her say about their mother.

"Could you give us a minute?"

Shizuru looked up at Hiei with a frown, her confusion only deepening when Keiko and Kurama nodded and started to leave.

"Please," Hiei added quietly, peering down at Yukina at his side.

"Don't go anywhere, you're still not fully healed," she answered, before reluctantly letting him go.

She followed Keiko and Kurama back into the trees, but it took her some time to catch up to them as she kept looking back at Hiei. Hiei watched them until his sister finally stopped looking back before sitting down on the ground, facing Shizuru and Ayame.

"We did it, Dango," Shizuru said to him.

He nodded.

"It felt really good to be a part of something so important for a change," Ayame said.

"I told you not to fight that thing alone," Hiei said to Shizuru.

"I wasn't alone," Shizuru replied, looking over at Ayame.

Hiei turned his attention to the ferry girl.

"You were only ever meant to contain the Lure," he said to her.

"That was all I did do," Ayame replied.

"She really nailed it though," Shizuru quickly pointed out.

"She looks worse than I feel," Hiei said.

"We kinda went all-out," Shizuru admitted.

"I wasn't going to let it get away," Ayame said.

"What if I hadn't been able to kill it?" Shizuru asked her.

"I would have held it here until you did," Ayame replied.

"You would have sustained the trap until you expended every ounce of energy you have in you?" Hiei asked her.

"Absolutely," Ayame replied.

"And you used up all your spirit energy and a good amount of your life energy," Hiei said, turning back to Shizuru.

"What's your point, Hiei?" she asked. "It's no more than you've been doing all this time."

"I didn't do anything ridiculous," Hiei countered.

"Well, you did sing to Botan," Ayame pointed out.

Shizuru laughed as Hiei fixed the ferry girl with a glare that would normally have made her cower back.

"I don't think I'm scared of you any more," Ayame continued. "I don't think I'm scared of anything any more."

"And neither you should be," Shizuru said to her. "You were amazing back there."

"No, you were amazing back there," Ayame gushed. "And I know, as long as I have you around, I don't need to be afraid of anything."

Shizuru turned to Hiei, as she could feel his eyes burning into her.

"What?" she asked him.

"You could have died out here," he told her.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Dango," she flatly answered him.

"The fact that you didn't tells me you are at least worthy of being called Worthy."

Shizuru smiled.

"Don't say it," Hiei warned her.

"I was just gonna say this has really been an experience for you, huh big guy?" she responded. "Opening up, learning to let people in."

"And this is been a real experience for you," he replied quietly.

"Yeah, it was quite cathartic killing that bastard, not gonna lie," Shizuru replied.

"I wasn't talking about that," Hiei said, his voice lower still.

"The things I said to Botan?"

Hiei shook his head.

"What then?" she asked.

Hiei shifted his eyes to Ayame, and Shizuru copied his action, finding the ferry girl already gazing at her lovingly.

"She's just…" Shizuru began. "She just…"

"Is obsessed with you?" Hiei offered.

Shizuru turned her head to him.

"Like Yusuke," Hiei continued. "And Kurama. And Botan, and Keiko, and Yukina…"

"Okay those last three just love me as a friend," Shizuru corrected him.

"But Boring, Yusuke and Kurama…?"

"I can't control who falls in love with me."

"True. How terribly annoying that must be for you."

Shizuru narrowed her eyes as what looked like a hint of amusement danced across Hiei's eyes.

"Just because you shamed your boyfriends in front of us girls, doesn't mean you're suddenly an expert at ragging on people for laughs," she told him.

"Who's laughing?" he asked.

"I'm not laughing," Ayame replied. "I really do feel a strong attraction to you Shizuru. And clearly I'm not the only one–"

"Keiko!" Shizuru called out, turning her head to look into the trees. "Yukina!"

Keiko hurried back over to her side, crouching down beside her.

"Are you okay?" she asked her. "Are you ready to go home?"

Shizuru nodded.

"Whoa, damn!"

Shizuru looked back over into the clearing as Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama moved over to the remains of the Lure.

"I told you it's a bad idea to make my sister mad, Urameshi," Kuwabara commented.

Shizuru turned to Keiko again.

"It's okay, Kuwabara said he left Botan with Koenma," she said, apparently sensing exactly what Shizuru had been thinking. "She's gonna be fine now. They'll help her heal up, and the Lure's dead now."

Shizuru nodded, turning back to the others in time to see Yukina stop beside Hiei, folding her arms and glaring down at him.

"You can't accompany me back to demon world," he told her.

"I can do that," Kurama offered, jogging over and smiling at Yukina in that way he did when he was trying to placate rising tensions.

"Well make sure you do," Yukina said to him sternly.

"I promise I will," he replied. "Come on, Hiei, let's go."

Hiei stood up, facing Yukina. They stood together, looking at each other in silence for a long moment, before both nodded and turned away from each other.

"Wow, that was like if you and your sister had some big emotional moment," Yusuke said to Kuwabara as Kurama started to usher Hiei away. "That was intense."

"Shut up, Yusuke!" Keiko called over to him.

"Thank you," Yukina said to her.

Keiko nodded.

"Hey, Yusuke, why don't you take Ayame back to spirit world," Shizuru said.

"Why me?" Yusuke asked.

"And Keiko, Yukina, you two should head home," Shizuru continued. "It's been a long day."

"Yeah, I got someone coming soon to change the tyre on my car, I should head back," Keiko said, giving Shizuru a knowing look that said she had understood her meaning in the exact way Yusuke had failed to. "Come on, Yukina, let's go."

"Don't push yourself, and you need to get yourself healed up," Yukina said to Shizuru.

"Head back to our house, I'm going home to my bed, you can come heal me up after we've all had some sleep, okay sweetie?" Shizuru answered her.

"I won't let you leave that house until you do let me heal you," Yukina said, moving past her to follow Keiko back through the trees. "She is so stubborn," she said to Keiko.

Keiko looked back over her shoulder and smiled at Shizuru before putting an arm around Yukina and moving on. Shizuru turned her attention to Ayame, who gazed back at her for a moment, before looking over at Yusuke and Kuwabara.

"Oh, I see," she said quietly. "Um, Yusuke, could you help me get back to spirit world, please?"

Yusuke approached her a little warily, but she hauled herself up and made a show of being unsteady on her feet, forcing him to put an arm around her to support her.

"Thanks, Yusuke," Shizuru said to him.

Ayame gave her an exaggerated wink, before moving off with Yusuke, leaving Shizuru alone with her brother. She turned to him, finding him standing on the other side of the Lure, looking over at her warily.

"Hey, give me a hand here?" she called over to him.

"Sure, yeah," he said, hurrying over to her side.

He held out a hand to her and she put her good hand into his, allowing him to pull her to her feet.

"You should have waited for us to help you here, you know," he said. "This was kinda dangerous."

Shizuru pulled her hand from his and put her arm around him, pulling him into herself tightly.

"I'm so sorry you had to find out like that," she said as she held onto him.

"Oh, it's okay," he said, putting her arms around her carefully, as though she was something fragile, and he was terrified of hurting her.

"No, it's not okay," she replied. "I didn't want you to ever know. I didn't want you to think bad of mom."

"I don't think bad of mom!" he said, holding her a little tighter then. "I just wish you or dad had told me!"

"I didn't want you to have to go through what I did. I wanted you to have a normal childhood. One of us had to."

"But you could have told me once I'd grown up!"

Shizuru laughed and Kuwabara put his hands on her shoulders, pushing her back to look her in the eye.

"Yeah," she said, as their eyes met. "I'll tell you everything when you grow up. Just… Let me know when that's gonna be."

"It happened a long time ago, Shizuru!" he protested. "You just can't see it because you think of me as your little brother!"

"You are my little brother. And you always will be. Nothing's gonna change that."

He smiled, but his eyes started to tear up.

"I always knew you did so much for me when I was a kid," he said. "I just didn't realise you were going through so much. I thought you were acting like my mom because you liked being bossy."

"You say that like you don't like bossy women," Shizuru replied.

They both paused, awkwardly avoiding looking directly at each other for a moment.

"Forget I said that," Shizuru said quietly.

"I mean, she's not like Hiei bossy," Kuwabara muttered.

"She kinda is really like Hiei sometimes though," Shizuru replied.

"Yeah, I really see that now. I can't believe I didn't just notice they're twins."

Kuwabara gave a small shudder.

"Don't think about it too much," Shizuru assured him. "Hiei's not as bad as you think he is and Yukina… Is not…"

"As good as I think?" Kuwabara asked warily.

"I wasn't gonna say that," Shizuru said.

"I mean, she is more demony than most people probably think she is," Kuwabara admitted.

"Yeah, I know, Kazuma."

"No, I mean she's really a demon in some ways."

"Yeah, Kazuma, I know."

"No, Shizuru, I mean she's really, really like a demon in some ways."

"Okay, I hear it enough from her, I don't need to hear it from you too."

"Sorry."

"It's okay, I'm too tired to be mad about anything. Just… Can you give me a lift home?"

"I didn't come in a car – oh you mean literally?"

Shizuru nodded, and Kuwabara turned around, allowing her to climb onto his back. With only one arm to hold on and not a lot of physical strength left, she was a little limp, but he seemed to be wary of that, as he angled himself over and moved carefully as he took her home: though long before they reached their destination, she fell asleep.


Next Chapter: The DWB show has one last episode before the story returns to Botan's POV. After watching the videos and seeing that much of what she dreamt of talking to Hiei about was real, Botan learns just how good a friend Ayame is to her and that she has other friends in spirit world and the human world that she had almost overlooked. Chapter 35: Give me Something

A/N: Next chapter will be the last one and will probably be super long.