The Biography of Hiei and Botan : Scars of Immortality
A/N: Thank you for the reviews. Keep on leaving them. Read and Review!
I
Rekai Spirit Expert (spirit): Human kind was meant to be a great race. A race that never suffered, a race that was pure in intention, a race that loved and didn't hate.
All was ruined when Eve ate the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. Mankind was to never be blessed with such perfection after that day.
Kurama (kitsune): A week after the party, I got a disturbing telepathic cry for help from Hiei. Mind you, I never got to answer it, and he never spoke of it again, but I did get it none the less.
Enma (God): Adam and Eve were mistakes. It takes time to find the real pure and worthy souls. Like Botan.
Notes from Botan's Journal (spirit): My heart was hammered in my chest. I knew... I knew that since Hiei wanted my safety above all others, that I could trust him. Yet still... I trembled as I tried to slide the key into my apartment door.
I could feel his eyes on me. Probably thinking that I'm just a baka for getting so anxious.
If only he knew.
"Here, sit."
I dragged him into the bedroom and sat him down on my bed. It was odd, even though his expression was a bit dark, he never stopped me touching him and telling him what to do. His red eyes were locked with mine. He wanted answers. So did I.
"I... I... I need to know if I can trust you."
I practically blurted out the words. My hands clamped over my mouth in order to stop myself from screaming. This stress was unbearable.
"Onna... you would know if you couldn't trust me." He paused. "You wouldn't exist if I wasn't trustworthy."
That got me to stop having doubts about his loyalties.
"Okay... okay..." I kept on pacing about, trying to psyche myself up. "Um... just... just..."
"Hn. You've never been so inarticulate in the years that I have known you." He smirked. "Spit it out."
I kept on running through what would sound best through my head. Hiei... I am indestructible. No. Too super hero. I can never die. Not entirely true. Enma could strip me of my title as an Immortal, but that would not happen... No mortal things concern me... All of it just seemed wrong.
"I... just let me... show you."
Keiko (nigen): I remember way back when that I was jealous of Botan because I thought that Yusuke had valued her over me. Which wasn't true.
After I knew all about Yusuke and him being a Spirit Detective, we became good friends.
At sleep overs between me and her, we would take about girl things, and naturally I wanted to know her perspective on all sorts of things, ranging from kissing to sex.
I was surprised with her answers.
She basically told me that she had a low self esteem. She couldn't see another man or woman loving her, and sex, let alone baring herself to someone, would just be too embarrassing to bear.
Yusuke (demon): I once joked with Botan that she should hook up with Kurama, since he was such a looker and probably a pro in the sack.
You should have seen how red her face turned.
Koenma (Son of God): She never expressed any romantic interest in anybody. If she did, she kept it well hidden. I suppose it was because of her self critical nature. Not many knew, in fact, I don't even think the Rekai Tentei were aware of just how sharply her eyes fell on her own body.
It was always there, since when she first came here.
The only other time I had seen such a look is when a soul had sinned so greatly that they could barely stomach themselves.
Kurama: Hiei might inquire about things here and there, using telepathy sparingly. When he does, all that comes across is his presence and voice.
The message that I am talking about, however, was like one that I had never seen.
A picture flashed before my eyes, so vivid that I had the taste and smells overriding my senses. Hiei's adrenalin now pumped through my veins and my palms became sweaty. He only said one thing.
Help!
II
Mukuro (demon): Hiei wasn't the type to be prude. He had seen me naked and I had seen him naked. End of story. No, we never had sex. I wanted to, but Hiei didn't. He flat out told me. He was not interested in becoming my mate.
Heartbreaking?
A little.
In the end, I decided that it would be better to not have Hiei as my mate. I would not want to make him change his ways and desires just so he could be with me.
Kuwabara (nigen): One time, when the gang and I went swimming, I remember we had finally goaded Botan into coming the water. She jumped in, and when she came up for air, her hair was stringy and all over the place.
It was then, and only then, that I saw the scars on her back.
Notes from Botan's Journal: I turned my back to him. My hands and knees were shaking so bad that I thought I was going to pass out. I wiped my forehead and bit my lip. My hands took off Hiei's overcoat and let it fall to the floor.
Then my fingers brushed the sash of my kimono.
Making sure that the windows shades were drawn and that I was still conscious, I closed my eyes and pulled my sash.
Kurama: The image was so clear that I can still recall it vividly today.
It was of a woman's back, and after allowing the image to sink in, I realized that it was Botan's back. Hiei's heart was hammering in his chest, his hands clutching the bed sheets like they were his only lifeline.
I was experiencing his fear through his eyes.
His chest was tight and his face was hot.
In front of him, our beloved ferry girl's right hand was held out, holding the red sash. Her pink kimono seemed to just jump, and then fall off of her, like a husk off of corn.
Her hair was just barely touching her back. Her other hand slowly reached around to gather up her blue locks and pull them over her shoulder, so that her entire back was exposed.
Mukuro: No, Hiei never became flustered over trivial things like nudity. Why?
Notes from Botan's Journal: I made sure that my kimono was saying up to cover my lower part of my body, but my entire back had to be exposed, my shoulders, and my neck. I don't want to turn around. I don't want to do anything. I'm so terrified that... I that I almost fainted.
Kurama: The image only lasted a few seconds. It ended with Botan's hands resting at her chest, her elbows bent and her entire form shaking. After that, the image was cut out.
Enma: To bear those markings was an honor that all mankind knew. Now that time has eroded memories, they seem like scars. Beautiful and intricate scars.
Notes from Botan's Journal: This had to be one of the most drastic things I had done in my entire life. I'm not the type of person to be daring, but the occasion called for it. It was the only way.
I stood there, so many questions whizzing about in my head that I almost went mad. Did Hiei leave? Was he disgusted? Was he going to tell Enma what I had done? Was I alone?
My arms were covering my chest, trying to hold the kimono there. I turned every so slightly, looking over my shoulder.
"Onna..." His eyes were glued to my back. My pink eyes felt so heavy. I know, it sounds weird, but that's what the felt like. His body was beginning to relax. He stood and walked up to me. "What are they?"
My breath fanned out over his face.
"Ancient Rekai markings."
The only sound in the world was our breathing.
"What do they mean?"
His fingers cautiously touched a deep line. I did nothing to silently tell him to stop. He began to trace them, slowly. I swear, it was like... it was like time stopped.
Kurama: The next time I saw Hiei, I immediately asked him about the picture he sent me. I asked him if Botan was okay. I asked him why she took off her kimono.
He merely shoved his hands in his pockets and stalked off.
Rekai History Expert: Rekai spirits mating with demons is very rare. The overall feeling towards each other is hostile to begin with. Over the years of not mating with each other, it was just assumed that no spirit would ever consider mating with someone of demonic decent.
Notes from Botan's Journal: "They... they..." His fingers swirled around a mark. I don't even know if he knew how sensual it was. He probably didn't. "They stand for..." His eyes were so concentrated on my skin, it was amazing. I had only seen him so intensely focused once before. When he was fighting Mukuro. "Immortality."
His hands stopped.
Keiko: I tried to tell her that she had a good body. A great body. She really did. Legs a man would kill for.
But still... she insisted that love, passion, and hot sex was not for her. I tell you, all she needs to do is experience what being in love is like and she'll be sold on the idea.
Koenma: It's not like we forbid Botan from every getting married or going to dates. It's just... well, becoming immortal is like cutting yourself off really. Sure, you could fall in love and have sex, but that would only last a few seconds in the eyes of someone who would always stay the same age.
She thought the entire situation out.
Why bother if it would just bring her pain?
Rekai History Expert: Actually, that's not true. An Immortal Spirit would be able to find a life partner, but not a nigen and not a spirit.
In order for both entities to live in the same time plane, the spirit would have to mate with a demon.
Notes from Botan's Journal: I stopped shaking. There was this silence, but I couldn't tell if it was awkward or not. I started to shrug my kimono on, reaching down to get my red sash. I tied it tightly around my waist and struggled to straighten out the back of it.
"Immortality?"
I pulled, smoothed, and pinched my kimono until it was back the way was.
"Yes." I turned to face him. I tried to smile, but it simply wasn't a smiling matter. "Enma rewards the purest souls with never ending life."
I sat on my bed. Hiei sat beside me.
"Onna..." He pulled out his katana. "If I sliced you to ribbons right now, you wouldn't die?"
The thundering wave of nausea made me swoon.
"N-n-no, I w-w-w-w-wouldn't." Bile began to churn in my stomach and tears stung my eyes like acid. "I w-w-would s-s-s-still f-f-f-f-feel the p-p-pain."
I couldn't tell what I was saying, the stuttering was that bad.
"Only mortals feel pain."
His katana was still in his deadly hands.
III
Kurama: I pestered Hiei. He was disconcerted. Distant.
"What happened? What did you do? What did she do?"
I must have sounded like a teenage girl in need of some medication. I kept on questioning him until he turned, almost making me run right into him.
"Nothing of your concern happened fox! Just leave it be!"
I decided that I had pushed him too far. Some secrets were meant to be secrets.
Genkai (nigen): Pain? I'm not sure. Botan had cooked for me on several occasions, and I saw her hand accidently go right into the flame. Not even a wince came out of it. But later, when she slept, she moaned in her sleep.
Enma: It's true. Pain is only a mortal experience. Botan doesn't feel pain, per say, but something else. More raw. Just to be able to relate, but not really.
Notes from Botan's Journal: My eyes flickered from the door to Hiei's hands. I didn't want him to cut me. Slice me into paper thin sections. I wouldn't feel anything. I would just scream out of sheer horror of Hiei hurting me.
Pain is not just the agony of living. No, pain is the twist you get in your throat when your best friend turns their back on me. Pain is the sting of failing a test. The tightening in your stomach when you're kissed.
Pain is not just pain. Pain is infinite.
"H-Hiei, p-p-p-plea–"
His Jagan Eye flashed open and I felt my entire mind being invaded. His eyes locked with mine, flooding me. I was drowning in red as my deepest fears and secrets were all at his dispose.
My eyes rolled back into my head.
I saw myself looking in the mirror. Poking at the bags under my eyes. A flicker of a shadow, and my heart jumping. Spinning around, I would realize that I was alone.
By the clothes I was wearing, I could tell that this was years ago. Back when I first met Hiei...
Just as fast as I fell, I was yanked back out of my mind. I rubbed at my eyes, trying to hide the tears the had accidentally fallen.
"Onna." I heard the hiss of Hiei's katana being sheathed. He grabbed my chin, his Jagan forcing my hands to lower and my eyes to open. "You feared me." His one hand was on his katana still. "You thought I was going to kill you with my katana." I could not deny him. "Why did that scare you so much?"
What he really asked was, Why be scared if you can't die?
"The pain." I couldn't look away. Looking back, I don't know if it was his Jagan Eye or just me keeping the eye contact. "The pain of seeing you do that to me."
Yukina (Koorime): My brother, he has a code. I don't know the entire thing, but what little I have committed to memory brings a warmth to my heart. On the top of his list of what he will never do is kill women and children.
Yusuke: The death threats? Please. Hiei would never actually threaten a person that he intended to kill. He would just kill them. Besides, how much harm could Botan ever bring him?
None.
You want to know why I know that Hiei would never kill Botan? Okay, I'll tell you why.
Back on one of our more smaller and boring missions, we had to camp out in Makai. Makai isn't the kind of place to bring the wife and kids for a picnic, mind you.
Hiei slept in a tree, and the rest of us just took up various spots on the ground.
I don't remember exactly when, but I had to get up in the night because nature called. As I stumbled away from the camp, I heard this horrible scream.
Kurama: For a week Hiei was inconsolable. It was as if he was ashamed of himself.
Mukuro: It's a pain in the ass when my Second in Command decides to get in a little fit.
Rekai History Expert: However, if an immortal spirit mated with a demon, the act alone would be a terrible blow to Rekai. The advances would be great, and so would the harboring consequences.
Notes from Botan's Journal: My hands were gripping the edge of my kimono as I turned away.
"Does this complicate things?"
Hiei didn't have to answer or nod. We both knew that it did. A soul that wasn't supposed to exist, immortal. It was impossible, and yet... here we were.
"Hn."
Just by checking out of the corner of my eyes, I could tell that the fire demon wanted to say something.
"What?"
He was still impassive and cold. Even though I knew that Hiei felt nothing, really wasn't a friend but more of a forced acquaintance, I still felt myself smiling as he clutched the sheets tightly.
"I wouldn't have killed you."
Yusuke: Naturally, I was intrigued by it. With my shoes off, I could sneak around without making much noise.
After ducking behind a few trees, I finally got the spot.
It was a about fifteen feet out, and I saw a demon on his knees. He was an ugly brute, with blood on his face. His fangs were long and dripped onto the dirt.
"Please... she's just a nigen..."
A wack.
"No."
The big demon snarled, seeming to have gotten a second wind.
"Why does she matter to you, a demon? If she chooses to sleep in these woods, then I should be able to do whatever I want with her!"
I watched as the vicious brute tried to make it past his tormentor, reaching out with huge claws.
I blinked. The next thing I saw was the demon, falling into two pieces on the ground.
Notes from Botan's Journal: "Then why did... did you say that you would...?"
He didn't answer me.
"Why scare me?"
Still, no answer. His hands just clenched tighter around the sheets.
Yusuke: Hiei stepped out from the shadows, wiping his katana off on his black pants. He glared at the demon and then began to walk off. Not really thinking, just too enwrapped in the moment, I followed him.
He never jumped into a tree. Instead, he remained on the ground. He walked back to a tree and sat down, leaning his back against the trunk. His right hand always remained on his trusty katana even as his eyes drifted shut.
I waited for something to happen, but after five minutes, I remembered why I woke up in the first place. I walked back, and then stopped suddenly. Everything kind of clicked when I turned and looked over my shoulder.
Notes from Botan's Journal: "All you had to say was, Leave me alone, and I would have."
Nothing.
"You could say that right now, and you won't hear a word from me. I promise."
I stuck out my pinky.
"Pinky swear."
Still, nothing.
I was about to open my mouth again when he grabbed my wrist, pulling me down so that we were at eye level.
"Quiet onna!" Those red eyes... so furious. "Don't mock me!"
Yusuke: Hiei was sleeping against the one side of the tree. On the other side, with her blue hair down and her knees pulled up to her chest was Botan.
In the light of the Makai moon, she looked like one of those Roman statues. So perfect that only the Gods could court her.
A demon appeared on her side and squealed with delight at such a tasty looking meal.
In an instant, the demon was slaughtered. It's blood sprayed out and Hiei made sure to not let a drop hit the ferry onna as he dragged the beast around to the other side of the tree.
He sighed and walked back to Botan's side of the tree. The peaceful side. The pure side.
His eyes were narrowed as they studied her face, his lips curled in a scowl. He took off his scarf and walked up to her. My brown eyes widened as I watched him dab at her cheek, wiping blood off of it.
She took a sudden breath and Hiei flickered out of sight.
Her pink eyes were wide as she touched her cheek, looking around with fear sparkling in her eyes. Her arms were out, stretching so that they were pressed against the tree trunk.
On the other side of the tree was Hiei, his back up against the trunk. His eyes were wide and they swivelled to the side.
They were both listening, waiting to hear something from the other side.
Notes from Botan's Journal: "H-Hiei..."
We were just looking at each other. His eyes were angry. Afraid. Doubtful. I allowed my face to slacken and my muscles to relax in his hold.
"Baka onna..."
He began to get closer to me. I'm not sure if either of us really noticed just how close we were getting at the time.
Yusuke: Point is, Hiei stayed up all night for her. Protecting her. The next morning, Botan was cheery as she made eggs. She looked for Hiei, and found him on the ground, sleeping. I remember how she just stared at him for a while, leaving the eggs on the ground next to him and backing away slowly.
I wouldn't know how to describe what that was.
Notes from Botan's Journal: We just kept on looking into each other's eyes. Searching for answers. Questions. Hate. Compassion. Anything, really.
Yusuke: Hiei didn't hate Botan. Not even back then. I'm not a shrink or a doctor, but I'm willing to bet money that it was the opposite of hatred.
Notes from Botan's Journal: His hand reached up to my one cheek and before I even registered how rough his bandages were, he kissed me.
Somewhere, in the world, a baby was born.
Somewhere, in the world, a man died.
Somewhere, in the world, a flower bloomed.
Right then, that little speck of time belonged to us. And only us. His hand began to stroke my cheek, and I remember shivering as my eyes closed. He smelled like the air that blew through the leaves of the trees.
He tasted like... mint.
When he pulled back, my eyes were still closed. When I opened them, he was still there.
Silence.
My fingers touched my lips, as if to see if what had just happened had actually occurred. My cheeks felt hot, and I swore that he was bit pink himself. It was just our breathing that filled the room.
Once again, I opened my mouth to say something, I don't remember what, and he just shook his head.
"Quiet, onna. Just let it be."
IV
A/N: Did you like it? The emotion, was it there? I'm trying to work on emotion, if you couldn't tell. I want to make someone cry (I know that sounds mean... but I do... lol). Please, tell me if you liked it or didn't like it!
-mia
p.s. Was Hiei OOC? If so, a lot or a little.
P.s.s. Try out Signed, Anonymous please, if you have the time.