The Biography of Hiei and Botan : When the World is Flat
A/N: Thank you for the reviews. If you read, then please review. Oh, I just watched the Boondock Saints. I think it's a great movie (except for the character Rocco), but others have disagreed lol. All is good in love and cinema! Read and Review!
I
Koenma (Son of God): I have no idea when the plans were put into motion, but I'm telling you this, no one had any idea what was about to happen.
Kurama (kitsune): It took almost two weeks until Hiei started talking about Botan again. It was during that time that I longed for Hiei's ability to read minds. I wanted to know what happened between those two.
Notes from Botan's Journal (spirit): Hiei left quickly. He said nothing. I blinked, and literally, I was alone.
Yusuke (demon): I remember that Keiko tried talking to me about Botan. She asked me if I thought she was depressed.
It was the stupidest question I had ever heard.
Keiko (nigen): I don't care what he said, I think Botan was depressed. We had a little slumber party, just me and her, and I had to just come right out and say it. Her eye s were so sad, more sad than usual. And she barely ever grinned.
She kept on looking out the window, like she was expecting someone.
No one ever came.
Kurama: I was about to really unload on Hiei. I mean, he wasn't speaking about her and her situation was very important. But, before I could say anything, he just comes to my door. He just walks right past me and sits on the edge of my marble kitchen counter. He just looks at me, like nothing odd had ever transpired between us, and spoke in his cold voice.
"The onna thinks that there is a way to enlighten all of Rekai."
It was the first time Hiei had said the word onna in a sentence for about two weeks.
"Does she, now?"
Mukuro (demon): Hiei locked himself away in the training room. He practiced all day and night. It came to the point where he just feel asleep from exhaustion or blood loss.
After about a week and a half, I kicked him in the side in order to bring him back to consciousness. He groaned and squinted as I yanked open the shades to let in the harsh Makai sunlight.
"Wake up." The entire room was lit, the rays of sun slicing through the windows and attacking his withering figure. "I don't know what has thrown you into this depression." He was about to interject, but I interrupted him. "But I will not allow this to go on any longer."
II
Keiko: Botan hadn't seemed so down. I mean, she tried to smile. She really did. But she just couldn't bring herself to do it. I touched her shoulders as she was getting ready for bed.
"Botan... I don't know what happened, but come on... it can't be that bad."
When our eyes met, she broke.
The ferry girl began to cry.
Yukina (Koorime): My brother has a very odd way of showing his affection. He has only hugged me once, and has never told me that he loves me. I understand. Instead, he's protective and tried to keep his bloodline a secret because he thought that I would be ashamed.
I have a feeling that I am not the only one that he holds dear to his heart.
Yusuke: Botan came to me, in secret. It was after her sleep over with Keiko, and we just had dinner at a little café just around the corner from my house. All she ordered was tea, so I felt like a pig when I had a full meal.
"Yusuke... I think... I think I've done something terrible."
The one detail I can always remember about that night is the way she was shivering in the middle of summer.
Notes from Botan's Journal: I got up and went to the window, which was left open. Hiei left. He kissed me. And he left. My hands were up over my mouth and my teeth clamped down on my fingers.
Did I do something? I... I... I didn't mean to... was I bad? Does he hate me now?
Even though he had said that he hated me, on several occasions, it still shattered my heart to think of it now...
I sat down on the bed, dragged a pillow into my lap, and began to cry.
Keiko: When I was younger, I used to cry. A lot. And my family always hated me for it. Especially mom and dad. If we were at a wedding or a funeral, and I started to cry, they would repel from me like oil and water. It didn't matter who it was, everyone treated me like I had some disease if tears were coming out of my eyes.
That is why when Botan began to cry, I got off of my bed, dropped to my knees, and pulled her into a hug.
Kurama: Hiei's skin color had returned. When he refused to talk to me, he had slowly started to loose weight and become paler. I know that it may be considered odd that I notice this, but I do.
When he walked into my house that day, he had a brisk pace. A purpose in every step.
It was then that I first suspected that Hiei was withholding information from me.
Mukuro: He clutched at his side.
"What are you talking about?"
His voice was raspy as he struggled to sit up.
"You've lost at least twenty pounds in the last eight days." I circled him like a lion that was about to go in for the kill. "You're almost as white as snow and you haven't slept unless you call passing out from sheer exhaustion sleep."
Hiei ran a shaking hand through his hair.
"I've been traini–"
"Training my ass." I stopped walking and just stood with my arms crossed against my chest. My one eyes glared at him. "I don't know what you did, or who you did it to, but I want to get one thing straight." My back straightened. "You had better get it sorted out before it kills you." I began to walk out of the room, my boots clicking on the stone floor. "Or I will."
Yusuke: I had ordered ramen, the noodles hanging out of my mouth.
"Terrible? You?" I slurped them up, inwardly relieved when I got her to giggle, even if it was a bit softer than normal. "Don't make me laugh."
Botan drank her tea and quickly ordered another.
"I... I don't know what to think anymore... I think I might have... made Hiei hate me even more..."
Her eyes were locked on her empty tea cup. Images of what I saw during my summer barbecue flashed in my mind.
"Go on..."
Yukina: The clues are all there. He respects Yusuke, shares the brilliant ideas of Kurama, and even has rescued Kuwabara. He's not the type of person to just come out and say, "I am your friend." His actions are his words.
Notes from Botan's Journal: Before the kiss, Hiei used to talk to me every day, though some days were strictly by telepathy. Sometimes we would have dinner together, and it was this odd sort of peace. Kind of like... we were friends... but... not.
But now... after the kiss...
I hadn't heard from him in three days.
III
Mukuro: Would I have actually killed Hiei? Are you nuts? Of course not. But there comes a time that I have to give my soldiers a good kick in the ass. As for Hiei, there is only one time when I ever need to get him back in line.
When the time comes when I could kill him and still survive to tell the tale... that is the day that I tell him to shape up or else.
And trust me, that day, with his skin clinging to his bones, I would have been able to kill him.
Kurama: Yes, I thought Hiei was keeping things from me. But the messages were so mixed... I wasn't able to narrow it down.
The first thing was that he wasn't going into detail about Botan's plan, only the fact that he had to leave soon to help her with it.
The second... is more personal.
Hiei was starting to slip and use her name more. At first, he was a bit flustered and would fix himself to using 'baka ferry onna'. Then... after many more 'mistakes'... he just simply called her Botan.
Yusuke: Her blue hair hadn't been combed. It was frizzy and knotty. I had never seen Botan look so bad before.
"Hiei... and I... we've become acquaintances... sort of." Her hands were glued to the hot cup. "I think... I think I blew the little progress I have made... and now is when I really need his help..."
She was trying hard not to cry. I could tell by the way her voice began to get thick in the end. Botan faked a yawn and drank her tea, which was piping hot.
I felt my right eyebrow raise, giving her a doubtful look.
"Really?" I leaned back in the soft seat and sighed. "Don't worry about short-stop."
She set down the cup.
"But I–"
"But nothing." I ordered pudding, for the both of us. "I'm not going to tell you that everything is going to be okay. I'm not going to tell you that Hiei is going to come walking through that door right now... but I will tell you this..." The café had light bulbs that were dim. Botan was leaning forward. "Hiei has never hated you." Her pink eyes filled with confusion and hurtful doubt. "He's never hated any of us, even Kuwabara."
She bit her finger nails even as the pudding was set in front of her. I grabbed my spoon and began to dig in.
"Yusuke... thanks."
I swallowed a delicious bite of the dessert.
"No problem." Spoonful after spoonful. "Just give him time."
Enma (God): As of this time, we don't know how Botan got all of the information needed. It was in our restricted files... and they haven't been touched in centuries.
Ayame (spirit): Botan fell into a slump at work. Just when I was going to comment on it, however, she came right back out of it. I swear, sometimes she can just get mood swings just like that.
George (ogre): Don't tell anyone I told you, but I know how Botan got those files.
Notes from Botan's Journal: The night was grey. I sat on a park bench, not so far from my apartment. There was a small lake that geese and ducks would sometimes swim in. None were in it now. Nothing but the reflection of the moon.
A breeze lifted my hair up just a bit. Enough to send a slight shiver down my spine. My eyes closed as I inhaled deeply.
"Hi." My eyes were still closed. "I was wondering if you were ever going to come back." The silence of the cool summer night echoed in my ears. I opened my eyes. No one was there, but I knew. I knew that Hiei Jaganshi was nearby. "I... I've needed to tell you something."
I heard the trees rustle in the wind. I closed my eyes. Hiei was still there.
How did I know?
I smelled sandalwood.
Kurama: Before I let Hiei leave, I asked him where he was going. He stopped in the doorway and shifted his weight from his left foot to the right.
"To the Edge of Makai."
He disappeared, a fierce wind kicking up. I watched as that bolt of wind struggled to catch up to the infamous Makai thief. The Edge of Makai...
Just what could be at the Edge of the Worlds?
Koenma: The Edge of Makai is a myth. A legend. It doesn't actually exist.
Rekai History Expert (spirit): The Edge of Makai, otherwise known as the End of all Worlds, was a myth that was created with the Worlds. Christopher Columbus challenged that theory by saying that the world was not flat and that there was no never ending abyss.
Columbus was right, in a sense.
The Worlds are round. They are planes that intersect.
But... where all three planes meet... there is said to be an Edge. Where the three worlds all end at the same time.
It's just a legend.
Yusuke: Botan left the café after having her pudding. She thanked me again and just flew off. I watched her for a little while before the waitress starting bitching at me about the bill. After dropping down a few bucks, I walked home.
The street lamps flickered as my shoes clicked on the sidewalk.
"Detective."
I stopped, standing alone under the dim yellow light.
"Hiei."
Notes from Botan's Journal: Hiei jumped down from a tree.
"How did you know that it was me?"
I almost smiled.
"Not telling." I stood and brushed myself off. "I just want to say... I'm sorry."
The fire demon stood there, hands in his pockets.
"Hn. For what, baka ferry onna?" His eyes, even though only seeing by the light of the moon, were as sharp and dangerous as ever. "It was my... fault."
The way he stood... swaying forwards and backwards, it was like he was debating coming any closer to me. He was waiting. Waiting to see how I would react.
"I..." My face flared up like a fire that had just been doused in gasoline. "I didn't mind."
His face, which had been tilted away, rose and looked up at me.
"You didn't, onna?"
I shook my head.
"Not at all."
Kurama: The next time I saw Hiei was about two weeks later, when the leaves were beginning to change. He knocked on the door, and walked inside. My green eyes could not stop staring at him as I watched him walk over to my oven.
Then to my windows. To my couch. The television, the drapes, and even the bathroom.
"What was it like?" His eyes had this look to them. The ice behind them had been melted. He seemed like he had just gotten a massage. He was so... relaxed. At peace. "Did you go? To the End of the Worlds?"
He touched the glass of a window in a cabinet.
"I did."
Rekai History Expert: The legend of the Edge of Makai has been told several different ways. In some strings of the story, the End of the Worlds are a black hole that is slowly devouring everything in its path.
Then there is the theory that the End of the Worlds is the real Heaven. A Heaven for all beings.
There is... however... one more theory.
Notes from Botan's Journal: He took a step forward.
"I don't love you."
My mouth dropped open.
"What?" He froze. "What are you talking about?"
Hiei frowned.
"Isn't that what nigen onnas think? When you are kissed then you mate?"
I actually did laugh. My head tilted back and I just laughed.
"Ha!" I wiped my eyes. "No!" I sniffed and tried to calm myself down. "Just a kiss? Mating? Please."
Hiei must have been relieved because it looked like his stiff stance was replaced by a very relaxed man.
"Hn. Good." He walked over to me and we both sat down on the bench. "So, what is it you want to tell me?"
Kurama: His voice... his tenor voice was phenomenal. Even though it sounded the same... it struck me as... divine. Someone who had endless knowledge.
"Hiei! Tell me! What did you see?"
He wouldn't look at me. I felt like all the atoms in my body were on fire. I grabbed his chin, wanting answers.
That was when our eyes connected.
Rekai History Expert: The last theory is, in the connection of all planes... is a small little world in itself. A world in which all things are pure. A mixture of things from Ningenkai, Makai, and Rekai.
A place of meditation and Nirvana.
That is how the legend can be told.
Yusuke: I smirked.
"So, you listened into our conversation." I shook my head as I pulled out a cigarette. "Didn't anyone teach you manners?" The Koorime walked into the light. I felt my eyes shoot out of my head. "Holy fuck!" I smacked my lips as I gathered my wits. "Hiei... no offense man, but you look like shit."
The demon frowned and crossed his arms. I couldn't stop staring at his sunken in cheeks.
"How was she?"
His hands were almost as bad as a skeletons'. My brain stopped working.
"Who?"
"Botan!"
I blinked. Then closed my mouth.
"Oh. She's... she's almost as bad as a wreck as you."
He brought his two feet together and glared at me.
"Hn."
I watched as he disappeared into thin air.
Notes from Botan's Journal: I cleared my throat.
"I've come across some documents... and I have a plan." I turned to him. "But I'm going to need your help."
His back straightened.
"What do you have in mind?"
Genkai (nigen): I found Kurama on the floor of his house. He was alive, and his chest rose and fell very slowly. His green eyes were wide and I had to send my own spirit energy pulsing through his body. He jerked.
I grabbed him and held him close to my chest as he clutched onto me. He shuddered. His lips were open and I heard him whispering.
"The End... I have seen it... the End..."
IV
George: Promise not to tell, but I was the one who gave Botan those files.
V
A/N: Thank you for the reviews! Please, if you read, review! I would like to know if this chapter was any good! Please tell me if anyone was OOC. Oh, and are you intrigued?
-mia