A/N- So this one took a while. I was frustrated with this story because I knew that I wasn't writing quite as well as I usually(?) do. And sometimes I go through fits of high standards. I don't recommend them; you can never get anything done. So then I finished it, and then wouldn't let me upload it. They haven't been sending e-mails, either. Poor You need a band-aid. I hope you get better soon.
Anyway, the second title for this chapter is 'Hiei is a Bitch', but I felt it was inappropriate and switched over. Enjoy.
Chapter 6- Definition of Bravery
Botan sat on the edge of a wall in the center of the broken town. She hugged her knees close to her chest, heels planter firmly on the corner to keep her from falling off. She shivered. Mayer it wasn't great weather to be sitting out in the open with only a kimono on, no matter how thick and warm it used to feel. Whatever it was, Botan stomached it, because it was better than being down there. She didn't want to risk the spirits coming back. She had only just gotten them to leave.
Hiei and Kurama were unaffected. They couldn't see them. They did not have the ability to hear the crying children or look helplessly upon the zombie-like adults. Kurama had no idea that a mother of two was looking over his shoulder as he lifted a cracked vase to examine it, ever the anthropologist. Hiei would probably freak out (much like the incident with the spider earlier, Botan thought with a twinge of humor) if she told him that his training had had an audience of awe-struck children, with a few of them even mimicking the techniques with phantom sticks.
But she had gotten them to leave, finally. Most of them. A few of the stubborn ones remained, going about their eternal everyday lives as if their homes weren't ruined, their special places never plundered. It was these spirits that were oblivious to their fate, never noticing how they didn't age, never feeling the pain as if their brains blocked it all out. The ones who left would come back, but not until later. Not until, hopefully, she was gone.
Botan peered over her feet at the dirt ground far below, and a few particles of the wall crumbled and fell. She made a considering noise and frowned. She lost Kurama. This was no good. She'd intended to follow after him quietly, let him do his thing, but to have him close in case something dangerous happened (Hiei proved to be too hostile an entity, so Kurama it was) but instead she let her mind wander off and she could no longer see him.
She tipped backwards onto the flat surface and detached herself from the edge to climb down over bricks and other such things. She could hear clashing noises from her right if she listened hard enough, and identified it as Hiei. As she padded in that direction, she reasoned with herself that she was going there because he was easier to locate than Kurama was.
Hiei couldn't shake that damn feeling that someone was watching him, even when he proved to himself that it was impossible. Oh well. No real matter. Just a feeling. And feelings were useless anyway, right? …Right?
He felt his muscles coil and spring at every stroke, flourish and spin, one two one two. The sword glinted off light that managed to peek its way through the clouds. He continued his steel dance without the use of his eyes, chopping imaginary foes to bits as well as the occasional vine or stone sitting about the ruins.
That girl, that Botan, she has emotion, hasn't she? So was it pointless? He tried to imagine her without it, and admitted to no one that the girl should keep her emotion. She simply would not be able to survive. Certainly not. If Botan were emotionless, she couldn't give some sad kind of cute face to get her way.
And then Hiei nearly cut himself.
Regaining his footing, he decided to call it a day. He drew up his sword and wiped the blade clean of gravel and plant juice on his shirt. He could see his breath on the air. Taking this moment to check, he sensed Kuwabara and Yusuke's journey was going well, and they were only about thirty miles away. They could all meet in the middle, and the 'showdown', so to speak, would be approaching soon.
Hiei kicked a rusty suit of armor of the floor and sat down next to it. Probably was used in the final hour of destruction or battle of the city, because there were still one or two bones inside the shell that animals hadn't carried off yet. Upon further inspection, the bones possessed many scratches and cuts, as if from a serrated knife. Nearby, there was a sheath made of old, frail leather that held a rusty dagger. He lifted it out carefully to minimize damage, until he was interrupted by a small noise across the way. Spotting the blue-haired ferry girl, he relaxed once more and returned his gaze to the artifact in his hands.
"Uh, hi," She said with an awkward air, now seeing that he knew she was there. She had been standing on the edge of the walls for a while now, watching his steel waltz subside into a vague curiosity in the midst of resting. All that may sound very poetic, and it was, up until the part where he violently kicked the suit of armor like a tin can.
Botan, when she received no response, leaned against one of the clay dwellings in an attempt to act casual. The wall made a crumbling noise, and she yelped and jumped away.
Hiei almost laughed.
"So, how are you?" She started over.
Hiei promptly ignored her by deciding the decayed weapon looked like it was of the throwing variety.
"Um." A more direct question, Botan thought, should probably be used in order to get a reaction out of him. But she didn't really have to.
"What do you want?" He demanded in a blunt tone, without even looking up.
"Er… Do you know where Kurama is?"
Hiei extended one arm. "About fifty yards that way. Looking at rocks."
"Oh. Thanks." Then she spotted what his interesting thing was. "Hey, what's that?"
"A knife." Simple answers are always best for Hiei. Embellishments were for pansies.
"Is it a good one?"
He shrugged as if to say 'It's okay, for a five hundred year old piece of metal'.
A wind blew by and she shivered, drawing the cloth around her with her fists. "Geez, it's cold." She didn't wait for an answer. "So, about earlier; are you ever going to tell me what that spider said?"
Hiei was frustrated. The truth was that he would have liked to answer her question, really, he would, but unfortunately for that he never had any real training in reading the antics of spiders. It was usually just general forecasts: Good or bad. This time, it was bad.
"The spider," he told her, "predicted negativity, detrimentality, and general bad things. And a lot of them."
"That's… not good," Botan concluded. "But, at least Yukina's not here, right? I mean, we might all be in mortal danger, but at least she isn't. And… She's usually the topmost of your worries and concerns, isn't she?"
"I'm not in the mood to be cross-examined or psychoanalyzed-"
"So it's okay for you. Yukina's going to be okay. You don't really care about the rest of us very much, even though I know for sure you've got a fine set of principals. So you'll be fine. Then again, I don't know if I'm ready to place my trust in an epileptic arachnid just yet, so I think we'll live. I have trust in you guys. It will definitely be okay."
"You can't know that," Hiei gritted out, irked that she kept interrupting him.
"But I do!" She ventured another few steps closer in her fit of passionate cheerleading, and also because she sensed he would finally make conversation. "There's no one stronger than you guys in the worlds, I'll bet. You'll just have to finish them off properly next time, and it'll all be good."
Hiei sat in dumbstruck silence for a while (he thought he had heard all the heroic speeches) and then his hair prickled. "There's someone here."
Botan blinked. "No," she told him, looking to his immediate left. "That's a spirit. You can't see them. He's been here for a while, that one."
"Will you get him to leave, then?" The idea of an invisible consciousness spying on him was not a pleasant one.
Botan shook her head. "I've gotten rid of the ones I could. Hundreds, actually, but there are still about ten still here."
Curiosity got the better of him. "How are you able to do that?"
"It's a spell all ferry girls learn to put uneasy ghosts to rest for a temporary amount of time. Being the best ferry girl, I can put away a good amount. It's gotten me pretty fatigued, though." She paused from both speaking and watching the spirit cowering in the corner to flash Hiei a sad smile. "That one keeps reliving the day he died, eternally. His shock is too powerful to put to rest unless it's permanently, and obviously, I can't do that right now."
Hiei, his child-like inquisitiveness infringed upon by something else, stood and dropped the knife where it clattered to the ground. Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit. A snowflake fluttered to the ground, starting early.
"Wow. Already?" Botan raised her candy eyes to the heavens. "I wonder if there is a room in one of these broken buildings we can stay in."
"Why don't you ask your ghosts?" Hiei had a sour taste on his tongue.
Botan shook her head. "It doesn't work that way, I'm afraid."
God damn. Where was Kurama? He bent to grab his katana, stood up again. "We have to go. Now."
"Wha?"
"Leaving. Now. Killing enemy, leaving, never coming back." He looked at her, a long, lingering gaze that made her arm hairs stand on end in such a way where the line between feeling good and bad was not easily drawn. "Now."
"Right." Botan put up an encouraging fist, ignoring the feeling. "I hope you beat those guys soon. We should get back so I can send those ghosts back. And so that Spider's Omen you got doesn't fulfill itself." She half-laughed. "I don't really want to get in the way."
"Then why did you come here?"
The question caught her off guard. "To tell you what was wrong. To warn you. I think you've figured that out by now."
"We could have deciphered that on our own."
"Well I certainly think I helped out a great deal!"
He turned a phrase back on its creator. "By getting in the way?"
Botan suddenly realized that not only was her dignity being attacked, but something nasty had just gotten into Hiei. This was the meanest he had gotten the whole trip, and to turn this way so suddenly? It didn't add up, but Botan was sure it was about to multiply in the next few seconds.
"If you hadn't been so intent on playing the hero, you wouldn't be in this situation, am I correct?"
"No…" She knew that the fact was she had come here without a second thought of the consequences.
"You are in no rational way useful. It is your own fault you're here."
"I will be useful!" Botan insisted. "I can and will!" Her face pinched in and became redder by the moment, and she was getting mad at Hiei for the first significant time. She didn't care if he was the only wall between herself and evil demon things. He was a bastard!
"You can't promise that." He smirked cruelly, that infernal expression which didn't belong where it was. "Just like you can't promise that everything will be okay."
"Ugh!" Her hands itched to connect with his face. "You know, I think all this anger and hostility is the result of your overcompensating for something you lack a lot of!" And then she immediately clapped her fingers over her mouth.
"Would you like to check?" His sneer was magnified, probably because of the insult.
Botan shook her tomato face. "I… I wouldn't have to say things like that if you weren't such a jerk."
"And I wouldn't have to say such things if you hadn't poofed here with a hero complex and death wish acquired from that idiot detective and his friend."
"You are incorrigible!"
"It is my hobby."
Botan muttered colorful words to herself. "This is not my weekend."
Unfortunately, Hiei heard her. "You mean you aren't normally a dolt?"
Botan only graced him with a glare. The snow had begun to fall harder, covering the cobblestones with a thin, slippery coat. It also soaked into her clothes, making her damp and cold. She trembled and brushed her eyes with her already wet sleeve. What he was saying was true, wasn't it? He certainly didn't want to bother with her plight, but was unable to say no. He was stuck with this duty and neither asked for nor wanted any part of it. She had just stumbled over here without conscious thought, and landed like a bungling idiot. But she only wanted good things, didn't she? And everything would turn out okay, right? Right.
And so she told him. With every fibre of conviction and ounce of faith in her small, snow covered frame, she told him. She promised him it would be okay. And it would be, no exceptions.
Kurama watched the argument with mounting concern. He had an innate feeling that something was bothering his friend the moment they arrived, but had never expected him to take it out on Botan, who had done nothing to deserve it. As minutes passed, he kept wanting to jump out into the clearing to heroically break up the soon-to-be fight, but something held him back. He could sense that it was important for both parties to get whatever it was out of their systems (be it anger, anxiety, sexual frustration or otherwise). Then he noticed the snow, the tears in Botan's eyes. It was probably time, then. Hiei had finally gone too far. He stood up from his crouching, hidden position and stopped for a second to watch the latest development.
Botan had turned to leave; Hiei threw a knife at her (it looked old, as if it were found at this site) and she jumped, startled, and it clattered at her feet.
"If you don't want to be useless, learn how to take care of yourself."
She knelt to pick it up, slowly, and allowed one idle look to land on him before trotting through the rubble and disappearing in the flurries.
Kurama let himself be seen by his friend, then walked closer.
"What do you want?" Hiei snapped, wiped his sword clean for the millionth (completely pointless) time. He felt dirty, not pure. The cloth of his shirt swept over the blade once more. The action did not go unnoticed.
"You already know what I am here for, Hiei. That much should be blatantly apparent."
"I do not know," He said testily. " And I think I will be leaving now."
Kurama caught his wrist and twisted it in a way that would be painful for any other person. "What is bothering you so much, Hiei, that you do not deign to be pleasant or even understanding of other people? She only had the best intentions and you know it."
"'Only had the best intentions', you say," Hiei retorted. "What she has is too many emotions."
Kurama, now satisfied that Hiei would not leave and also that he would be willing to speak, let go of his hand. "Now is not the time to be jealous of others' happiness." Kurama already knew what would result of that last statement.
"Jealous?!" Aghast, the little fire demon opened and closed his mouth, much like a fish. "Say that again, fox."
"Botan is too optimistic for your tastes; that much is clear. What is not immediately revealed is your want for something of that caliber for yourself. You find this in Botan, and you desperately want to squash it out."
"I'm sorry? I don't think I can understand you." Hiei's hand twitched over the hilt of his sword. "Repeat it, please, in a language that isn't from the backwaters of the Human World."
Kurama was starting to lose his patience and get just as irked as Hiei was. "Botan is happy. You want to be happy. Logically it works out great. You subconsciously want that which makes you happy. You haven't been happy your entire life, so why not start now? That is what your mind is telling you. If it were not for your larger, more irrational stubbornness you would have had that by now. Don't blame me for your own mistakes." Kurama stared at the ground. Hiei's face right now could be equal the intensity of the myth of Medusa, so he did not dare look up.
But the opportunity never came. The floor exploded instead, revealing a gigantic spirit force crushing down weightily on the bricks. When the dust cleared, it was the same girl that Hiei encountered earlier, (Peichan was her name? Patchy? Pineapple? Hiei didn't think it was important, anyway) standing in the middle of it all with a bow in hand.
"Hello Hiei-chan, Hiei-chan's friend." She smiled with false innocence, wiggling her fingers. "I was assigned to you. Togou is with your other friends." She frowned, preoccupied.
Meanwhile, Kurama looked towards Hiei. Hiei nodded. Yusuke and Kuwabara were indeed faced off with the girl's partner in crime, about the same distance away as they were when Hiei last checked in.
The girl snapped her fingers as she figured out whatever problem was in her mind moments earlier. "Oh yeah! Where's your woman-friend, Hiei-chan? The one who was with you before?"
"Hiei," Kurama whispered. "Go get her. Now. Make sure she's safe."
He didn't have to be asked twice and disappeared among the snow-dusted buildings, flickering over rooftops, leaving Kurama reaching behind his hair opposite the girl stringing her bow.
More A/N- the next chapter will come out within the week, because of its size. It will contain only fighting and long bits about feelings or whatever. Look out for it.