Thanks to all who reviewed. Sorry it takes me so long to update.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, save for Hiro, my flighty, shy OC.
Ayame smiled as she watched Botan take in her surroundings with child-like wonder. She stood back and leaned against the wall.
"Botan welcome to the Phoenix Project."
The words didn't even trigger the auditory nerve. Every sense save for sight had fled the moment the door opened. It was like being taken to the big city after living in a small town your whole life. So many things; the atmosphere was charged with scientific possibility. She scanned the area. No demons here. Maybe testing had yet to begin? Or perhaps it was conducted in another room. Behind her, a door banged open, and in rushed a frazzled and panting Hiro. He grabbed the door frame for support as he took a few moments to get his breathing back under control.
"Sorry about that Botan. So," he said, stepping inside, "what do you think of our little lab area?"
"I…I'm not sure. It certainly is quite large. Um…I guess the reasonable thing to say is…lets get to it."
They chuckled. Hiro led Botan to the far side of the room where they could observe their surroundings without being in the way. He pointed to the metal table with the leather straps dangling from the sides.
"I'm sure you've no doubt realized this, but that table is for transporting subjects both in and out of the lab area. Everything else, well, we'll get to that in due time."
He turned to her, and raised his hand, palm up, fingers slightly curled.
"Come, onto exploring more of this white, machine-filled labyrinth."
Botan giggled and took his hand. The two of them walked through an open doorway that led into a metal paneled room. To the left sat large hunks of metal, blinking at them with tiny, yellow and pink eyes. Various buttons of all sizes lay close to the screens that dominated seventy-five percent of the steel behemoth sitting beneath a large glass window stretching to each side of the room. Three scientists were sitting, observing the scene on the other side of the glass. Hiro led Botan over to the left side of the room and tapped one of the scientists sitting in the swivel chair. (Yay for swivel chairs!). The man turned around.
"Yes? Oh, hello, you must be our new crew member, I'm Keida Rikuyo." He said smiling. Hiro brought up his index finger.
"Actually, that's not why I wanted your attention. Have any results been colleted yet?"
"We're just about to start testing, if you care to watch Hiro."
"Certainly. Care to join me Botan?"
She nodded. What was the sense of being in here if she didn't watch any of the procedures? Keida turned around, and hit a microphone button.
"Alright, bring the subject in. Begin test on my word."
Peering through the large panel of glass, Botan could see that the floor of the room on the other side was far beneath them. If she had to wager a guess, she would have to say that the testing room went far beneath the first floor. After all, if when dealing with lethal test subjects, who could possibly break through a wall armored with two millimeters of lead, the ground floor would not be the most advisable area for a testing room. The walls and floor were as white as the driven snow. Nothing marred that vast expanse of blank room. No windows, no marks on either the floor or walls. There wasn't even anything to indicate where the door might be.
Just then, a piece of the wall slid back and ushered in by two scientists, one keeping a tight grip on a tranquilizer gun, was a heavily muscled demon. It stared blankly at its surroundings, as if it couldn't comprehend what it was doing there. A large bald head swiveled from side to side on a thick meaty neck. The muscles in its arms bulged as it flexed them, curling and uncurling its hands into fists. Botan felt a rush of relief that she and Hiro were way up on the second floor protected by a wall of thick glass. The demon sauntered into the center of the room, gazing blankly all the while. Both scientists looked at each other, nodded, then backed out of the room. One reached over to his right, hand disappearing from view, and hit a button causing panel swung back into place. It was as if they had never entered. After a few moments observing the demon, who was now sitting placidly on the floor, Keida pushed the microphone button again.
"Test subject in place. Send in the drones."
More panels opened, this time on the left side of the room. Four humanoid robots stalked in, heads moving from left to right before settling on their target. Three drones raised guns, the fourth raised its left arm. Welded into the steel, in place of a hand, was a sharp blade. The demon rose to its feet. The blank look had left its eyes, replaced with a cold, bloodthirsty glare. Hiro leaned in to get a better look.
"Here we go."
Time stopped. Nothing moved. The demon regarded its enemies, its brain sizing up and calculating each one through a combination of a complex network of instinct and basic knowledge. Binary code ran through each of the drones' computerized brains, communicating target information in the two digit language of computers. Then, one of the drones fired.
There was no warning. The demon was there, and then it wasn't. Everyone stared in surprise. Keida leaned forward, nearly pressing his face into the glass.
"Where did it-"
A drone head flew through the air and hit the glass. The clear shield trembled upon impact. Botan shrank back against Hiro.
"Don't worry. This glass is polycarbonate. It can withstand a lot of impact."
"Oh…right…" Botan mumbled, fixated on the carnage below.
Limbs flew off one by one. Arms, legs, extremities. Everything that could be hacked off was, and without mercy, flung to every corner of the room. None of the drones had a chance to defend themselves. In a short while, the only things left of them were the various piles of metallic body parts strewn about the room. Electricity crackled along exposed wires, hissing angrily at the enemy who had dared cut them, exposing their vulnerable metal coil beneath the rubber covering. Standing in the center of the robotic slaughter was the demon. Its face was a nightmare: Jagged teeth leered out from jet-black gums; eyes of baleful yellow smoldered in their sockets, trying in vain to burn what was left of its adversaries. The skin on its face seemed to be pulsing an ugly bright purple in contrast to the dark gray color of the rest of its body. Claws, of at least six inches in length, protruded from each bony digit. It surveyed the room, no longer looking like an innocent creature, but rather an insane beast that even the devil himself would fear. Once it saw that there were no more enemies, the claws retracted, the skin around its face returned to its original color along with its eyes, and it sat down on the floor. Motion from up above caught its eye, and it glanced up at the large window situated many feet above its head. The five humans on the other side tensed. What would this creature do? Would it fly into a rage? Was it strong enough to break through the glass? Five pairs of wide eyes regarded the demon sitting on the floor.
It smiled and waved.
A collective sigh of relief. Keida reached a slightly shaky finger towards the microphone button and gave it a final push.
"T-Test complete. Collect subject."
The door panel slid open and the two scientists ushered the demon out of the room. Pieces of metal still covered parts of the floor. Botan didn't see how anyone could get conclusive data from that mess. Machines began beeping as information poured in. Attention flew to the screens as numbers and words appeared. Hiro remained passive. Instead of the flighty young man Botan was used to seeing in the west wing of the lab. Here, his face hardened and became serious. This was a man she had to become used to, because everyone here was risking their lives doing their job, and a smile may trigger something deadly. Not that that would put a damper on Botan's cheerful disposition. Hiro looked down at the screen Keida was focused on.
"Time?"
"Three minutes and ten seconds sir."
"I swear, every time we do this test, it seems to get faster and faster."
"Maybe it's trying to go for some kind of world record."
Hiro chuckled. "I doubt it would ever make it into the books. What exact damage did the drones receive?"
"Basic wounds. Hacked off limbs, hands, feet, etcetera. Stunning thing is, they're all clean cuts, according to the data file."
"Amount of force with each blow?"
"Approximately forty-five pounds."
"Subject's heart rate before the test?"
"Forty beats per minute."
"After?"
"Sixty."
Hiro put a finger to his chin. "I see. So what you're saying here is that the subject didn't work up much of a sweat performing out there."
Keida looked up at Hiro. "Considering it took down four drones, each strong and fast enough to take out an army, in a little over three minutes, I'd say that's not surprising. I mean, we're not testing a human here. We're testing a creature with capabilities that exceed anything and everything we've thought a living body could do. Why, sir? What are you suggesting we do?"
"Let's try upping the ante shall we?"
"What do you mean sir?"
"Find a way to increase the strength of the drones. Our subject is getting faster, smarter, and better at each turn. We have to keep up."
"Yes sir." Keida replied with a nod. He turned back to the screen and hit a few buttons. Moments later, a few more white-clad employees came in and began cleaning up the mess. Botan turned to Hiro.
"What now?"
The stoic and serious face had disappeared. A golden smile shown from Hiro's face.
"We'll move on from here. There are some other areas that I want you to see."
She stared at him. The stern leader of operations and the light-hearted young man. Which was the real one? Doubts about the Phoenix Project began to collect in the back of her mind. They left the observation room and continued on into one of the many examination rooms. Microscopes and tables were the main object inhabitants. Employees milled about the room, examining slides and taking notes. Hiro led Botan over to a table in the back, gesturing to the lone microscope sitting atop the table.
"Here is where we observe results from what we call injection tests. Come, take a look."
Into the single lens she peered. Illuminated under the bright light and trapped by a hair thin piece of glass was a group of cells. Tiny red orbs floated through the contained area of liquid, skirting one another in their mindless meandering. Blood cells. She was viewing a sample of blood cells taken from one of the various demons here at the lab. A flicker of motion within the blood caught her attention. She switched lens power to 500x. The image jumped into stark clarity. The cells became much bigger and their new partners became visible as well.
They were hard to see on 100x due to their extremely small size, but on the strongest power level, they stood out sharply, Botan found herself taken aback by their ghastly appearance. Tiny, green, barb-like cells zipped through the blood with absolute precision, attaching themselves to random blood cells.
"Hiro? I think you might want to see this." Botan remarked, stepping back from the microscope. The aide stepped forward and peered into the microscope. As soon as the vision came into focus, he leapt back, stunned. Botan stared at him.
"Are you alright?"
At first he didn't answer. Instead he stared at the table, hands braced on either side of him, eyes wide with fascination. Botan stepped closer.
"Hiro? Is something wrong?"
"…Amazing. Simply amazing. The virus is bonding with the cells. The body is mutating the virus, reshaping it, configuring it to the demon's hardwiring. Fascinating!"
Soft hands placed themselves over one of Hiro's own. The physical contact brought him out of his reverie and he found himself staring directly into Botan's eyes; her face bare centimeters from his own.
"What did you see?" Botan asked, giving his hand a hard squeeze. All that Hiro noticed was how close the two of them were. His glassed slipped down the bridge of his nose, producing a half-clear half-fog image of Botan's face.
"Hiro? Are you in there?"
Botan leaned closer. The effect of her breath ghosting over his lips brought him back. Like he had been lit on fire, he leapt up and back. A few mutterings could be heard flowing from his mouth, but nothing discernable. Botan waited patiently for him to get over his hormones. When he had finally calmed down, he pushed his glasses back up and began to explain.
"We isolated a virus in our lab, and tweaked it a little. Basically, we made it stronger, nearly impossible for a demon to fight off. Instead of the results I was expecting, this demon seems to be bonding with the virus. Changing the disease into some sort of biological enhancer."
"What kind of virus?"
"Just a strain of influenza which we altered."
"What sort of information were you hoping to gain from that?"
" What were are aiming for here," Hiro replied, "is utilizing this demonic ability and placing it into humans. Imagine the how the world would look if the most contagious virus, one that mutates on its won every year, were to become ineffective. Vaccinations would be pointless and those with compromised immune systems would have no reason to worry. In short, we're seeing how the result found here can be used to improve human quality of life."
That made sense. But why would Libra want to use the blood of a demon who could bond with the virus? Wouldn't they want a subject who could annihilate the virus? She thought of mentioning this, but clamped her mouth shut when she realized such questions would get her nowhere. The two of them conversed for a little bit. After all was said and done, and the findings made note of, Hiro led her out of the room and into another part of the lab.
Time passed and soon they ended up in the corridor where the demons were housed. As she stood there, staring at all the closed doors, Botan had a sense of things coming full circle.
"One of the jobs that you'll find yourself doing alongside me is going down this hall everyday, checking the condition of the demons we keep here." Hiro explained. "If there is any change, report it . If not, don't bother. However…"
Hiro looked towards the fifth door down on the left. The lock had been changed recently and now chains had been fastened on the outside of the door, barring the resident form any possible means of escape. A piece of the wall near the door had been modified so that it would slide back, becoming a peephole of sorts. Hiro pointed towards that door.
"If you see a door like that, or one that has the sliding panel near the door, don't even bother. Let me deal with it."
Suppressing a shiver, Botan stared at the door that now looked more like a holding cell for the criminally insane than a simple room.
"What's wrong with the demon that's behind that door?"
"I'm afraid I don't know. It may have gone mad, or it's in a rebellious stage right now. Either way, if it keeps this up, it'll have to be terminated." Hiro sighed. "I know how both Toguro and Koenma hate to lose such valuable research assets, but that is one of the orders given to us, and it's only natural that if we can't get close to the subject to do even a minor test, then it's of no use to us."
"Wouldn't it be better to just release them back into the area where they came from?"
Hiro shook his head. "Think about what we're dealing with here Botan. These aren't simple-minded animals. These are creatures as intelligent as you and I and perhaps even more. They'll remember what went on here, and in the state they're in, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if they tried to get some sort of revenge and start killing humans. It's best if we just dispose of them."
Botan nodded. If the chains on the door were any good indication, she could see why the lab had taken such extreme measures to confine the subject. The demon she had seen in the combat test was one thing, but that demon had been sane. If an insane demon was able to get free…
Her hair beat as her face as she whipped her head from side to side. No sense thinking about that now. Best just to keep up with Hiro and get her first day over with. Tomorrow was Saturday and that meant all day at the lab working with demons, so she'd better get used to her environment and keep a tight leash on her imagination.
"Botan?"
She looked up at the sound of her name. Hiro stood in front of the second door to her right, hand on the knob.
"Yes?"
"Are you alright?"
She nodded.
"Okay. If you want to come with me you may."
"Sure." She said trailing after him.
On the other side of the door was a plain white room. The only furnishings were a bed and a small table. Far off in the corner lounged a demon. It stirred upon their entrance, but did not do much. It simply sat and watched them with wary eyes. Hiro took five steps into the room, no more. The demon leaned back against the wall, smirking.
"What's this? The big, bad guy in the white coat is afraid of me now?"
He chuckled. The two of them had a stare-off for a moment before the demon took notice of Botan. His eyes lit up with disgusting desire.
"Well now, did the boy's downstairs decided to bring me some entertainment? Interesting. I should thank them. Hey babe, how ya doing?"
Hiro moved to stand directly in front of Botan, blocking her from the demon's view.
"She isn't food, nor is she your playmate.. She is my assistant, and this is her first day on the job," Hiro shot a threatening glare at the demon, "you will be respectful towards her. I don't think I need to inform you of what happens to demons who try to advance upon the staff."
The demon waved a hand nonchalantly.
"Yeah, yeah whatever. Just get on with your questioning, if you need to. My answers are just going to be the same as last time anyway."
"Good. Let's get started." said a smiling Hiro.
Forty minutes later, the two of them stood out in the hall. Leaning against one of the many doors, Hiro pushed his glasses up and sighed. They had questioned a few other demons in the hall, and like the first, had received little, if any answers, to Hiro's regular questioning. Botan stared down the corridor. There were so many, how were she and Hiro going to check the status of all the demons in just a few short hours?
As if sensing her inquiry, Hiro spoke up. "There are very few demons we can do this on. Most of them either absolutely refuse us, or…try to eat us. That's one of the reasons you see doors with chains and sliding panels here and there. Only specially marked personnel can get into those rooms, so don't concern yourself with it."
Hiro checked his watch, then cast a glance at the door down at the end of the hall.
"Hey, Botan?"
The blue-haired girl looked up upon hearing her name.
"Yes?"
"Since I have to leave in a few minutes, would you mind taking care of the demon at the end of the hall? Subject 0119?"
Botan was taken aback a bit Hiro didn't know Kurama's name? With as kind as Kurama was, Botan would have thought that, at the very least, Hiro knew his name. Hiro must have caught her strange look for he cocked his head to the side.
"Something wrong?"
"Oh, it's just that I never knew his number before. Makes me wonder how many we have here."
"No idea." Hiro responded with a shrug, "anyway, I can count on you?" he asked, handing her the clipboard filled with pages of notes taken on the other demons they had collected data from. Botan took it from him and examined the sheet of paper. Upon the blank sheet was a chart with the words 'Subject 0119' written up top. Beneath the title, she could see Hiro's spider-scrawl telling of Kurama's health for the past week. His condition seemed normal; no side-affects from last week's tests. All around perfect. Botan saluted Hiro in mock-army fashion.
"Yes sir, you can count on me."
Hiro nodded.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Yep, see you!" Botan called to her co-worker's retreating form.
When she was sure Hiro had left, Botan turned around and began walking to the end of the hall. Her steps were even and echoed down the hall, bouncing off the floor and walls like an invisible ping-pong ball. About seventy steps later, she had reached her destination. A sudden nervousness overcame her. Wait, why was she nervous? Kurama wouldn't eat her, he wouldn't try to rape her; she was safe. That was probably one of the reasons Hiro had decided to late Botan question him because Kurama was docile and wouldn't hurt a fly. Still, it didn't help to drive away the colony of butterflies that had gathered in her stomach.
Rotating the knob to the right, she opened the door and stepped into the room. Nothing had changed. It was still the same as when she had accidentally stumbled in there a few days ago. The only difference was that instead of out on the balcony, Kurama was sitting cross-legged on the bed, reading a book. He looked up when he heard the distinctive sound of the door being opened. His eyes widened a bit in surprise when he saw not the usual aide that came here, but instead the bubbly blue-haired girl who had wandered into his cage a scant few nights ago. Kurama glanced at the page, marking the spot in his mind, and put the book down on the ivory bed spread, attention focused on the girl standing in the doorway. He smiled, beaming warmth at the confused young human.
"You can come in. Unlike everyone else here, I don't bite."
Botan nodded, stepping inside. She was mindful to shut the door behind her. She walked over to the bed and sat down beside Kurama, whipping out clipboard and pen.
"Now, Subject 0119, there are a few things I would like to ask you. First-" Botan broke off when she realized that the demon beside her was trying hard not to snicker, and failing quite miserably at that. Irritation bled pink under her skin. Her hands made a hobby out of bunching the sheets up beneath slowly clenching fists as she glared at him.
"What's so funny 0119?"
He coughed in order to get his near-laughter under control. When said feat had been accomplished, she gave her an apologetic smile.
"Sorry, it's just that you're acting so professional, which strikes me as out of character for you."
"And how would you know about my character?"
"Who had to tie his bed sheets together because someone was too scared to go back down the hallway?"
Embarrassed, Botan leapt up off the bed, glaring at him.
"That's an entirely different thing altogether!"
"So you say Miss…hey, I never caught your name. What is it?"
Botan folded her arms across her chest. "Oh, so you think that by poking fun at me, you'll get me to reveal my name?"
"Okay, okay, I really am sorry," Kurama said, holding up his hands in a gesture of defeat. Satisfied that she had won, Botan sat back down on the bed and extended her hand.
"Botan, and I believe you told me your name was Kurama?"
He nodded. Botan smiled.
"Okay now, let's begin. Your health is…"
"Good, nothing to report there."
"Alright then," Botan said scribbling down the information on the chart, "Any disturbing mental patterns over the week? Black-outs, inexplicable bouts of rage, etcetera?"
"No."
"Hallucinations, or any other visionary issues?"
"None."
"Strange things going on with your demonic powers? A.K.A. total lack of strength, overabundance of power supply, new abilities that you've never had before?"
Kurama shook his head.
And so it went for a few more minutes. After everything on the chart had been filled out Botan laid down the clipboard and pen. She sat there for a minute or so, worrying her bottom lip. Finally, when her own questions became too many in number, she spoke up.
"Hey, Kurama?"
He cocked his head to the side at the sudden transition from test number to personal name.
"Hm?"
"You um…well you…" This was going nowhere. Taking a deep breath, Botan started over. "You're the only demon here that's not deemed a dangerous. Why is that? Why are you so complacent?"
Silence stretched between the two for what seemed like ages. After a while, the taut thread snapped and Kurama spoke;
"Well, I guess the main reason here is that, since I was young, this lab had been the only thing I've known. I've grown up being a test subject, and I've just gotten used to it."
"Did you have a family?"
"Yes, a human mother. She died when I was young. Very soon after her death, the scientists from Libra brought me here. Why all these questions? I don't think they're a part of the chart."
"No, I'm just curious."
Kurama put a finger to his cheek and smiled. "I see. So, what about you?"
"Well…" Botan began, trailing off as she remembered her own family. In all reality, she barely knew her father, and had next to no contact with any of her outlying relatives. This however, had been of her own choosing. She had grown up in the house she lived in, and there were just too many memories to leave behind. It had pained her aunt very much to see her favorite niece choose to live alone in that gloomy, empty house, but as long as Botan kept smiling, it put everyone's fears at ease.
"Like you, my mother's dead too. My father also died when I was very young, although I'm not sure what he died from. My mother died a few months back when she was driving home from here. It was winter and her car hit a patch of black ice, causing her to slam into the guard rail. They said she had been killed on impact."
"I see. So in a way, we're alike."
"What makes you say that?"
"Think about it. We both lost our mothers and through that loss, became tied to this lab. Me as a test subject, and you as a scientist."
"Lab tech." Botan corrected him, "I'm not old enough, and I have yet to graduate high school."
"Ah, my mistake."
"It's okay."
The two of them sat in silence for a little bit. Each one looking somewhere else than at the person in front of them. With the reel of conversation gone, an awkward air enveloped the room, stifling the occupants until Kurama cleared his throat in vain effort to banish the silence. On cue, Botan stood up, clipboard in hand.
"Well, I guess I should be going now."
"Oh, that's now why I-"
Botan waved a hand, "I know, I know, but still, I should be heading out anyway. I've got to get home and all that, you know."
Kurama nodded.
As Botan made her way towards the door, Kurama's voice paused her feet.
"Stupid question, but you were accepted onto the Phoenix Project correct?"
"Yep! First day today!"
"I guess that means we'll be seeing a lot more of each other then. I look forward to it."
Something in his tone made her wheel around. Was it gratitude? Happiness? Or false sincerity? She stared at him, mouth pulled down in a frown of confusion.
"I'm sorry, but could you elaborate?"
Tiny bits of scarlet glowed on Kurama's cheeks as he offered her a sheepish smile.
"It's just that…you're the first person I've actually been able to have an extended conversation with in the ten years since I was brought here. I like that."
"Don't you talk with Hiro?"
"No," Kurama replied, shaking his head, "he asks the necessary questions, fills out the chart, bids me good day, then leaves." He sighed. "It's nice to be able to read and sit outside sometimes. I mean, I'm the only one here who has these luxuries, well being able to be outside anyway, but there's nothing that can replace a good bout of conversation with another living person."
Feeling a pang of sympathy, Botan nodded. She knew how it felt to be lonely and starved for companionship within one's living quarters. The number of nights she had sat, alone in the house, just staring off into the darkness of the gathering shadows weighed on her. Each day, she found herself more and more, wishing for someone else in the house, simply to get her away from her own thoughts. Loneliness is never a fun thing to experience, and Botan, still sitting on a horse of that depressing merry-go-round, knew exactly how Kurama felt.
"Hey, tell you what," She said smiling, "I'll be here tomorrow, so if I can, I'll come see you after I'm finished with everything and we an sit together and talk. How does that sound?"
At first, he didn't respond and Botan thought she'd somehow offended him. Then, his lips spread back into a soft, butter-melting smile. Green eyes glowed approval at Botan's proposal.
"That…sounds wonderful. I'd like that, very much."
Botan grinned, "Alrighty then, I'll see you tomorrow!"
Kurama nodded and watched her leave.
Outside, in the hallway, Botan zipped down the corridor, checking the clipboard on her way to the second floor to make sure she hadn't missed anything. When she reached Koenma's office, she noticed yet another note tacked to the door. Koenma had left early again to go see his father in the hospital. Botan sighed in agitation. She had wanted to give him a first day report as he had insisted, but…great just great! Oh well, no sense getting into a ten foot hover. Luckily, Koenma had an inbox hanging on the wall to the right of his office door. Botan slipped the charts into the inbox, then made her way downstairs, shrugging off her lab coat. Now, it was time to go home and relax with a nice cup of tea!
Meanwhile, Kurama sat on his bed, trying to make sense of the emotions swirling about in his heart. It felt strange. This girl, whom he'd just met a few days ago, had just brought him the greatest form of happiness he could have asked for. Kurama smiled. So he'd made a friend. He could live with that.
Tiny green and red lights from the medical equipment in the room prodded the darkness with gentle fingers, nor daring to fully banish it from the room. That was the job for the much bigger, much brighter fluorescents. Koenma sat in a chair by his father's bed. Enma Sr. was sleeping, the only sound in the room other than his soft, slow breathing was the heart monitor, beeping every minute or so. With the air of gloom that hung around him, Koenma might as well have a part of the shadows that shrouded the hospital room. In the pocket of his jeans sat the letter Karasu had given him that morning. He had since opened it, only to be disturbed and shocked at the contents of the letter. No sooner had he finished reading, he had been out the door, desperate to confront his father.
Unfortunately, when he had gotten to the reception desk, the nurse running it informed him that his father had had a lapse, and in order to prevent further damage, the doctor had given Enma some medicine that would put him under until tomorrow. However, she told him, Koenma was welcome to sit with his father until visiting hours were over. He thanked the nurse, and had made a hasty dash upstairs, hoping beyond all hope that the nurse had been mistaken, and he could be able to talk to his father.
No luck. One look at the mass of piled sheets on the bed had confirmed his fears. The nurse was indeed correct. Two separate fears resided in Koenma's heart. One, was that his father would continue to have these lapses, resulting in an inevitable death; two was concerning the letter.
A heavy sigh seeped from Koenma's mouth and into the surrounding air. Sad, brown eyes looked at the sleeping image of the once strong, feared, and respected man, Koenma's hand reached out and clasped one of his father's. He had to smile. Even in his twenties, Koenma's hand still managed to be devoured by his father's large, semi-hairy paw. Seemed he did take after his mother after all. Koenma sighed again.
"Please dad, I'm begging you, get well soon."
His only answer was the occasional beeping of the heart monitor. On a whim, the assistant director's mind drifted to Botan. What was going to happen to her? Heaviness weighed on Koenma's heart as he realized just how bleak the situation looked if his father did not come out of this. He cast one final look to his father, squeezing the man's hand.
"Please…we're all counting on you. Please…"
Phew! Sorry, sorry, sorry for the long wait! I didn't mean to end the chapter on such a sad note, sorry again. Oh, and what was in the letter you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait for the next chapter for that one. Anywho, read and review!