Hello readers, welcome to the seventh chapter of BioPattern Rose. Thank you for all your reviews, and SmexyKitten, a very special thanks to you for your review on Swallowing Cyanide.
Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho ist nicht mein. Obwohl ich trumen kann. (heh, sorry, I'm listening to Rammstein as I write. Translation: Yu Yu Hakusho is not mine. Although I can dream.)
Author's Notes: (I'm putting this up to be safe) Toguro and Karasu's views of humanity do not reflect my own, its just part of the story. If you are wondering why this is up here, refer to Aristania's review, left on chapter four.
Late afternoon sun shone through the scant cloud cover, outlining the white puffs in the sky. Botan pulled into the parking lot. On the radio, The Cult sang on about the lovely smoke rising 'Fire Woman', while overhead a robin fluttered on the breeze. Turning the car off, an apprehensive feeling settled over her, and she had no idea why. Something felt…off. As she pulled off her seatbelt and stepped out of her car, she found the silence of the parking lot to be overwhelming. Something definitely wasn't right. She decided that her first task would be to find Hiro and ask him if anything had happened during the day, or after she left yesterday for that matter.
Once inside, the feeling of apprehension intensified. An eerie quiet had settled over the facility. Her footsteps echoed around her much like they did that night when she stumbled into the hall where the demons were kept. The hallway into which she had entered was devoid of all life. No sounds issued forth from the open doors on her left and right. It was as if everyone had vanished. She was about ready to head upstairs when Hiro burst forth from around the corner. The aide was panting from exertion, and his eyes danced wildly, as if he was either excited or frightened. When he saw her, he rushed over to her and grabbed her shoulders. Botan jumped, startled. What had gotten into him?
"Botan, you're here, thank goodness!"
Botan stared back at him, uncomprehending of his state of panic.
"What's going on?" She asked, trying to stop fear from trickling into her own voice. If Hiro looked like that, then something was up.
Hiro sighed. His teeth played with his lip as he looked off to the side. Botan turned his face back to hers, looking him in the eyes. Hiro sighed again and released her.
"Toguro contacted Koenma via letter. Control of the Phoenix Project has already been transferred over to him. Koenma left to go talk with his father. I don't think there's-"
"What?" Botan asked, dumbfounded. "How? How was Toguro able to transfer control, and why would Enma give it to him? I thought that Koenma and Toguro had joint control."
"No, I wish that were true," Hiro replied, shaking his head, "however, at this point, there's nothing we can do. We're going to have to bide our time for now, and hope Koenma can come up with something."
Botan stared at him. Hiro's words had flown out in such a rush that she was having a hard time making sense of it all. Her gut instinct whispered to her, mumbling in a small, frightened voice that now that Toguro had control, something horrible was going to happen. But what exactly? Truth be told, she had never actually met the man. She'd met his aide, Karasu, and already couldn't stand him, but did that have anything to say about Toguro? Then again… Her eyes rolled over Hiro's frame, scrutinizing his facial expressions and body language. For Hiro to be acting like that over a simple transfer of power, then something terrible had to be in the works. What was it about this man, this one man, that had nearly the entire lab on edge? Botan regarded her superior with a quizzical gaze. After a small bout of silence, she shrugged her shoulders free of his grasp.
"Hiro, may I ask you something?"
"Yes, what is it?" Hiro replied, traces of panic and fear just beginning to vanish.
"Why is everyone so afraid of Toguro? My mother was, you are, I'm pretty sure Koenma is too. And then there's about everyone else I've been alongside. The moment he walks into the room, or walks by, the whole place falls silent. Some people whisper about him, but I never catch enough of anything to make an informed decision." Botan explained, looking everywhere but at him. It was wrong to eavesdrop on her co-worker's conversations, she knew, but she wanted to know something at least darn it! Hiro gave her a level look. His shoulders tensed, then dropped as yet another sigh tore loose from his lungs.
"I guess now's a good a time as any to explain everything." He said. He turned from her, and looked back over his shoulder.
"Follow me." And with that, he strode off, leaving Botan to jog after him down the hall. A few minutes later, they were in an empty lab room. Hiro peeked out the door and after looking both up and down the hall for any passerby, shut and locked the door behind them. Botan leaned up against the lab table, cocking her head to one side.
"Sorry," he said, "I have no means for secrecy; I just feel it would be better to disclose all of this information to you where no one else can hear." Okay, that made sense. Botan continued to watch Hiro as he pushed himself off of the door he leaned against, and stepped a few more paces into the room. He looked left, then right, then directly at her. Unsure of where to begin in his explanation, he put a hand to his face in attempt to still the swirling thoughts in his mind. Botan, sweet Botan, waited for him with what seemed to be the patience of a saint. Finally, when Hiro had gotten his mental and emotional dials turned back towards normal he began;
"Toguro's always been…unstable. I find that to be the best way to put it. That's not to say that he isn't a good asset to this lab. As the co-founder, he's kind of important. Something which I despise…" Hiro caught Botan's impatient look and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, didn't mean to be rambling. At any rate, Toguro's views on science and humanity have always been strange ones. It's not as if he hates humans, but he views the current human race as weak and degenerate. He's always had something up his sleeve since the moment Enma proposed the Phoenix Project. I feel he may want to use the demons. That may be why he proposed the idea of capturing and quarantining them to Enma during the early stages of the project."
"So you're saying he wants to bring an end to humanity?" Botan asked, hands beginning to tremble. Toguro…was out to destroy humans? Sub-zero fingers inched their way up her spine. With what dwelled behind the doors of this lab, and the research that sat in the file cabinets, Botan had no doubt in her mind that he could pull it off. Hiro shook his head.
"No, that wouldn't make sense, because he seems to abhor the demons just as much." Hiro grabbed her shoulders again, this time with more force. "Botan, I need you to stay alert. Keep an eye out at all times. For yourself if for no one else, be constantly vigilant. We have no idea what he's planning, but we can't allow it to come to fruition. And please, stay away from Karasu as well, for he's in complete league with Toguro; of that I'm certain."
He let her go. Botan just stood there. The thought of possible world annihilation didn't appeal to her, but neither did not having any answers. How could such a man, who was so wrong in the head, become so powerful, and no one notice his instability? She and Hiro stood there in the silent lab room, their surroundings as bleak as their outlook. What did he want with the demons? What did he want with the lab in general? Botan was afraid to find out. A thought occurred to her: If Toguro was able to reach his goal, what would become of the lab afterwards? What would become of her, or Hiro, or Koenma? Another question rose up from the murky depths of the already deep, cold lake of fear: what would happen to Kurama once his usefulness ran out? Botan looked at Hiro. He was the one that had the most dealing with the demons, so surely he would know something.
Sensing her eyes on him, Hiro looked up at Botan.
"Is something wrong?" he inquired.
"The demons. Subject 0119, what will happen to him? What will happen to all of them?" Botan said, gaze falling towards the floor. Would Toguro kill them all? Although, in such short time, she had become attached to Kurama, she knew that he was being used as testing material. Now that things were being placed under Toguro's control, would he annihilate them all? Hiro stared back at her, just as lost for answers as she was. After a moment of silence, he too regarded the floor.
"I don't know. All we can do is pray Koenma can do something before Toguro makes his inevitable move."
Botan sighed. What was Koenma doing right now?
Meanwhile, Karasu stood in front of Toguro's desk, awaiting further orders. The latter leaned back in his chair, hands laced across his chest. He did not turn his head to look at his aide, but kept his hidden gaze trained on the desk in front of him. The clock on the wall ticked off another minute, and still nothing was spoken. A tangible silence had draped itself over the room, oozing down the walls and trying to suffocate the ever-moving second hand. Outside the office, it was just as silent. The halls leading to and away from the co-director's office seemed suspended in time with their absolute silence. Karasu continued to gaze at his superior, waiting for him to speak. When yet another minute passed, and Toguro's lips remained sealed, Karasu cleared his throat.
"Sir?" he murmured. Toguro glanced up, face as impassive as a mountain crag.
"Yes Karasu?"
"How do you plant to proceed, now that you have full control?"
At first, the behemoth didn't answer. He continued to sit in his chair, a terrifying flesh golem. The second hand ticked on, trying in vain to shatter the silence with its pointless, tiny ticks and tocks. Toguro laid his hands down on his desk and looked up at his aide.
"Karasu, what are your thoughts on humanity? How do you believe we, as a species, have progressed?"
Karasu's eyes flashed. "What do you mean?"
"Just answer the question Karasu."
From the cold edge in Toguro's tone, Karasu decided it would be an ill decision to press the matter further. He spoke.
"I find humanity's evolution to be a strange thing. For eons we struggled to be on top. Locked ourselves within a battle for dominance against creatures with strength we couldn't even begin to fathom. Again and again, we fought, using our own sense of cunning to outwit the creatures that were hunting us down for food. When we lost, we became more determined. When we were outwitted, we got smarter. Soon, we pushed the hunters back and made them become the hunted. Humans drove them into the most barren wastes and forgot about them. They became safe; but humans are a strange species. When they attained what they desired, how did they react to this? The began to fight with each other, and if that didn't work, they went after lesser beings. In a sense, they became what they had so abhorred.
"Humans are a destructive race. They learned from those long ago days of being hunted, I won't deny that. However, along with learning how to survive, they took what had been done to them and used it to their benefit after the greater enemy had expired. They turned on each other, turned on the world that they had been given, viewed it as their right to stamp all over it, and pity the fool who stands in their way."
Karasu clenched his fist and looked Toguro dead in the eye. "You want my opinion on how humans have evolved so far? Humans have reached the top, and now the only place left to go is down. Their end will come, and a more intelligent species will take their place."
"So you're saying that in a few years, the demons will rise?"
Karasu shook his head. "No, I loathe those unnatural creatures just as much as you do sir. But I do believe that this century shall be one of humanity's twilight years. Perhaps by the end of it, they will be gone, having left behind what is left of this planet to salvage."
Toguro nodded at Karasu's response. "I agree with most of what you're saying Karasu, however, humanity has not reached a plateau in evolution, it's just reached a temporary halt." The wheels of the chair rolled backwards and Toguro rose from his seat and turned to face the window behind him. Afternoon sunlight set the impassive stone of his face ablaze in fiery orange light. He stood, arms clasped behind his back, looking out through the glass to the expanse of land beyond.
"As it stands, the human race is weak. They perish so easily. They contract nearly every disease on the planet, and at some point die from it. Therefore they plunge themselves in a futile quest to extend their lives, all the while forgetting that they must fall some time."
He turned away from the window and back to his office. "The oldest law of nature is adapt or die out. We realize this law, but do not follow it. We hide from nature and all its forces, tucked away in our cozy little abodes. It is now time," here he held up a clenched fist. Like a large flower opening up for the day, his fingers unfurled back from his palm, "for humanity to evolve again." In his hand, he held four tiny orbs that bore a resemblance to seed pods, if not for their perfect shape and metallic gleam. Karasu raised an eyebrow.
"And those are?"
Without lowering his hand, Toguro replied, "The first step to creating a new, better humanity."
"A better humanity?" Karasu echoed, likewise never dropping his raised eyebrow. Toguro proceeded to explain.
"Contained within these pods is the combined DNA of the strongest demons we have here at Libra. These pods are coated with a thin aluminum alloy that will dissolve inside the stomach once ingested. From there, the fluid that contains the DNA will migrate through the bloodstream, causing the body to undergo a process similar to an accelerated evolution.
"But there's only four."
"Prototypes," Toguro responded. "besides, I don't think I'll need more than four. By implanting these in the bodies of four humans, two male, two female, that will be enough. They, and the children they produce, will be enough to create my ideal vision of the world."
Toguro laid the pods down on his desk. They made a muted clattering noise as they came into contact with the wood. He paused as he went to pull his hand away, almost stroking the pods lovingly like a mother will to the heads of her children. These tiny, tiny objects would bring about a change more impacting than the detonation of an atomic bomb. In his mind's eye, he could see the new, superior breed of humans slaughtering their weak predecessors. Flames of destruction would envelop the old human race, and from their ashes the evolved humans, his creations, would rise; and when they did, they would look to him as God. Yes, they would be his children, and they would not defy him. There was only one problem.
Eyes hidden behind thick shades rolled back to the aide. Karasu stood in front of Toguro's desk, waiting patiently for the man to continue, eyes glowing with interest. His lips parted, and a question fell into the open air.
"If I may ask, how do you intend to go about such a feat?"
"That's what I was getting to," Toguro responded, "I need to know what you think of conducting an at-home test within the lab to see who is the most compatible with the evolution pods."
"Compatible?"
"Only the strongest survive Karasu. It's the supreme law of nature. There are many who are not strong enough to evolve. We need to fid those who are."
"And if no one like that exists in the lab?" Karasu countered.
"There is at least one person in the lab like that Karasu, I assure you."
Nodding his head, Karasu responded to Toguro's earlier thought. "I believe an at-home test of our own will work just fine. However, how do you plan to announce this to everyone?"
"I'll leave the details up to you."
"Very well sir."
Nothing else was spoken between the two men. Karasu took the packet containing Toguro's avenue of the Phoenix Project and left the room, his destination being Koenma's office. Teeth of an eerily perfect white leered out from a smile of equally disturbing quality. It was all coming together.
A comforting breeze blew in through the window, ruffling her cerulean locks. Outside, the sky melted from a pale pink to a medium orange and began to darken even further the more the sun sank below the horizon. The chart used for recording data sat on the table nearest the bed, all filled out and ready to go in the morning. Botan placed her hands in her lap, watching the sunset. Kurama sat beside her, also absorbed in the bed time preparations nature was taking. Both of them sat there, watching the sun wave a final farewell as the last of its rays flickered and winked out over the horizon. Tiny, bright, sparkling eyes opened up within the sky, winking down at the land below. Sitting on the bed, with a wistful smile on her face, Botan sighed. Kurama turned to look at her.
"Is something wrong?" he asked
"Not really," Botan replied, shaking her head, "it's just that my mother and I used to watch the sunset a lot when I was little. When I do stuff like this, I realize just how much I miss her."
Nodding his head, Kurama pressed, "But that's not the only thing that's bothering you."
"You're pretty sharp, you know that?" Botan chuckled.
"Think of it as a demon's intuition."
Suppressing another chuckle, Botan turned her focus to the nervous twiddling thumbs in her lap. "It's just that…a friend of mine got angry with me earlier today because I was keeping secrets from her. But I mean, it's not that I have a choice. I can't tell her about what I do here, or else I'll lose my job. If that happens, I'll have to go live with relatives halfway across the prefecture. I don't want to leave the friends I've got here, both in and outside the lab. Not to say I want to keep worrying Keiko, she has better things to worry about than me, but…I don't want them to forget about me, nor I them. I'm wondering if I shouldn't just pull away from them now. Alleviate Keiko's worry, and at the same time alleviate the burden of keeping so many secrets."
"But then you really will be lonely, all by yourself." Kurama interjected. Botan lifted her gaze back to the window.
"Maybe, but I'm sure I wouldn't be troubling anyone anymore."
A condensed pool of silence lapped at the walls of the room as Botan drifted further back into her own mind. The demon next to her watched, attempting to analyze the lack of emotion both in her face and eyes. Specks of dust settled on the floor, unnoticed spectators of the melancholy drama unfolding. Her bangs flopped down to hide her eyes as she lowered her head.
"Hey…Kurama?" The lab tech asked, voice sounding weak and subdued.
"Yes?"
"Have you ever thought about the life you have before you came to Libra? Have you ever wanted to go back to it?"
For a while Kurama stayed silent. Then, he stood up and walked over to the window, and placed a splayed palm on the cool, smooth glass. His eyes pierced through the darkness of the night and saw a small group of bats zipping through the air, no doubt trying to find prey. A moth flew under a beam of moonlight only to be snatched up by the hungry jaws of one of the bats. On the ground, the grass rippled and swayed, caught at the gentle mercy of the continuing breeze. Further up in the sky, a raven called out, speaking in the archaic tongue of the night. Kurama closed his eyes.
"To be honest, I used to think about trying to return to my old life, the one where I was called Suuichi by my human mother, and lived as a human…" Kurama trailed off for a moment, opening his eyes to once again observe the scenery outside. Taking a deep breath, he continued, "But that's impossible."
Botan opened her mouth to interject, but Kurama beat her to the punch.
"The life I had before now is gone, completely erased from this world. I doubt there's a single person who remembers Suuichi Minamino. This is the only life I have. If I leave it, what will become of me?" Kurama turned away from the window, eyes closed one more, and a smile gracing his lips. "Besides, I'm happy here, it may not be the life I had, but I'm living at the very least."
Botan didn't raise her head. From the way she kept quiet, Kurama was not sure if he had even heard her at all. However, as Kurama watched, the fabric of her lab coat began to shrink back towards her lap as she began to clench it between tightly closing fists. Her body slumped forward a small margin. Concerned that what he had said had somehow triggered her to recede deeper into herself, Kurama took a step towards her.
"Botan? Are you okay?"
No reply.
"Botan, please answer me."
"You…"
The word came out just above audible, its tone steeped in suppressed anger. Kurama decided to try again.
"Please Botan, say a complete sentence at least."
"You…" Her lab coat made rustling noises as her grip tightened, "you…" her teeth started to grind, "you idiot!" Her head snapped up. Bright lights of anger glittered in her eyes, making them glow. Kurama jumped back, startled by her sudden outburst.
"What?" Was all he could say in the (literal) face of Botan's anger.
Botan rose from the bed, strode over to him, and grabbed his shoulders.
"You're such an idiot Kurama! You can't be happy, there's no way you could be happy when all you do, day in and day out is get subjected to one test after another! There's no warmth here, no love, no light, no nothing for you! Face it, you're not alive, you're just pretending to be!" Her grip slackened, and she bowed her head, the top of her head scraping his chest. "There's no one to greet you when you wake up. There's no one to take away the pain that you feel from some of the tests. There's no one to tell you not to be afraid, that everything's going to be all right. There's no life here, only work. You can't be happy in a place like this. You're lying to yourself."
"I think you're the one who's lying to herself." Kurama said, lifting her face up to meet his. His eyes held no expression, his voice was monotone. He smiled, but it never touched his eyes, "I really am happy, I assure you."
Botan shook her head. "Liar. Liar, liar, liar. I can see it. Whenever you smile, or whenever you laugh, you get this look in your eyes; like you're so sad and so alone, but you're too scared to tell anyone, including yourself, because you're so afraid of breaking down and not knowing how to fix yourself afterwards."
Tears slid down her face, each hitting the floor with a soft plip, plip sound. She lowered her hands and gripped the fabric of his shirt while her body began to tremble from the effort of keeping her sobs locked away. Her forehead found his chest as she continued, voice choked with tears.
"I know, because it's the same look I get. Sometimes I get so lonely I can't stand it, and hardly anyone ever calls, no one drops by to see me just for the heck of it. No one ever expects me to feel sad, 'It's just not in your nature.' they say, so I just plaster a goofy grin on my face and try to bury all my pain, but that only makes it worse. I…I just…" Botan sniffed, trying in vain to dispel the endlessly resurging fountain of tears, "I don't want you to be like me Kurama. If it hurts I want you to show me. I want to help you."
Whatever she had left to say dissolved into tears. Months of hurt, loneliness, and despair all stripped and laid bare in that one moment as Botan cried openly for the first time since her mother's death. Kurama stared down at her in shock. He'd seen her loneliness, her sadness, and all this time, he'd thought that she had been talking to him to ease her own pain. Never once, however, on all of her visits, had she ever been thinking of herself. She thought of him. She cared about him. She wanted to help him. This whole time, he had been keeping her away, never wanting to come completely clean with her for fear of her being just like the rest of the humans, when all she wanted to do, the only thing she wanted to do was to show him compassion, and understanding. The two things that she had denied for herself. Deep inside him, a wall crumbled. Without thinking, not even caring if he was, he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tenderly; and while he never cried his own tears, his heart echoed her feelings.
"I'm sorry." he whispered. Botan didn't answer verbally, but she did wrap her arms around him in turn. Apology accepted.
When Botan's tears had dried up, they parted and looked at each other. For the first time, his eyes no longer looked haunted. A radiant glow was just beginning to appear; this time he would be alright. Botan's eyes were red and puffy from crying so many tears, her skin was pale from the emotional exhaustion, and never had she been so beautiful. Botan reached down and took one of Kurama's hands in her own. Interlacing their fingers, she said;
"I want to help you Kurama. Even if it's just for a short while, I want to take you outside of these doors, away from this lab, and have you live an actual life."
A steady emerald gaze regarded her, "Are you sure that's possible?"
"I'll talk to Koenma about it. You have the privilege of going out onto a balcony, I don't think coming home with me will do anyone any harm."
"I'll ask you again: are you sure that's possible?"
"I can try my hardest to make it that way."
Kurama removed his hand from hers, and placed it on her cheek, cupping her face. Botan smiled and turned her face into the warmth.
"I'd like that," he said, giving her skin a loving stroke, "more than you can ever think of."
Botan's smile widened. "I know."
She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. Stunned, the fox demon took his hand from her face and placed it on his own. Meanwhile, Botan turned around and went to grab the chart sitting a few feet away. Vital belonging gathered, she walked towards the door leading out of his cage, but not before turning back to Kurama. The demon still stood in front of the window, hand placed on his right cheek, a light blush caressing his face. Shaking her head in mock despair, Botan opened the door and strode out, leaving the wonder struck demon to his thoughts.
As she drew closer to Koenma's office, something caught her eye which made her stop dead in her tracks. Beneath the door, a thin shaft of light beamed out into the hallway. Was Koenma back? No, he couldn't be. The way Hiro had made things sound, Botan assumed he would be with his father for the remainder of the day. Botan checked her watch, eight o' clock. The sun had set quite some time ago, normally Koenma didn't like driving the many twists and turns of the road leading to the lab after dark. A worm of fear twisted inside Botan's gut as she edged closer to the door. She laid her ear flat against the surface in hopes of picking up some clue as to the identity of the occupant inside. A thought then struck her, confirming her suspicion: whenever the hour grew this late, Koenma always had his desk lamp on, or worked with the light from the computer monitor. He had remarked earlier about how he liked to work under a 'softer light', it made things a bit more comfortable. Whoever was in the office had the light switch flipped on. Praying it would be Hiro, Botan knocked on the door and opened it.
Her prayers went unanswered.
Standing on the other side of the door, was Toguro's aide, Karasu. Botan froze the moment she saw him. What was he doing here? She cursed her luck as she remembered Hiro's strict order to stay as far away from both of them as possible. Karasu smiled.
"Ah, why hello there Botan. What brings you here so late? Shouldn't you be on your way home by now?" he questioned, glancing at the clock hanging on the far wall.
"Yes, well, I was just dropping off this chart, I-"
Before she could finish her half-coined explanation, Karasu took the clipboard full of charts from her, and leafed through them.
"I see, the subject status charts," His eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the recorded data, "nothing much seems to have changed. I see Subject 0119 of the last one that you did. Refresh my memory, isn't he the one at the end of the hall?"
"Yes." Botan replied, in a guarded tone.
Karasu raised an eyebrow and continued, "Yes, that one seems to be Koenma's favorite, he won't let Toguro or me near him. Such a shame too, there's a myriad of tests I'd like to subject him to."
Glaring at him, Botan said "Nice pun, but just what kind of tests do you exactly plan to do on Kurama?" No sooner had the name left her mouth did she realize her mistake. Shocked at her blunder, Botan's hands flew to her lips. Please, please, please don't let him have heard that. Botan begged. Again, she went unheeded.
A foul glint shone in Karasu's eyes. "Kurama? The demon trusts you enough to let you call him by name? My, you must share something special with him."
"N-Not really," Botan stammered, trying to cover her fatal slip of the tongue, "I just though it would make him respond to me easier, that's all."
"Still, he's comfortable enough with it." Karasu pressed.
Botan scrounged around for something, anything that would cover up her fault. Mentally reaching out a hand, she found a light bulb cord and pulled. "How do you know he is? Hiro and Koenma may refer to him by his name."
Alas Botan was met with nothing more than a flicker of electricity.
"Hiro calls him Subject 0119. Koenma calls him the same. You're the only person I know of that knows his real name."
Feeling like a mouse dangling from a cat's paw, Botan ripped the clipboard out of Karasu's hands, and placed it in a metal basket sitting atop a file cabinet. As she went for the open door, Karasu's voice stopped her.
"I would be careful if I were you. Try not to let that special privilege cloud your judgment. He is still a demon, and if given the chance, he would tear you to pieces in an instant. Hiro and Koenma want you to believe that he's docile, but don't underestimate him. You have know idea what's he's capable of."
Without facing him, Botan replied, "Toguro wants you to believe that all the demons here are monsters. Don't let his unreasonable bias cloud your judgment. You have no idea what he's really like."
She stood there for a moment, then continued on her way. Once the echoes of her footfalls had faded, Karasu walked over and examined the chart containing Kurama's data. However, thoughts of the blue-haired lab tech flew through his mind rather than the red-headed demon. Karasu smiled. Looks like he had found Toguro's first test subject.
Sorry it's taken me forever to update. Toguro's evil plan has been revealed, and now Botan stands directly in harm's way. Kurama might lie on the chopping block as well, can Koenma save them, and possibly the entire lab before it's too late? We'll just have to wait and see