Chapter 15: Trying Nuisance

Botan drew in a deep breath, feeling quite pleased with herself for having escaped spirit world a mere instant before she should have been sealed into her own realm: but before she could even breathe out again she was made suddenly aware that she had not made a clean escape. Her oar wobbled in the air and she began to lose altitude, the long sleeves of her kimono and her ponytail rising straight upwards as she fell through the air in a wavy pattern, making her feel like a petal from a sakura tree in summer time. A glance over her shoulder confirmed what she had already suspected: the barrier that had been closing over in spirit world had sealed just a fraction of a second earlier than she had thought, chopping off most of the blade of her oar. And without the blade to steer and keep her balance, she was left wobbling about and sinking through the air in a way that was quickly making her feel nauseous.

She quickly lost her sense of direction, and instead of trying to fly to her intended location, she focused all of her attention and energy on controlling her descent in the hope of avoiding a crash-landing. Unfortunately, she only managed to slow her descent, and crashed regardless, but fortunately, she crashed into a high, spindly bush, the branches of which snapped under her weight, absorbing some of the impact, and eventually she stopped just short of the ground, her hair and clothing thoroughly entangled in the broken remains of the bush. She was left with a few bloodied scratches on various parts of her body, but she was otherwise unharmed.

She let out a sigh and began the tedious task of untangling herself. A quick glance around her surroundings told her was not too far from her intended destination – she had been aiming for Genkai's temple, but had landed in the forest just short of the temple steps – and so her escape had been relatively successful after all. Koenma would undoubtedly be furious, and she did not relish the thought of the confrontation she would inevitably have with him when she eventually returned to spirit world, but she at least felt confident that everyone else in spirit world was too busy to come after her, and so she would be free from capture by her own people: though she would have to be extra vigilant of any demons in living world who may come after her for her healing abilities.

It was all an exciting adventure, Botan told herself. She would just have to find a good disguise and live incognito until she had figured out a way to do something more constructive to fix the problems in spirit world – and, as even Kurama had admitted, disguise was Botan's speciality.

Kurama, Kuwabara and Hiei were running after Puu – or rather, they were trying to, the mass of bodies also running after Puu around them making it difficult for them to move at any great speed. The elderly ice maiden was slouched over Puu's back and he was aiming to deliver her back to their transport, but it looked as though he would not make his target as more and more demons scaled the sides of the vehicle in anticipation of his landing. Yusuke was doing his best to knock them down to the ground again, but he was only knocking them out, which meant that some of them were rising again once they had recovered, and there were simply too many of them for him to hold back on his own.

When he reached the tank Puu paused, hovering on point above Yusuke's head, his eyes darting about warily as desperate demons lunged at his talons in an attempt to drag him down out of the air. He needed to land to deposit the unconscious ice demon on his back, but it was too risky, and so he was forced to hold his place, his giant wings creating a backdraft that helped keep some of his attackers at bay. Yusuke, who was staggering about a little under the gusts of air Puu's wings were creating around him, looked up long enough to assure himself that Puu and his passenger were safe before running to the front of the vehicle and sliding down the windscreen and over the bonnet to the ground. He pushed past the few first rows of demons to meet up with Kurama, who was slightly ahead of Kuwabara and Hiei.

"You can drive that thing better than anyone, you need to get it out of here," he said. "I'll stay here with Kuwabara and Hiei, we'll fight them off until you and Puu have made it out of here."

"How will you know where to find me?" Kurama asked.

"Send Puu back for us once you're safe," Yusuke replied. "He'll know where we are."

"I can't leave you all like this."

"It's not us they're after."

"Let Hiei drive, and I will stay behind. He's still too weak to fight effectively."

"Hiei drives like an old woman with cataracts and a limp, and you can make magic healing potions with your plants for any wounded we might now have on board. And since they think you're a woman, they trust you better than any of us. You have to go."

"Do what he says, Kurama!" Hiei insisted.

"Yeah, we can handle things here!" Kuwabara agreed.

Kurama admired Kuwabara's blind enthusiasm and Yusuke's determination, but he was not so sure that leaving Hiei behind was a wise thing to do. However the crowd around them was thickening and getting more frenzied, and he did not have time to dither. He nodded one last time to Yusuke before turning around and pushing his way around the side of the vehicle. He had to pull down two demons from the ladder up to the door and kick another in the face as he began to climb and found himself being closely followed, but he managed to open the door and leap inside without incident, only meeting with more conflict when he closed the door and tried to lock it in place. Almost as soon as he inserted the key into the keyhole it fell out again as the door was yanked open, and Kurama was forced to grab at the door with both hands and pull it back into place. He was stronger than the demons on the other side of the door despite their number, their ill health making them weaker still, and so he managed to gradually pull the door back into place, almost beheading a particularly ambitious gremlin who tried to squeeze through the partially open door.

With the door finally shut again Kurama quickly locked it into place and hurried over to the driver's seat, a vague sense of apprehension plaguing him as he felt the entire vehicle groaning along one side, and, peering out one side window, he saw that the majority of the attacking crowd had decided to work together – something that demons formerly unknown to each other rarely did – and they were trying to push the vehicle over. Realising that, if the others all joined in, they were quite likely to succeed in their goal, Kurama quickly started the engine, leaned forwards one last time to check that Yusuke, Kuwabara and Hiei were still in front of the vehicle and then put the vehicle in reverse, taking off as fast as he could. He knew he was potentially killing and definitely injuring some of the sick and needy, but they would never willingly move out of his way, and so he kept going, pulling on the steering wheel to arc the vehicle around until it was perpendicular to the stadium, then shifting gears and racing forwards.

Going back the way they had come was not an option, he knew. The others might not have noticed, but, as someone who was only too familiar with the type of demons who lived and commuted through the underground, Kurama knew that he could not return there again in the vehicle he was in, as it had been identified and by now there were probably traps lying in wait for its return. The underground was used by the same merchants and thieves who frequented Illyria, and those same merchants and thieves had an uncanny knack of spreading news faster than Koto's global news broadcasts. Continuing forwards had also not been a viable option, as that meant driving directly towards and around the stadium where the auction had been taking place, and turning right led out across a wide, flat, open plain where the tank would have been readily visible for miles around, making that a less than ideal option. And so Kurama was accelerating as fast as he could make a heavy armoured military tank go towards the forest of okunen ju that had been used during the demon world tournament.

It was not the most ideal escape plan, but nothing – other than vultures and other carrion species – dwelled permanently in that area, and so Kurama at least knew that he stood a good chance of finding a hiding place to stow the vehicle while Puu returned for the others: and after that, he had little idea of what to do next. It seemed that nobody was really taking any responsibility or offering to direct their actions, and that was leading to everything they were doing becoming knee-jerk, reactionary responses made in the heat of the moment when Hiei lost his temper or Kuwabara went on a moral crusade to protect the women he had mistaken as defenceless. This, Kurama supposed, was all because Yusuke had yet to definitively make up his mind about whether the ice maidens should be freed or not.

As he moved deeper into the trees, beyond the well-maintained, spaced-out platforms used for competitions and into more densely-packed, over-grown and rarely touched trees, Kurama had to check the side mirrors more frequently to ensure Puu was keeping up with him. The massive treetops were slowly blocking out all daylight, making the illuminated dials around him look all the brighter, but also making it increasingly difficult to keep sight of Puu and to see if there were still any demons chasing after him. Eventually Kurama reached a point where he was forced to stop, finding himself surrounded by the enormous trunks of fully-grown okunen ju and the gaps between those trunks littered with tall, thin and insipid saplings that had grown too tall too quickly in their attempt to reach daylight high above them, their trunks slightly transparent under the glare of the tank's headlights, making them appear almost ethereal against the blackness of the dense forest beyond them.

Kurama switched off the engine as he heard and felt Puu landing on the roof. He paused long enough to concentrate on the faint energy signals around him and confirm that they belonged only to Puu, the ice maidens and a small variety of wildlife typically found in an okunen ju forest. He then made his way to the middle of the vehicle and started to climb the ladder towards the roof hatch, pausing halfway as he saw Mizore already opening the roof hatch. He was a little irritated that she had not bothered to check that it was safe before acting, but decided against saying anything, instead continuing up the ladder and joining her as she finished loosening the hinges on the hatch. She gasped as she noticed him, snatching her hands from the hatch, but as her eyes met his she visibly relaxed.

"Oh Miss Kurama, I was worried you were one of the men," she said.

Kurama again contained his instinctive response and tried to keep them both focused on the task at hand.

"Let me open that, it's heavy," he said, stepping up one more rung.

She nodded and ducked back into the roof space, allowing him to push open the door, she screamed a little too dramatically for an emotionless ice maiden when the open hatchway revealed the limp form of the elderly ice maiden, suspended in the air by Puu, who had threaded his beak through her obi. Kurama climbed out onto the roof to ease her out of Puu's hold and manoeuvre her over his shoulder. He dismissed Puu and waited to watch his departure, feeling pleased to see that the spirit beast somehow had the presence of mind to not fly straight back in the direction they had come from, but rather to wind his way through the trees in a series of misleading directions in case anyone spotted his movements. Feeling a little more reassured by Puu's sensibility, Kurama climbed back down and closed and locked the roof hatch. Mizore made a strange noise as he passed her but he ignored her, continuing down the ladder and through to the driver's cabin, where he lay the elderly ice maiden down onto the blankets still folded by one side of the cabin from the night before.

Kurama had seen ice maidens as old as the one before him, but they were rare. To have lived as long as she had, she was clearly a revered elder of the tribe, and her presence onboard the tank was probably only going to escalate the already tense atmosphere.

"Oh dear…"

Kurama lifted his head to see Mizore standing by the back of the cabin, peering over at his patient warily.

"I had hoped it was not actually her," she said as she caught Kurama watching her. "Ice maidens look identical to their mothers, and so many of us look very alike, and I hoped that when the others were describing her, they were talking about her mother and not… Her…"

Kurama looked down at the unconscious, frail, woeful aged face below him.

"Is this a problem?" he asked when he failed to see why such a weak and pitiful creature should be cause for concern.

"Well, we don't usually let her out you see…" Mizore said carefully. "Her mother locked her in her house about three centuries ago, and she's never been allowed out until now."

Kurama frowned.

"You yourself can't be three hundred years old," he said. "How do you know who she is if she has been locked away since before your birth?"

"No, I have a young daughter, I'm only in my second century, but everyone in our village knows who she is," Mizore replied. "She sometimes would open the upstairs window and shout out to us as we walked by… She's not of a stable mentality, Miss."

"Are you saying she's insane?" Kurama asked flatly.

Mizore nodded solemnly.

"Dangerously insane?" he asked.

"It's hard to say," she replied. "I've never seen her out of that house to know what she might be capable of, but she certainly does say some frightful things. I was never allowed near her house as a child, and now that I am mother myself, I wouldn't dream of letting my own daughter go near her."

Kurama slowly stood up and took a step back from the old ice maiden.

"I was going to attempt to arouse her," he said.

"You-you were?" Mizore said quietly. "M-Miss Kurama, I had no idea you enjoyed the intimate company of another woman, especially not as you travel with so many men. Though I don't understand why a woman as young and – if you don't mind me saying so – as pretty as you are would chose to bed with one so much older than herself. Are you only attracted to much older woman? It seems a pity, if you are…"

Kurama twitched involuntarily, pushing back the many twisted thoughts his demon side was starting to formulate in the back of his mind.

"Awaken," he corrected himself. "I was going to attempt to awaken her. Would that be unwise if she is, as you say, unstable? Would it be best to leave her unconscious for now?"

"Oh…" Mizore said, trying to look thoughtful but failing rather miserably. "Yes, it would be better if you let her sleep, she is quite a handful when she's awake."

"Alright then."

Kurama moved one of the blankets over the old ice maiden and then stepped back, nodding at Mizore: though as he met her eyes he saw something he had hoped not to.

"Some of our people think it sinful to indulge in any kind of intimacy," she said carefully. "But some of us find that the sort of physical love two women can enjoy together is quite a beautiful thing."

"I assume from the way you referred to the latter option in the first person plural, you are one of ice maidens who isn't opposed to it," Kurama quietly replied.

"That's right, yes," she said.

To Kurama's eyes, Mizore looked alarmingly confident for a supposedly naïve ice maiden who seemed to be trying to talk him into being her lover – and for one long and sickening moment he could not tear his eyes from her, an array of sinful thoughts fleeting through his mind, each one making him more and more sure that he was reverting back to his full demon form and on the brink of fulfilling that one immoral desire he had harboured for so long.

"Have you ever been with a woman before, Miss Kurama?" Mizore asked.

"I won't have this conversation with you," Kurama warned her.

"I've never been with a woman outside of my own clan before," she continued, as though he had not even spoken. "I've often wondered what it might be like to feel a warm body pressed up against my own cold skin as I–"

"Stop."

"Have you never even considered being with another woman, Miss Kurama?"

Kurama wanted to tell her that she was horribly, horribly mistaken, but he was disabled by a small voice in his head that asked how far he thought he might get with her if he just played along.

"Some of my people think it's shameful, but the union of two women in the throes of ecstasy is a truly beautiful sight to behold."

Kurama snapped back to attention.

"Behold?" he echoed. "You mean you…?"

"I like to watch just as much as I like to participate," she casually replied. "Though I couldn't watch you fondle an unconscious old lady who's out of her mind."

Kurama turned his head sharply to the window: what was taking Puu so long to bring back Yusuke, Kuwabara and Hiei?

"I guess he's still really sick, huh?" Kuwabara asked.

"He looks awful!" Yusuke agreed.

"Let's draw a moustache on him!"

"With what?"

"Oh, right, good point…"

Kuwabara and Yusuke both sat back, rubbing their chins as they eyed Hiei over curiously. The little fire demon was still conscious – but only barely – and he looked worse than either of them had ever seen him look. He was deathly pale, his skin was gleaming under layers of sweat that had dampened his hair, he was breathless and he was infrequently letting out small moans and wriggling his shoulders as though he had an itch in the middle of his back that he could not quite reach.

"Maybe we should take his shirt off and let him cool down," Kuwabara suggested.

"I'm not taking his shirt off!" Yusuke snorted, folding his arms in refusal.

"I'm not touching him, he's already been acting way too weird around me lately!" Kuwabara retorted, tucking his hands under his armpits and glowering across Puu's back at Yusuke.

"Damnit Kuwabara, you're such an asshole sometimes!" Yusuke complained. "You should just go get laid and get over your homophobia!"

"I'm not homophobic," Kuwabara quietly replied.

"So then take off his shirt!"

"No way!"

Yusuke growled, unfolding his arms and shaking a fist at his friend in frustration.

"Okay, whatever," he said, holding up both hands. "I'm secure enough in my manhood that this doesn't mean anything to me, and I can do it!"

Yusuke grabbed two handfuls of Hiei's shirt and tugged it out of his pants.

"Ew, Urameshi!" Kuwabara yelped.

"Shut the hell up!" Yusuke grumbled. "It's not like we've never seen him with no shirt on before!"

"He's gonna kill you if you take it off," Kuwabara warned.

"Nah, don't be ridiculous! He'll be glad I took it off. He's a fire demon, right? So he overheats easily and he prefers the cold!"

"Isn't it the other way around? Doesn't he feel the cold more keenly because he's born of fire and accustomed to high temperatures?"

Yusuke froze, his hands hanging in the air, holding Hiei's shirt just above his belly.

"If I want a God damn science lesson, I'll go back to school!" he yelled, his voice rising with every word so that he virtually screamed the last part.

"I'm absolving myself of all responsibility," Kuwabara calmly replied, stuffing his hands more fully under his armpits.

"Idiot."

Yusuke yanked up Hiei's shirt, lifting it fully up to his neck, exposing his entire upper body from his waist to his shoulders, before stopping short, his eyes slowly growing wide at what he saw underneath.

"What the hell…?" he muttered.

"Huh?" Kuwabara grunted, his hands slowly sliding out from their hiding place. "Is that…?"

"Well I guess this explains a lot, right?" Yusuke said.

Kuwabara gave him an incredulous look but Yusuke merely nodded sagely.

"It's obvious now, right?" he pressed.

"What's obvious?" Kuwabara asked. "This isn't making any sense!"

"Well it's clear to see why they made me detective instead of you…"

"That was a low blow… Get to the point."

"This is why Hiei's been sweating like a nun at a cucumber stall."

"…What does that even…?"

"He's been wearing this extra, super-tight vest, and it's making him too hot!"

Yusuke pinched at the white vest Hiei was inexplicably wearing beneath his shirt, a small shiver passing over him as he realised that it was made of lycra.

"That's gross!" Kuwabara said, turning his head away. "He's sweating so much I can see right through it!"

"Oh yeah!" Yusuke laughed, leaning forwards to study Hiei's panting form beneath him. "Hey look, he's got a wound… Wonder when that happened…"

Yusuke titled his head curiously, his eyes studying what was clearly a substantial dressing over Hiei's heart. Leaning a little closer, he could just about make out faint traces of blood on the dressing, visible through his sweat-soaked white vest. He pressed one hand to Hiei's chest to flatten his vest over his heart to better make out how badly the wound underneath was bleeding through its dressing, but as he put pressure on Hiei's chest Hiei flinched against his hand and then rapidly shuffled back out from under him, tugging his shirt from Yusuke's hands and pulling it back down.

"Hiei!" Yusuke cried as the fire demon inadvertently slipped over Puu's neck in his bid to escape being touched.

Yusuke and Kuwabara both short forwards, peering over either side of the base of Puu's neck, seeing Hiei hanging upside-down, one of his legs clutched in one of Puu's feet.

"Nice catch, Puu!" Yusuke commended his companion, who cheerfully called out his own name in reply.

"This whole mission just keeps getting weirder and weirder…" Kuwabara moaned.

"Hey cheer up, sad sack!" Yusuke said. "Look, there's the tank already! And besides, it can't get any weirder than it already has, right?"

Puu lowered himself slowly to the ground, lying down Hiei before releasing his leg and flapping his wings once to move himself to a safe position to land without accidentally stepping on Hiei. Yusuke and Kuwabara slid from his back and Yusuke patted him on the head before sending him back to his preferred position on the roof of their vehicle. Hiei got to his feet, angrily stuffing his shirt into his pants and glowering at Yusuke. Together they moved over to the ladder up to the door, Yusuke entering ahead of Kuwabara and Hiei following at the back. Yusuke strolled casually into the cabin for a good three long strides before halting abruptly as his brain registered just what his eyes were seeing: the old ice maiden was lying on the floor, covered haphazardly in space blankets, Mizore was sitting on the dashboard, her hands on Kurama's shoulders and Kurama was standing immediately in front of Mizore, his hands on her waist.

"Not interrupting anything, are we?" Yusuke asked, grinning and wiggling his eyebrows at Kurama.

"What are you doing?" Hiei cried, pushing his way past Kuwabara and then Yusuke to stand alongside Kurama.

"This isn't what it looks like, I assure you," Kurama replied.

"I know exactly what this is!" Hiei snapped. "Why are you all so stupid! Get your hands off of her, can't you see what she's doing to you?"

"Hiei, I didn't do a thing to this woman, I swear," Kurama said.

"I didn't say you, I said her!" Hiei shouted. "She's the instigator! Get out of the way!"

He put his hands on Kurama's chest and pushed him roughly away from Mizore, who curled her lip and recoiled at the sight of Hiei standing directly in front of her. Hiei, however, did not hesitate, grabbing her face in his hands and leaning forwards to lick at the patch of skin just below her bottom lip.

"Damn, Hiei!" Yusuke said in a low voice. "At least take the girl out to dinner first!"

Hiei paused, licking at his lips experimentally before leaning forwards and licking at Mizore again. She seemed to finally come to her senses upon his second assault and squealed, pushing him back, and he allowed her to do so, staggering back and licking at his lips with a frown.

"So Hiei, what flavour is she?" Yusuke asked, elbowing a stunned Kuwabara in the ribs.

"I knew it!" Hiei growled, pointing an accusing finger at Mizore. "You conspire to kill us all and seize this vehicle for your own purposes!"

"I don't know what you mean, Mister Hiei!" she wailed.

"This is a poison!" Hiei snapped, turning his finger towards his mouth. "It's a popular trick they use," he added, looking back over his shoulder at Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama, who all looked as though they were suffering from varying degrees of shock. "It has a sweet taste, and they smear a small amount half an inch below their lower lip and then they kiss their victims passionately, being sure to dose the victim with just enough to knock them out. Or… Kill them…?"

Hiei staggered back a step, narrowing his eyes slightly at Mizore.

"I didn't intend to kill anyone," she said faintly.

"You…" he growled.

"Please, you don't understand!" she cried, turning to Kurama, as though expecting him to sympathise with her. "We thought you were taking us to your leader to sell us for the highest price you could get! We had to do what we could to protect ourselves!"

Hiei staggered two steps to one side, swaying about slightly and touching a hand to his head.

"Hiei, are you okay?" Yusuke asked.

Hiei looked down at the old ice maiden lying on the floor, stumbling a little awkwardly towards her and pulling back the blanket covering her.

"Oh my, it's grandma!" he said.

"What?" Kuwabara muttered.

Hiei held up one finger and drew in a breath as though to explain, but before he could voice his reply his eyes rolled back in his head and he crumpled to the floor.

"That better not have been a lethal dose," Kurama warned Mizore before hurrying over to Hiei's side.

"This is you fault you know, Urameshi," Kuwabara said matter-of-factly.

"How the hell is that my fault?" Yusuke asked.

"You said this wouldn't get any weirder," Kuwabara grumbled. "And everybody knows that whenever somebody says "this can't get any weirder" it always does!"

Shizuru's hands opened, a dishtowel falling from one and a wine glass falling from the other – and she did not even blink when the glass hit the floor and shattered at her feet. She had seen her fair share of unusual sights working in the bar – especially because of the neighbourhood it was located in – but the one she was now looking at was, without a doubt, the most absurd yet.

"I'll have a strong, manly drink please Miss."

Shizuru moved her mouth but her voice failed to put any volume into the words her lips were forming. The suited figure in front of her sat down on a bar stool and watched her expectantly, but it still took several seconds longer for Shizuru to finally managed to talk.

"What in God's name is wrong with you?" she said.

"I don't know what you're talking about, sweet-cheeks."

Shizuru's face dropped and she finally began to regain some control of her senses.

"Aside from the fact that you're wearing aviators indoors, a bowling hat, an obviously fake black moustache – despite the fact that you have a mountain of blue hair messily piled up under that hat – can you think of any other reason why you look absurd, Botan?"

Botan slowly pulled her enormous dark glasses down the length of her nose, pink eyes leering up at Shizuru from the gap she created.

"How did you know it was me?" she asked.

"I'll give you three really good reasons why your disguise failed, sweetie," Shizuru replied. "Number one, cleavage, number two, cleavage and number three put a damn shirt on, you look like a confused hooker!"

Botan gasped, whipping off her dark glasses to subject Shizuru to her outraged expression.

"You can't just put on a suit, dark glasses, a hat and a fake moustache and expect people to think that you're a man!" Shizuru cried.

"I am rather tall," Botan pointed out. "And I specifically bought an unflattering cut of jacket to disguise my curvaceous hips."

"But you're not wearing a shirt, and I can see your boobs from thirty feet away…"

"Of course I'm not wearing a shirt! Have you ever worn a man's shirt before? The necks are huge and baggy and incredibly unattractive. I thought it looked a lot more stylish like this: the suit gives the empowerment of a masculine image, but with no shirt underneath, it alludes to my inner feminism."

Shizuru groaned and hung her head.

"I think I look good," Botan insisted.

"You look confused," Shizuru replied.

"I am confused!" Botan replied. "I thought this disguise was flawless, but you saw right through it! How? Did you use your psychic powers? Because that would be cheating!"

"No I meant you look like you're confused."

"I am confused!"

"No, I – oh, look, never mind, the point is, if you seriously think that what you're wearing is a decent disguise, then you need help. Did you honestly look in a mirror and think "yes, that's the look I want to go for"?"

"I thought the moustache made me look like a dashing young gentleman."

"The moustache makes you look like a gender-confused housewife who's brain's been addled by her excessive boredom. Lose the moustache, lose the hat, and I'll get you a drink."

Botan sighed dejectedly and began peeling off her fake moustache, complaining under her breath the whole time as the glue held fast, making the removal process more painful than it ought to have been.

"Keiko told me you went back to spirit world," Shizuru said as she placed a bottle down on the bar in front of Botan. "She said you were in danger. If you're back here, does that mean the danger is past? And if it is, where the hell is my baby brother: he's missing an exam today…"

Botan paused, the moustache half hanging off her face, her eyes staring at the glass bottle in front of her.

"I'm not serving you alcohol," Shizuru told her, sensing her next question by the increasingly curious look on her face. "Getting drunk encourages people to enact bad ideas, and, coming in here dressed like that, it doesn't look like you need any encouragement today."

"But milk?" Botan asked, lifting her eyes to Shizuru.

"It's also caffeine free and calming," Shizuru replied. "Which, in your case, are both very necessary things…"

Botan removed her hat, placing it on the bar and allowing her hair to fall loose about her shoulders.

"I need to look inconspicuous," she explained. "I'm in hiding."

"Well the outfit you chose makes you look conspicuous, so try again," Shizuru bluntly replied. "What are you hiding from?"

"I don't know."

Shizuru thumped a fist onto the bar surface, making Botan yelp and jolt back in shock.

"Tell me, Botan!" she warned. "My brother is still in demon world because of whatever is going on, and hearing rumours about deadly viruses isn't helping my happiness any. You don't want to make me unhappy, do you Botan?"

"No, Sir!" Botan wailed.

"Then tell me what you're running from."

"I don't know! Lord Koenma wouldn't tell me! All I know is that there is a virus in demon world, and the cure is healing magic, and so it's not safe for ferry girls like me to go anywhere a demon might find me, because the sick are desperate and violent, and they might torture and kill me to cure themselves!"

"Botan, that sounds serious. Maybe you should have stayed in spirit world."

"I couldn't!"

"Why not?"

"I got bored!"

"Botan!"

Botan grinned nervously.

"If you're not safe here, you should go back home until you are safe here!" Shizuru flatly told her, before reaching one hand across the bar and ripping off Botan's fake moustache.

Botan yelped, her hands flying to her top lip and her eyes wide in horror.

"That hurt!" she moaned. "And besides, I have honourable reasons for leaving spirit world too!"

"Such as?" Shizuru asked, flicking the moustache into a nearby trashcan.

"I wanted to do something more useful that hide in my room all day, and I need to know where Yukina is," Botan replied.

Shizuru started, her cynicism vanishing to give way to genuine shock, a look Botan rarely saw her friend express.

"You don't know where Yukina is?" she asked. "But I thought she was staying with Keiko's parents?"

"No, she's not!" Botan replied. "I tried looking all over for her, and I can't find her! Hiei said she had gone somewhere secret, but he wouldn't tell me where she was or when she would be back, and now I'm getting worried. What if some sick demons find her and kidnap her for her powers?"

"That sounds bad, but Hiei always watches over her, right? So I suppose if he thinks she's safe, then she must be safe. Still, it's odd that she's gone off on her own…"

"Yes I know, but Keiko and I discovered that Yukina's been hiding a few secrets from us."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Well, it seems she – um…"

Botan stopped herself and began chewing at her lip nervously: she was not entirely sure that Shizuru would be pleased to learn that Yukina had eyes for someone other than Kuwabara.

"You can stay at my place tonight," Shizuru offered. "I finish at eleven, we can talk then."

Botan looked at her wrist even though she was not wearing a watch.

"But it's four already," she said.

"Eleven o'clock at night," Shizuru patiently pointed out.

"Ah, right, well…"

"Here, wait for me at my place, and try not to get spirited away before I finish tonight."

Shizuru slid her keys across the bar to Botan.

"And for God's sake Botan, change your clothes before I get home!"

"Okay…"

Botan hung her head and pouted but Shizuru showed no signs of breaking and offering her any sympathy, and so she bid her friend goodbye and left the bar again.

"Maybe you should just leave now."

"Please, Miss Kurama, I–"

"I'm not a woman."

Mizore paused, her face twitching curiously. She glanced at Kuwabara and Yusuke as though expecting them to deny Kurama's last words.

"If you intend to poison us after we went out of our way and risked our lives to save you, then you had best leave right now," Kurama continued. "Because if Hiei does not soon awaken without any assistance, I will take you and all of your kind on board this vehicle to the nearest hospital and ensure that you give help to the sick by any means necessary."

"Isn't that what you intended to do with us anyway?" Mizore asked bitterly, wiping a sleeve at her chin to clear away any residue of the poison remaining.

"Your fate – the fate of all the ice maidens on this vehicle – is in our hands," Kurama reminded her. "And I'm about to put it back into yours: if you give Hiei the antidote and you cure him of his sickness, we will take you back to your village and help you hide yourselves once more; but if you refuse to help him, we will take you to the nearest hospital, and there is a good chance some, if not all of you, will end up back in cages. The choice is yours, Mizore."

Mizore looked down at Hiei's pale and limp form sprawled across Kurama's lap as though considering her options very carefully.

"If he knew it was poison, why did he lick up so much of it?" Kuwabara asked Yusuke.

"Because he's Hiei, and he thinks he's immune to things like poison, pain and death," Yusuke replied.

"Good point," Kuwabara said.

"Hey lady, is that stuff actually deadly?" Yusuke asked Mizore.

"It can be," she quietly replied. "It depends on the amount consumed and the strength and abilities of the demon in question."

Yusuke glanced at Kuwabara, who was starting to look as alarmed as Yusuke was suddenly feeling.

"My patience is wearing thing, Mizore," Kurama pressed. "And your claim that you never intended to kill anyone will be invalid if Hiei passes, so you had best act quickly if you want to regain any trust from our side."

"I don't have an antidote prepared," she replied, sounding far too calm for Yusuke's liking.

"Well prepare one then, you idiot!" he snapped.

"It takes time," she said. "And I don't see why I should waste my last moments of semi-freedom mixing up an antidote for an enemy of my people, just so that he can surrender our lives to a terrible fate when he awakens."

"How the hell can you still be bribing us?" Yusuke demanded. "Do you know how to drive this thing? Do you know where we are or how to run away and hide? I don't think so! You're the one who needs to do what we say!"

"How do I know you won't just sell us off like slaves?"

Yusuke grabbed Mizore by the shoulders and started to order her to save Hiei, but his speech cut off halfway with a cry of surprise and pain as she froze his hands. He hurriedly snatched his hands back, shaking them off and baring his teeth at her.

"I don't care that you're a girl, a mother, or fragile or whatever," he warned her. "I'll kick your ass anyway!"

"No!" Kurama shouted.

Yusuke halted, turning to Kurama in surprise: it was not often that he heard Kurama raise his voice.

"We won't fight over this," he said. "She helps us right now or we agree to leave her and the rest of her people on board at the nearest hospital."

"Fine by me," Yusuke said, rubbing his hands together as he tried to warm them up again.

"But… What about the kids?" Kuwabara asked.

"We leave them at the hospital too," Kurama replied.

"I think you would have done that anyway, regardless of anything I did for your friend," Mizore told him.

"We trusted you, the least you could have done was to trust us," he returned.

"We don't trust many outside of our own clan," she replied. "Least of all a woman who shares the company of so many men."

"He's not a woman, you crazy bitch!" Yusuke snapped at her.

"We don't have time to argue this," Kurama said, gathering Hiei into his arms. "I have to start work on an antidote, and I need time to figure out what the poison is before I can even start on the cure."

Yusuke turned to Mizore, but found her expressionless and her eyes dull. She looked into his eyes for long enough for him to realise that she had no intention of helping before turning and walking from the cabin.

"We leave them at the next hospital," Kurama said.

He stood up, picking up Hiei, who lay as lifelessly as ever in his arms.

"This is ridiculous, he's lost so much weight…" he added under his breath.

Next Chapter: Kurama struggles to formulate an antidote for Hiei, and his mind starts to wander to some questionable thoughts – but when the old ice maiden wakes up, she soon brings him back to his senses. Botan is acting strangely (more strangely than usual, that is!) and when the gang finally arrive at Enki's home, they receive a nasty, nasty shock. Chapter 16 – Testy Nag