Past Life

Written by Justine JBV / Chibi Botan

Chapter Ten: The End

LIII

His father had just defeated and captured the king of the Netherworld. The war is over. What remains of the Netherworld are scattered, floating rubbles in space, and wandering about are the souls they have just freed.

Koenma walked slowly, searching for a certain blue-haired girl. When he finally found her, Koenma had expected to see someone who needs saving, someone who's weary of the war.

But she surprised him with a bright smile—it was as if she was not gone very long, and that nothing much happened. Well, physically she looked rather bad—she had lost weight, her skin was pale, and her clothes tattered as everyone else, but she was the same girl he had met before.

It was a wonder how she managed to keep a positive attitude given the reputation of the Netherworld, and the severity of damage souls incur after a week's stay. Koenma thought that she was the only light in the space.

"Guess what?" she said, as if they are old friends who were separated from each other for a very short time.

"…What?" he asked, not knowing what to expect.

"I know now how to fully control my white magic. I can help you with your rescue operation!" she said proudly. Koenma looked doubtful. So she added, "You see, I made a lot of friends here, and I would rather stay for a while and help them than be among the first to leave."

That had gotten him to agree. The ogres were busy helping the others, but they do lack manpower. For the next hours, they worked side by side, gathering hundreds of souls that were once prisoners of Netherworld, preparing them for their next destination: to the Spirit World.

Botan helped heal those who were hurt, while Koenma directed Ayame and the other ferry girls in bringing the souls to Reikai. It took a while before Koenma told her that it's time to go back to Reikai.

Judging by Ayame's expression when she escorted her to the ruler's office, it seems that they have more bad news for her.

LIV

"Alright. So you mean to say that you do not know where my brother is." She blew air, trying as hard as she can to stay calm. With her current condition, it was almost impossible.

"I'm sorry." Koenma sighed. "I know you're tired of hearing that from me by now. But I really am sorry. As I said, you were gone for so long, and you missed your brother's entire lifetime."

"Yes, I understand that much. You already said I was gone for years. But didn't you tell me before, that it's the Spirit World's duty to keep track of souls? How come you don't know where my brother's soul is?"

At the corner of the room, Ayame stared at the girl. In all the years she watched over her, this is the first time she saw this side of Botan's personality. But of course, it was understandable.

"It wasn't our fault!" Koenma shouted, frustrated and guilty at the same time. "It was your brother who evaded us! I have no idea how he learned about the other worlds. And how could we have predicted that he was planning to follow you wherever you are?"

"My brother grew up in Ningenkai, so I have no idea who—" her eyes widened, and she turned to Ayame. "Do you know what happened to Yumi?"

When Ayame and Koenma looked at each other instead of answering her, Botan knew that there are more to what they're telling her.

Her arms crossed on her chest, she put on the meanest look she could, and demanded: "Will you tell me everything that happened after I was sent to the Netherworld—without secrets this time?"

LV

When Botan disappeared, everyone rushed to Keitaro, who was at shock at what happened. Kino silently grieved for losing their daughter.

Ayame was compelled to go there, watching out for her best friend's family, despite that they do not seem to notice her presence. The five children were still weak from what happened, and so Ayame gathered them all and healed their wounds.

She then noticed Yumi glance her way before heading over to Keitaro.

For a long while, Keitaro stayed kneeling in place, fists clenched, his head bowed down. He was taking deep breaths, and they all knew that as he promised his sister, he wasn't crying.

When he finally calmed, Yumi suddenly offered a hand to him. The younger boy looked up, and silently accepted it. None of them spoke.

They were all surprised when they felt the ground shake.

"Earthquake!" one of the children shouted. Ayame directed them to the exit.

Giving Kino, who was now helping Ayame, a polite nod; Yumi tapped Keitaro's shoulder, and said to him, "Well, we have to leave. We wouldn't want to be trapped inside this cave, right?"

"Uh-huh," Keitaro mumbled, and with a stronger voice, called the other children, "What are we all waiting for? Let's go!" Hand in hand, they left the cave.

LVI

Ten years passed since she was taken, and at the time both the Guru and Kino had passed away.

The friendship that had started between Keitaro and Yumi kept them both strong. They were opposites but they seemed to understand each other deeply. Together, they strived to learn more about the four worlds, those who rule it, and sought for a way to find out where she had been sent.

And now, Keitaro stood in front of the Prince of Reikai, with Yumi on his side. Koenma noted how the two looked so grown up and strong.

"We did not accept your messenger's invitation just to hear some nonsense from you," Keitaro said harshly. "There's only one thing I want to hear from you. Tell us where my sister is!"

In truth, Koenma still did not know what happened to Botan. The days in the Netherworld pass faster than the other worlds, and it was a puzzle why she still hasn't turned up. But he was trying his best.

"I will repeat," Koenma said with an equally strong tone, "you have come to the wrong place. I gather that you learned about Reikai and thought that we are the ones responsible for taking your sister. But as I have said, it wasn't us—"

"Then what's the use of inviting us here?!" Keitaro's voice raised, and Yumi nudged him, silently telling him to calm down.

"We called you here to tell you to stop attempting to go to Makai. It won't get you anywhere. Botan is not there. Right now, Reikai is in another war against the Netherworld, and we can't afford to lose again. Your sister… she's in that world. If we win, we'll get her back. So what I want you to do is to keep away from trouble—trust me, she's not in Makai. If you insist on going there and if any of you ended hurt or dead, you will only start another war."

"Then, if my sister really is in that world—let me help you save her," he said confidently.

"No."

Keitaro's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean no? I am perfectly capable of—"

"I know what you're capable of—I watched Kino train youfor the past years—but this isn't about your strength. I promised your sister that when she gets back the two of you will be reunited. What do you think will she feel if you died before that?"

Yumi watched as the two sized each other up. None of them would back down.

"You won't change your mind?" Keitaro finally asked.

"I won't. And you are hereby forbidden from leaving Ningenkai until I send another messenger to—" Koenma stopped abruptly when Keitaro started to leave, only sparing him a short wave of goodbye.

"I believe we have to go," Yumi politely said. "I'm sorry, but we can't just wait around when we're not sure what my friend is going through." With that, she joined Keitaro who's waiting for her at the door.

The messenger who brought them there brought them back to Ningenkai. It was the last time Koenma saw the two.

LVII

Her shoulders sagged. "So you mean they're both missing… up to now."

"We don't understand exactly how," Ayame confessed, "but we believe that they found a way to hide from us. We cannot even sense their spirit—it's as if they disappeared entirely."

"The only clue we found is this," Koenma handed her a piece of paper. Botan knew it was a torn page from Yumi's book. "There are vague side notes about phasing, astral projection, possession, and many others... Nothing clear, but we can see from this what they were trying to do."

"They wanted to travel from one body to another so you will not find them," she guessed. "They were researching about it. So you can't stop them from going where they wanted to. Will they be able to do something like that successfully?"

"Nothing's certain," Koenma admitted. "You know well by now that Yumi's mind is hard to decipher. We're not sure exactly what she can do or invent from unproven theories. What I fear is that if something went wrong… which is probably what happened, since it's been so long since then…"

LVIII

"That means… I'll never see them again?" she asked, breathing deeply and trying not to cry. She has been through a lot, and had survived things worse than this. Still…

"There's still hope," Ayame assured her. "You see, there are two possible ending to what they did: either they succeeded or they didn't. If they succeeded, it's unlikely we'll get a hold of them anytime soon, unless they found you. But if they did not succeed, if something bad did happen to them, they'll have ended up as souls and sent here. But they didn't. I believe they're safe somewhere…"

"If they succeeded, and are safe, there's still the chance that they miscalculated things," Koenma reminded them, "if that's the case, it will take a longer time before we find them."

"Am I going to assume that they are now in a different body? If that is so, how will I find them? Or recognize them?"

"You won't have to see, but you will feel it." Ayame said. "I'm sure you will recognize your brother when you find him."

"Am I… allowed to search for him then?"

"Technically, no. Father has imposed stricter rules because of the war." Both women stared at him. Koenma looked at Ayame and sighed. Turning to Botan, he said, "but I can give you the only post where you'll be allowed to go almost anywhere. I hate to say this but we practically have no resources to help you find your brother."

"T-that's okay. But what do you mean, post?"

"Well, that's equivalent to work," Koenma explained. "Ayame is able to go to almost everywhere because of her post as ferry girl. It's the only job that doesn't have many restrictions in terms of freedom to leave Reikai. If you don't have any objections to that, we can make that official…"

"No objections," she said resignedly, "for as long as no one will stop me from traveling."

And for many years after that, Botan spent most of her free time looking for her brother everywhere. Though it only started as a front, she was noted as one of the most dedicated ferry girls in Reikai. Despite this broken promise, she was loyal to and respectful of the prince.

So Ayame did not wonder why it was Botan that Koenma chose to be the spirit detective's assistant. She was just perfect for the job.

LIX

Many years after…

The ferry girl blinked several times, wondering why she is now in Koenma's office. Just a while ago they were at the rooftop of a building, where Yusuke and the rest of the team were fighting against Yakumo, king of the Netherworld.

"Botan..." Koenma called out.

She gasped. "Koenma-sama, you're safe!" Unable to stop herself, she lounged to give him a bear-hug.

"Hey, you—I can't breathe!" he protested. Botan broke away and smiled quite tearfully.

Looking at the Spirit World monitor, they saw that the team is still struggling against Yakumo. They watched in silence for a while.

"Koenma-sama, why am I here?" she asked worriedly. "Did I…"

Koenma shook his head. "No. I just have to tell you something important."

She nodded. "What is it?"

"It's about… Yusuke…" Koenma said slowly, as if still not decided what to say.

She blinked, her expression immediately turning serious. She waited as Koenma composed himself.

Two minutes passed, and he said nothing... four… ten… Still nothing…

Botan decided that it was her stare that is making him nervous. So she looked away from him, and fixed her gaze on the monitor.

Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei were making a formation—and it's obvious what their intention was, despite that she saw this only for the first time. Botan felt no doubt that their team will win this fight.

LX

A few minutes more…

"Koenma-sama?" she called her boss, her gaze still fixed on the monitor, watching as Yusuke fought one-on-one with the king of the Netherworld.

"Hmm?" he answered, his expression showing his worry.

"I just want to tell you… that I already know." And then she looked at him, watched for his reaction.

He almost fell off his chair. "W-what?"

"Like I said," she repeated carefully, "I already know. Keitaro was reborn into the human world several years ago… and he is now better known as Urameshi Yusuke, Spirit Detective."

His mouth agape, Koenma could not believe what he heard. "But, how could you have known?!"

"It was obvious."

Now the prince really did fall.

"What do you mean obvious?" he shouted at her. "We worked hard to hide it from you because you might not let him work for us because you were so protective of your brother, and you're telling me it was obvious?! Why didn't you tell me?"

She frowned, her face turning red. "That's supposed to be my line! With all due respect, I'm the one who has the right to be mad here!"

LXI

After long deep breaths, Koenma calmed down. He knew that she was right about that, and he owed her an explanation.

"Yeah… right. Look, it was a really hard decision. We only figured out that he was Keitaro when it was settled that we'll recruit him as a spirit detective. We could never have guessed, until… Until I noticed Keiko."

Botan frowned. "What has Keiko got to do with this?"

"Well, I was randomly checking on the details of Yusuke's life, when I saw the file photo for Keiko. If you didn't notice, she was the spitting image of Yumi—" he continued, ignoring Botan's gasp, "and I had the research department gather every single report about her. Tracing back to her past life, we found that her record was suspiciously skipping a lot of details."

"What kind of details?"

"I looked up Keiko's past life- she was a psychic who lived hundreds of years under the name Fuuko. Normally, when a soul dies, ferry girls gather the soul, and your records should include the details of their lifetime up to the time they are sent here for judgment. If a soul is to be reborn, it is appended to her previous record. But Fuuko's record starts the day she wandered to Ningenkai, up to the time he died and was reborn as Keiko Yukimura. There are no details of Fuuko's life before Yumi disappeared."

"What made you sure that Fuuko is Yumi? There has to be others who had records like that?"

"It was Yumi's book. The Guru once told me that it has no other copy, and it disappeared with Yumi. Fuuko has the exact same book, I'm sure you will recognize it, we have kept it in our vault since Keiko was born."

"What happened to Keitaro? I mean, after he disappeared and before he was reborn as Yusuke?"

"Unlike Keiko who lived hundreds of years as Fuuko, he was reborn several times into different demons before being reborn as Yusuke. That's why we didn't notice it right way, the discrepancy on his record. But his record, too, had started the day after Keitaro and Yumi disappeared."

"I see. But when did it say exactly that Yusuke is Keitaro? Other than being childhood sweethearts, he and Keiko had no other link..."

"Because of Fuuko's death."

LXII

"Huh?"

"Fuuko had met Atsuko when she was carrying Yusuke. It seems that she had been looking for him all these years and was able to recognize his presence. But Fuuko died that day… and when she was ferried here, all I noted was her clean record; I immediately marked her as worthy to be reborn. I remember now, she requested to be reborn to Yusuke's neighborhood."

Botan kept silent, hanging on to his every word.

"She didn't mention Yusuke or Atsuko, but she said that she loved that neighborhood and that's where she wanted to live her next life. I thought of that as weird, but we both have met souls with more unexplainable desires. I said that it won't matter anyway because she will lose her memory in the process, but she still insisted."

"So you let her. And even without her memory, she grew up close to Yusuke…"

"Yes. You know that we usually don't bother with the souls' material belongings. She said that she will give me a gift, but I mustn't open it until we met again. I thought that bag was just another of those bribes we sometimes receive, and dismissed it to be sent to the vault after a ferry girl said it's a book. If I bothered to look, I should have known it was the sorcery book… that was also partly a diary from Fuuko. She wrote there that they were separated, and that she never gave up looking for the two of you. She wandered around hoping to sense him in the crowd, knowing that Keitaro's soul would always be reborn to a strong host. In Yusuke's case, a Mazoku, and though it was long after that before he manifested such power, she recognized him…"

"And you only opened the book and found out the truth when you suspected Keiko… Oh, Koenma-sama. We should tell them. Isn't this romantic? My brother is so lucky—"

"Yes, yes, he is… But seriously, how did you know?"

LXIII

"I didn't know. I suspected… but I was not a hundred percent sure. When I first saw Yusuke, I felt drawn to him. I felt like I knew him for a long time. But because so many things happened from there, I never had the chance to question things. But I knew you were up to something when you assigned me as his assistant. You never forgot that I'm searching for Keitaro, and I wondered why you would make me do something that would take my time off from searching… Every once in a while, I secretly watch him, hoping to see a distinct similarity between them."

They both looked at the screen, and realized that the fight was over.

"He made it!" Koenma shouted.

"He did, didn't he?" She smiled, glad that everything is finally over.

Yusuke was heading towards her body.

"You have to go back now," Koenma said, "But before you go… I have something to ask."

"Ask away."

"It's—it's uh, about your stay at the Netherworld."

"What about it?"

"Why did you stay there for so long? You were gone for such a long time… and you never said a word about your life there."

What was there to say? In truth, Botan could not remember that much. She remembered vague details. Like the darkness… the Netherworld was a very dark place. The smell of something rotten, that she was reminded of when Yakumo carried her earlier.

But there was also... hope and faith. She remembered clinging on to Koenma's promise that she and Keitaro will meet again. And the memory of deciding to stay because she learned to heal and there were so many prisoners there that needed her help. She never realized that she had lost so much time.

She looked at Koenma and realized that he never meant to ask about the Netherworld.

"Koenma-sama… you wanted to ask for forgiveness, right? For losing Keitaro and for not telling me when you finally found him…"

Koenma nodded. "Will you forgive me?"

She smiled. "There's nothing to ask forgiveness for. Without you, I wouldn't have had this chance to meet Yusuke and the rest of the team. You once told me you owe me a reward… but this is already worth more than any reward."

LXIV

When she opened her eyes, she realized that she is back to her body, in Yusuke's arms.

He was watching her, and knowing that she's back made him smile.

His smile, it is exactly like Keitaro's smile.

LXV

A few minutes after, the team started to leave the building. There were loud boasts and cheers, and Yusuke's voice definitely topped it. Botan didn't join in, but quietly watched the teen.

"Yusuke," she called very softly, but she caught his attention right away.

"What?" he asked nonchalantly, carefully guiding her every step.

"I'm so proud of you."

"Hm?" Yusuke gave her a short glance, an eyebrow raised in curiosity. Thinking that she was talking about the fight that had just ended, he gave her a confident grin and said, "Well, you didn't really think I can't beat him did'ja?"

She smiled, not minding the arrogance in his voice. "I knew you'd beat him. And every other villain that will come our way. I'll always be proud of you no matter what."

The end… Thank you for reading!

It took me so long to post the latest three chapters, that when I went back rereading / reviewing this I wanted to change almost everything. But this being my first fanfic, despite that I wrote several others in between, I thought it would be better to keep it as it's originally meant to be. I had to quit desiring to write in detail about Fuuko's search. I just had no energy and time for a longer chapter.

I also want to make it clear that I am NOT writing this against the Yusuke/Botan fanon pairing. Some of my online friends are YB fans, so I'm not writing this against YB fans either. This is just a fanfic I thought of writing, for the sake of writing! YB fans, please don't hate me. (Peace, my dear Lonelymiracle, if you ever get to read this…) And hello Yusuke x Keiko fans, I hope you liked my little surprise! :D

Lastly, I really want to thank again all of you who've read all ten chapters! Thank you thank you thank you, arigato, maraming salamat po for being so patient with me! I really appreciate it! (^_^)