A/N: Hiei's role in this fic: Mr. Exposition.

Chapter 18 – "Botan"

Kuwabara slowly opened his eyes, but promptly wished that he had not done so, as his worst fears were realised when he did: he was in bed with Kurama. In fact, he was in Kurama's bed with Kurama. In fact, he was in Kurama's single bed with Kurama. In fact, he was squashed into Kurama's single bed, his body compressed between the bedroom wall and Kurama's body. In fact, he was squashed into Kurama's single bed, his body compressed between the bedroom wall and Kurama's body and they were both wearing some kind of strange bondage gag. Also Yusuke was standing at the side of the bed watching them, and he too was wearing some kind of strange bondage gag.

"Hey Kuwabara," Yusuke said as their eyes met. "I knew you'd gotten real close to Kurama since the two of you went to the same university together, but I didn't realise things between the two of you were this cosy. Can I be best man at your wedding?"

"Shut-up, Urameshi!" Kuwabara cried, wrestling his way up onto his knees at Kurama's side.

He looked down at Kurama, another oddity occurring to him.

"Why is his face wet?" he asked, pointing down at Kurama.

"I dunno," Yusuke muttered with a shrug.

"And what the hell are these things for?"

Kuwabara grabbed a hand at the piece of cloth tied over his nose and mouth but Yusuke grabbed his wrists before he could remove it.

"Idiot, if you take that off, you'll end up back where Kurama still is!" Yusuke scolded him.

Kuwabara looked down at Kurama curiously before looking at Yusuke again, something catching his eye as he did so. He watched Yusuke for a moment before slowly leaning to one side to see past him, bringing into his line of sight a nervous looking girl in a powder blue kimono with long, pale pink hair and bright blue eyes; and she was also wearing a mask over her mouth and nose.

"Who's she?" he asked, moving his eyes back to Yusuke.

"That's Koneko," Yusuke replied. "She's from spirit world. Koenma sent her here. She's not supposed to be here and she's not supposed to be helping us. But apparently Junior was missing the sort of excitement that only I can bring into his life because he sent her here to make sure we made it to demon world to help Josie and the Pussy Cats find a new scratching post."

"Yusuke, please…" Kurama groaned.

"Fox boy's up," Yusuke said, nodding at Kurama.

Kuwabara yelped and hurriedly hurled himself off the bed, landing with a clatter on the floor at Koneko's feet. Kurama slowly sat up, squinting against the sunlight before flinching and looking at Yusuke with suddenly wide eyes. His eyes momentarily lingered on the mask Yusuke was wearing before he appeared to have an idea and he turned to the window, opening the curtains and looking out over the back garden.

"This is Yasashi's handiwork!" he said as he turned back.

He touched a hand to the mask on his own face, frowning at Yusuke as he did so.

"But how did you know this was the defence against her raspberry sundae?" he asked.

"As much as I'd like to pretend that I figured out something clever for once, I can't take credit for this one," Yusuke replied. "It was Koneko's idea. She put the mask on me and stayed with me until I woke up. We couldn't find Kuwabara anywhere in his house, so we came here to get you, and then we found Kuwabara in bed with you… And that's pretty much where we are now."

"Koneko?" Kurama said, crawling off of his bed and standing up to look directly at the spirit world key keeper. "How is it that you are here?"

"Oh sure, change the subject," Yusuke drawled. "Pretend to be surprised that Koenma sent us help rather than try to explain why Kuwabara was in your bed in his underwear…"

"I didn't know you would continue to exist after Yasashi's soul left your body," Kurama continued, moving a step closer to Koneko.

"We don't have time to discuss that right now," she replied. "I can't disarm the flowers and there are more at Keiko's house."

"I can disarm them," Kurama replied. "But I don't understand: where are the others?"

"Nobody knows," Yusuke said. "Though Koneko said Keiko and Shizuru went to see Koenma in prison yesterday. They used Puu to get there, which explains why the hell we couldn't find any of them yesterday."

Kurama nodded.

"We must hurry," he said. "I will disarm the flowers here and the ones at Kuwabara's house. You all go on ahead to Keiko's house, I will meet you there shortly."

"Right," Yusuke agreed.

Koneko left the room and Yusuke started after her, only pausing in the doorway when nobody else followed him.

"Hurry and dress yourself, Kuwabara," Kurama said.

"…I can't find my clothes…" Kuwabara muttered. "Though… I don't even remember coming here…"

"You must have somehow managed to temporarily resist the effects of the raspberry sundae," Kurama replied. "When you are able to do so, it's akin to being on a drug or intoxicated: little of the world around you makes any sense and you rarely remember what happened afterwards."

"Whoa… So then why did I come here?"

"For a booty call?" Yusuke suggested, the shape of his eyes suggesting that he was grinning behind his mask.

"Perhaps you came here to find out why your garden had been overtaken by flowers," Kurama suggested.

"Maybe… So why was I able to resist it if you weren't, Kurama?" Kuwabara asked. "Shouldn't you be the one who can resist it best, what with you being the plant expert and all?"

Kurama shook his head.

"Resistance of the raspberry sundae's effects has nothing to do with an individual's spirit or demon power or abilities," he explained. "It takes a psychic trigger to allow someone to fight the effects. Was someone trying to communicate with you?"

Kuwabara slowly shook his head before looking down at his right hand. He extended his little finger and wiggled it tentatively, the red thread attached to it feeling oddly slack.

"I can't feel Yukina," he said.

"So what's new?" Yusuke muttered.

"Shut-up Urameshi, this is serious!" Kuwabara snapped. "I can't feel her! Something bad must have happened… Where is she?"

"If she's not in this house, then she must still be on Ping Island, or…"

Kurama slowly looked away but his attempts to be evasive only made Kuwabara all the more insistent.

"Or what, Kurama?" he demanded.

"Or she went to demon world with Grizabella and Bombalurina," Yusuke flatly answered.

"What?" Kuwabara echoed.

"Let's not waste any more time," Kurama said. "You go on ahead, I will start work on removing the flowers here."

When neither Kuwabara nor Yusuke made any attempt to move Kurama sighed.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I'm sorta almost naked over here…" Kuwabara said timidly. "Can I borrow some of your clothes, Kurama?"

"We're hardly the same shirt size," Kurama pointed out. "Go down the hall and check in my step-father's closet, you might find something there that will fit at a stretch."

Kuwabara nodded and hurried out the room; but Yusuke remained by the doorway, watching Kurama with what still looked like a grin.

""Let's not waste any more time"?" he said. "Yeah, I bet you don't wanna waste any more time, right buddy?"

Kurama frowned, genuinely at a loss as to what Yusuke was implying.

"Come on!" Yusuke said. "Admit it: you just wanna get to demon world so that you can flaunt your foxy form in front of Raspberry Salad."

"Yusuke, please, this is a dire matter," Kurama replied. "I assure you, such idle fancies are the furthest things from my mind at such a time."

"Sure they are," Yusuke replied. "She prefers you as Yoko though, right?"

Kurama lowered his head in defeat.

"She did make me feel as though she thought of the body of Shuichi as the Clark Kent to Yoko's Superman," he admitted.

"Oh, Superman, huh?" Yusuke asked. "Yeah, I can see that… Yoko Kurama goes running in, faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than-"

"Oh, Yusuke, give it a rest."

Kurama marched past him and out into the hallway.

"Bet she'd love to see you right now," Yusuke called after him. "Shuichi in his pyjamas is catnip for cat demons!"

Shizuru tugged Keiko down, flattening her to the ground, and the cat demons around them copied their actions: but Yukina stayed on her feet, her smile never faltering as a blazing black shadow swept by, incinerating two of the pussy willow trees in its path and scorching branches on most of the others. The shadow pressed on down the hillside and Yukina turned to follow the length of it back to its origin, her smile widening as she saw Hiei standing at the top of the hill, his arm outstretched, controlling the dragon of the darkness flame as it raced towards Jagasame and his soldiers.

She had always known that Hiei would not let them down, she had always known that he would be there when he was needed the most.

She turned back to the valley in time to see half of Jagasame's soldiers turn into black stains on the hillside. They had scattered following Hiei's arrival, but the dragon was arcing around to come back for the remainder of them: but, as Yukina watched, Jagasame appeared to make a getaway. No more than two of his soldiers made it over the ridge of the hillside with him, the others all falling victim to the dragon. After two fruitless sweeps of the hillside, the dragon retracted back, sweeping back up the hillside and winding its way around Hiei's arm once more.

Hiei, with the dragon once more contained, walked down the slope a little clumsily, his eyes drooping but his face still managing to retain a look of irritation. He stopped in front of Yukina, grabbing the catkin from her shoulder and squashing it in his hand before obliterating the second catkin that had been attacking her leg with a single kick.

"You saved us, Hiei! I always knew you were our friend!"

Hiei glared through the remains of the pussy willow trees at Yasashi, who was hurrying towards him. He held up a hand and she halted at Yukina's side.

"Don't you dare hug me," he warned her.

He fell to one knee and she crouched down in front of him, starting to reach out towards him.

"Not even after I lose consciousness," he added.

His eyelids drooped further and he fell softly forwards, his descent only stopping when Puu reached out and caught the back of his vest in his beak. The spirit beast picked Hiei up and placed him on his back.

"Talk about good timing!" Keiko said as she stood up.

"I wish he'd got here a little earlier," Yasashi said sadly. "Ideally before Jagasame got his filthy paws on Tora…"

She looked back over her shoulder and Yukina quickly grabbed her arm.

"Please, don't do it."

Yasashi turned to look down at her through a frown.

"I know you want to go down there and recover Tora, to pay respects to her the same way we did for Oyama, but it's too dangerous," Yukina explained.

"I suppose you're right…" Yasashi reluctantly agreed.

She looked around her fellow rebels, who had all gone very quiet.

"Tora was very brave," she told them. "And I know she worked very hard to keep you all going in my absence. We will avenge her, I promise you all."

Yasashi gave one last solemn look around her group before turning to Hiei, who was still slouched over Puu's shoulders.

"I am still glad that Hiei came," she said. "If he hadn't come when he did, we may have suffered more tragedies. And he took out a good portion of Jagasame's little army with his dragon!"

"I knew he would help us," Yukina said.

Yasashi nodded and walked over to Puu's side, tilting her head to look at Hiei's sleeping face. She lifted her hands but Yukina leapt in front of her, holding up her hands and shaking her head.

"I was just going to…" Yasashi said quietly.

"Even though he's sleeping now, he will still know you've hugged him," Yukina quietly replied.

Yasashi nodded and stepped back.

"So what now?" Shizuru asked. "I assume it's too risky to take the farm right now, with us all weak, tired and sore… Is there anywhere else we can go to get some rest?"

Yasashi looked about herself before pointing back up the hill.

"There's an old storage bunker over there," she said. "It's not much, but we can take shifts sleeping and keeping guard until the morning."

"That sounds good to me," Keiko said.

The others all started back up the hill but Yukina waited with Yasashi, following everyone else from the rear.

"I'm sorry about…" Yasashi said, touching a hand lightly to the bite-marks on Yukina's shoulder. "This…"

"I understand why you acted the way you did," Yukina replied. "But if Mister Hiei hadn't come to help when he did, you would have been killed. The rebels need you."

Yasashi nodded solemnly.

"I need you," Yukina added.

Yasashi smiled.

"It is nice to have friends with me – old and new," she said.

"Will you ever tell Keiko and Shizuru the truth?"

Yukina watched Yasashi expectantly, but the rebel leader kept facing the way they were walking.

"I'm sure it would be okay," Yukina added.

"No," Yasashi said quietly. "I don't want to talk about what I did and what I was in spirit world."

"Oh…" Yukina said, feeling guilty then for having mentioned the matter. "But… We all loved what you were in spirit world."

Yasashi smiled tightly but kept her head facing forwards.

"Let's just get some rest," she said.

Yukina decided not to push the matter any further then, instead continuing on in silence, the old bunker Yasashi had spoken of shortly coming into view.

Kurama's hands were on the ground but his eyes were on Koneko. She looked a little tense, standing at the edge of the garden with Yusuke, who was still making wisecracks about Kuwabara's outfit, which consisted of a pair of too-short sweatpants, a painfully tight T-shirt and a woollen Argyle cardigan that aged him considerably; but the fact that Koneko was physically present raised several questions in Kurama's mind.

As the flowers wilted, Kurama realised that he did not really know how Yasashi's soul had become encased in the body of a spirit in spirit world. Her circumstances had not been entirely like his own, after all. He had put his own soul in Shuichi's body, a demon soul contained within a human vessel; but Yasashi had appeared to have become a spirit, somehow literally transforming from a demon into a spirit. Koneko bore more than a passing resemblance to Yasashi and Kurama had assumed that her transformation had been the result of some sort of power Koenma had, something that had sacrificed her demon energy in return for the preservation of her life energy, changing her into "Koneko" – a name that seemed ridiculous, under the circumstances.

Koneko was avoiding looking directly back at him and he had to wonder why. He thought it odd that Yasashi had separated from her to create two individual souls, but even if that was exactly what had happened, he wondered if Koneko now had any understanding of who or what Yasashi was: Yasashi had claimed that, as long as she had been a spirit, she had had no memories of her demon life, and yet when she returned to her demon form, she appeared to remember her life in spirit world. So then what did Koneko know and was her knowledge the reason for her current evasiveness?

Kurama stood up as the last of the flowers faded, nodding at Yusuke and Kuwabara, who gladly removed their face masks.

"I suggest we hold onto these for now," Kurama warned as he removed his own face mask.

"What about all the people still sleeping in our houses?" Kuwabara asked.

"Now that the source of their protracted slumber is gone, they will wake with time," Kurama replied. "Probably not as quickly as we did after having these masks placed upon us: the effects wear off much quicker on those with higher levels of spirit or demon energy. They should be fine and there is no quick and easy way to speed the process up. I suggest we locate Shizuru, Keiko and Puu and then we should proceed to demon world, where I suspect we will find Yukina and the rebel cat demons."

"Right, let's proceed to demon world," Yusuke agreed with a smirk. "Wouldn't wanna make you late for your date with your dance partner, Yoko…"

"Yusuke, please…" Kurama groaned.

Yusuke and Kuwabara started to leave and Kurama grabbed Koneko's arm before she could follow them.

"We need to talk, you and I," he said to her as she turned to him.

"I have nothing to say to you," she replied. "I'm here by order of Prince Koenma and it seems as though my work here is done. I should return to spirit world before my absence is noticed."

Kurama held onto her arm as she tried to move on and she shot him a look that was an odd blend of defiance and fear.

"I need to ask you a couple of questions about Yasashi," he said.

"And I need to return to spirit world," she stubbornly replied. "Now unhand me."

She tugged at Kurama's hold and he released her, if only because of the increasingly fearful look in her eyes.

"Come on Kurama, let's go already!" Yusuke called back to him.

Kurama looked over at Yusuke and Kuwabara, who had already left the garden and then back at Koneko, who had backed away from him during his brief moment of distraction.

"Perhaps another time," he said.

She gave him a strange look and he started after Yusuke and Kuwabara. After a few steps he stopped and looked back, but Koneko had vanished. Feeling no less sure of the reason for the key keeper's appearance, Kurama continued on his way and joined up with Yusuke and Kuwabara on the street outside of Keiko's house.

"So we're missing a twin sister, a big sister and a spirit detective," Yusuke said.

Kuwabara looked perplexed and Kurama leaned closer to Yusuke.

"Be mindful Yusuke," he warned in a whisper. "Kuwabara is still unaware of the relation between Hiei and Yukina."

"Still?" Yusuke echoed.

"Huh?" Kuwabara grunted.

"I said where do you think your sister and Keiko might be?" Yusuke lied.

"Is it possible they went to visit Kuroko for further training and guidance?" Kurama suggested.

"Well the last time I saw Yukina she was on Ping Island," Kuwabara said.

"Kuroko's place is miles away and takes forever to get to," Yusuke pointed out. "And we don't really have time to waste running down dead-ends."

"Right, you think they went to demon world with the cat ladies?" Kuwabara asked. "Should we just go there?"

Yusuke ran his eyes over Kuwabara with a sneer.

"I'm not going anywhere with you dressed like that," he said.

"If Hiei hadn't run off like he did he could have helped us find everybody with his extra eyeball…" Kuwabara grumbled.

"I wonder where the little pain the ass is right now?" Yusuke mused.

Shizuru slowly walked around the interior of the old bunker, looking over the others as she did so. The little girls were asleep and their mother was rapidly joining them, Keiko had also fallen asleep and Yukina was fighting sleep to continue healing wounds where she could. Chita and three others were outside the bunker on watch duty with Puu, and the others were all either cleaning their wounds or readying themselves for sleep. In a small room at the back corner of the bunker, Hiei was sleeping off the effects of using his attack; and, as she approached the open doorway to the room, Shizuru saw that Yasashi was still in the room with him. Hiei was lying flat out by the back wall of the room and Yasashi was standing at the opposite side of the room watching him with a strange look on her face.

"Hey," Shizuru said as she entered the room. "Everything okay in here?"

Yasashi slowly shook her head; and Shizuru wondered then if the rebel leader had sensed what she had when Hiei had unleashed his dragon of darkness flame earlier that day.

"I can't believe Tora is gone," Yasashi said quietly.

Shizuru moved closer and put a hand on her shoulder, but she did not respond to the gesture.

"I know it's gotta be hard," Shizuru said gently. "But you did know you probably wouldn't make it through this without some losses."

"I couldn't have started the rebellion without Tora," Yasashi said, her eyes still on Hiei and her voice still hushed. "She was my closest friend for so long. It's too cruel that I came back and only got the briefest amount of time with my best friend and…"

Shizuru waited for Yasashi to continue, but it quickly became apparent that she would not.

"The others feel the loss too," Shizuru said. "And you need to be strong for them. Tora wouldn't want you to be hiding away and feeling sad. She'd want you to fight harder and win this."

"It's just not fair," Yasashi replied.

"I know," Shizuru said. "But you should get some sleep now, you need your rest."

"I can't sleep."

"You should try."

"I'm on the next watch shift and I couldn't possibly sleep anyway."

Shizuru turned to look back over her shoulder, double-checking that Keiko was asleep before turning back to Yasashi.

"Look, I know this must be really hard for you," she said. "You lost two friends today and I know you feel conflicted, caught between your life in spirit world and your life here in demon world, but there's no going back for you now. If you and the rest of the rebels want to survive this, you have to fight it, and fighting it would be a lot easier if you accepted some help."

Yasashi turned to Shizuru.

"You mean I shouldn't have tried to stop you all from following me when I tried to confront Jagasame today," she said.

"No, I mean you have three pretty good fighters waiting in the wings and they're only a trip back to the living world away," Shizuru replied.

Yasashi's face dropped.

"I know you don't want to drag your friends from your spirit life into the fight your involved with in your demon life, but they were willing to help you before they even knew who you were," Shizuru continued. "I just think if Yusuke, Kurama and my brother knew the truth, they'd be here in a heartbeat and they'd turn that Jagasame guy into mincemeat."

Yasashi smiled humourlessly.

"It is a tempting offer," she said. "But you know I don't really even want you, Keiko or even Yukina here and involved in this."

"But we are here and we are involved in this," Shizuru replied. "And if you're worried about us getting hurt, why don't you call in the boys who usually go to such great lengths to make sure we don't get hurt?"

"It's so difficult…" Yasashi said, shaking her head. "I know Hiei only appeared when he did because he sensed Yukina was in danger."

She turned her attention back to Hiei and Shizuru swallowed back the urge to tell Yasashi that she was almost certain that Hiei had at least one other reason for joining the fight.

"You know the other boys will be disappointed if they find out Hiei got to be a part of this and they missed out, right?" she said instead.

Yasashi smiled.

"Oh Shizuru, you do know how to cheer me up," she said. "But you know, you should get some sleep."

She turned to fully face Shizuru, putting a hand on her shoulder and guiding her – rather firmly, Shizuru noted – back out of the room. Shizuru considered trying one last time to convince Yasashi to rest or warning her that Hiei might have other motives, but as she was tired – and she could sense that the rebel leader wanted to be alone with her thoughts – she instead moved over to where Keiko was sleeping and tried to find a position nearby to get some sleep herself.

"He's sure taking his sweet time…" Yusuke grumbled, kicking a discarded soda can along the pier.

When Kurama did not respond, Yusuke stopped pacing and turned to the fox demon, finding him looking out across the water with a faraway look in his eyes.

"Hey lover boy, I was talking to you!" Yusuke shouted at him.

"Yusuke, please…" Kurama groaned.

"Aw, come on!" Yusuke said. "Just admit it: me and Kuwabara are going to demon world because we're worried about the girls, but you're just going so you can flash your foxy tail at catwoman."

Kurama shook his head.

"Yusuke, this is not really the time for jokes," he said.

"When Kuwabara gets back and we start doing something useful, it won't be the time for jokes," Yusuke said. "But right now… Who cares? So admit it: it's killed you being stuck as Shuichi around catwoman and you can't wait to see her as your demon self again."

Kurama gave a small hint of a smile.

"Alright," he said. "I shall concede that there is a small part of me that will relish confronting Yasashi in my full demon form. The past few days have felt like-"

"Yeah, yeah, you were Clark Kent and she was Superman, I get it," Yusuke interrupted.

"Not quite," Kurama replied. "I think she thought of herself as a lioness, the hunter and leader of her pack, and Shuichi was but a lamb in her eyes."

"More animal puns?"

"And now she has gone to confront the loyalists, her followers blindly going with her like a herd of sheep themselves, and, in more cases than one, it is just like the proverbial lamb being led to slaughter."

"That's a lot of animal puns…"

"Animal analogies. And the whole thing is irrelevant anyway: our time together is fleeting, after all. Even if she survives this, she will remain in demon world thereafter with her clan and I will remain here in the living world. Just like the last time around, our time together was brilliant but brief."

"You were just passing each other by, like two sheeps in the night."

Kurama gave Yusuke a pained look, but Yusuke grinned back at him.

"You're going to be like this until we find the girls, aren't you?" Kurama asked.

"You make it so easy," Yusuke replied. "I'm not even trying over here! You're just handing me these nuggets of gold, and I'm just polishing them."

"Here's Kuwabara," Kurama said, the relief evident in his voice. "And he's alone, so we should continue to Ping Island."

He threw a seed onto the water that turned into a leaf boat as Kuwabara rejoined them, once more in his own clothes.

"I called Kuroko and I checked with my sister's boss," Kuwabara said. "Nobody knows where Shizuru or Keiko is, and I still can't feel Yukina."

Kurama nodded and once more donned the mask Koneko had made. Kuwabara copied his actions and Yusuke reluctantly followed suit, before all three leapt onto the leaf and took off towards Ping Island. With the wind on their side, they reached their destination quickly; though it was obvious from some distance back that the island had been taken over by more of Yasashi's flowers. All three disembarked the boat on the beach and split up to quickly check for any sleeping bodies; when they found none, they continued to the other side of the island, where Kurama created another leaf boat.

"There's a portal to demon world up ahead," Kurama explained as they boarded the boat.

"It's getting late," Kuwabara said, looking up at the darkening sky overhead. "I can't believe we lost the whole day."

"Let us hope that we reach the others before they are caught by bounty hunters or loyalist soldiers," Kurama said.

"Okay Superman," Yusuke said, smirking insolently.

"Yusuke…" Kurama groaned.

Yasashi watched Shizuru roll up her coat to make herself a pillow and then curl up on the floor to sleep. She hoped that the bunker would give them all a place to rest peacefully for the night, as none of those around her were fit to battle the loyalists as they were. The bunker was quietening down as most of those inside had fallen asleep: even Yukina had ceased her nursing duties and made a bed for herself.

"Sleep well, girls," Yasashi whispered as she scanned around the bunker from her position in the doorway of the small room.

A sharp slapping sound pierced her ears and made her flinch involuntarily, and when it came again she stiffened. Again and again she heard it, slow and rhythmically sounding out behind her. She slowly turned her head to look back over her shoulder, her face dropping as she found Hiei standing at the other end of the room, slowly clapping his hands. She quickly glanced out at the others again to confirm that none of them had heard his disturbance before quickly and quietly closing the room door, shutting herself in with Hiei.

"Quite the stellar performance as the pathetic, bleeding heart liberal, rebel leader," Hiei said sarcastically as she turned to him.

"I don't know what you mean," she said quietly, pressing her back to the door.

"Don't even try to lie to me," he replied. "I know what's really going on here."

Yasashi shook her head and Hiei snorted as though amused by her response.

"You think there are only three people who know the truth, and you've done such a fantastic job of indisposing one and disposing of another," he said. "But I'm here to stop you continuing your tactics on the third."

"Hiei, I honestly have no idea what you mean," Yasashi insisted.

"I'm talking about Raspberry Sundae," Hiei replied. "You know, that little file in spirit world? The file that only Koenma knew the contents of? You got him detained and you thought your problems were over: with him out of the way, nobody else knew what was in that file, nobody else knew the truth – the whole, unadulterated truth – about the leader of the rebel cat demons."

Yasashi frowned and Hiei snorted again.

"But then Yukina read the file and Tora read Yukina's mind," he continued. "So you had two more people in your way. It was easy for you to get rid of Tora – you even managed to make it look like an accident – and now all that remains is for you to get rid of Yukina. Or so you thought. Did you really think I wouldn't find out what was really going on too?"

Hiei pointed at the bandana around his forehead and Yasashi paled.

"Yes that's right," he said. "I read Yukina's mind too. I know what's in the Raspberry Sundae file. I know the truth. I know everything."

Yasashi gulped audibly.

"Please don't tell anyone what you know," she said quietly. "But I must say, you're wrong about my letting Koenma be arrested or my letting Tora die! It was always my intention to go back to aid Koenma, and Tora was my best friend, my closest ally and my strongest fighter: I can't bear what has happened to her!"

"Like I said, it's quite the act you put on," Hiei replied, clearly unmoved by her words. "But let me just make a few things abundantly clear to you: I don't trust you, I don't like you and one day, very soon, I will collect the bounty on your head."

"I don't care if you kill me or give me to the loyalists," Yasashi replied. "But please Hiei, if you do know what's in that file, please don't tell anyone else what you know."

"I have seen what's in that file," Hiei assured her. "I've seen how you acted as an informant for spirit world in return for a place to live. You gave them information that let them take down a gang of thieves I knew of, a gang of thieves who would otherwise still be functioning in demon world. You almost got yourself killed, but Koenma took pity on you and used the crystal of change to save your life."

Yasashi took a step away from the door.

"Yes, that's true," she said quietly. "But just because you know that, it doesn't follow that–"

"The crystal was supposed to draw in what little demon and life energy you had left and use that energy to create an alternate identity and appearance for you," Hiei cut her off. "It didn't work as well as Koenma expected it too though. He misread the information he had on the crystal in his panic. He thought the reference to opposite colouring meant that your hair would turn green and your eyes would turn orange: but the opposite effect the text referred to was that your hair and eye colour became switched when you transformed, turning your pink hair blue and your blue eyes pink."

"Yes, but–"

"Don't interrupt me. When he saw the result, Koenma panicked and relocated one of his ferry girls who bore a passing resemblance to your demon form, renaming her "Koneko" and charging her with looking after the file containing all of your secrets. After all, it seemed logical that anyone looking for you would be deceived by the lookalike decoy who protected the file containing all of your deepest, darkest secrets."

"Please don't say anything to–"

"Don't interrupt me! I haven't got to the best part yet!"

"What are you talking about? That's it! That's everything! You know everything!"

"Yukina cried when she read the Raspberry Sundae file. Not because she discovered that her old friend Yasashi was still alive, not when she saw that her old friend Yasashi was actually closer to her than she thought – and by the way, was it really any more imaginative for Koenma to name you after the Raspberry Sundae when you were in your spirit form than for him to name his decoy Koneko?"

"Yes, well, I suppose calling me "Botan" wasn't the least obvious choice of name–"

"Stop interrupting me. Yukina didn't cry because she was happy that you were still alive, she didn't cry when she discovered that the cat demon famous for using a peony was actually the idiotic ferry girl named after a peony, she cried when she read your last words."

Yasashi froze.

"Oh, I see you didn't know Koenma noted down your last words in the file he kept on you," Hiei said with a grin. "But he did. And Yukina read them. Every last one."

Yasashi shook her head.

"You act like the martyred hero of your people, but you betrayed that image as you faced death," Hiei continued. "And in that respect, I don't know if you last words make you more or less demon. After you had finished pretending to care about the future of your friends and followers, you pitifully sold out one more demon to spirit world."

"Wh-what?"

"That's right. That's in your file. Hn, if you really didn't know that was in your file maybe I was wrong about you wanting Koenma, Tora and Yukina out of the way. But still, I have to ask you: how do you think Kurama will feel when he finds out that the woman he thought was such a "magnificent creature" is in fact the double-crossing bitch who sent the SDF after him and cursed him to the human life he now suffers?"